Guard flawless, points flowing

It was the most anticipated halftime warmup of the year.\nThe Hoosiers took the court with three minutes remaining before the start of the second half, IU slapping the Spartans 48-26. All eyes were on Tom Coverdale. Then it happened: The point guard missed his first three pointer since tip-off.\nThe 6-foot-2 former Indiana Mr. Basketball was flawless, and his first-half performance borderlined bizarre. \nLet's put it in perspective. Coverdale hit six three pointers last season against Wisconsin. In that game, he scored 24 points in 38 minutes. Tuesday, he had 20 points on seven-of-seven shooting, including a perfect six-for-six from the three-point line.\nAnd that was only in the first 20 minutes.\nAs I sat 31 rows up from the court at sold-out Assembly Hall, I could hear students yelling for Coverdale to shoot when he caught the ball. Understandable, but Coverdale caught the ball at center court after a timeout. \nWhen Coverdale hit his third consecutive three pointer, it was obvious the Spartans were in for a tougher challenge than Gerry Dinardo has in rebuilding the IU football team's offense. Following the fourth three pointer, which he sank in front of the MSU bench, one of the Spartan assistant coaches threw his head back behind his chair and ran his fingers through his hair in disgust. I can only imagine what MSU head coach Tom Izzo said in the next timeout:\n"Somebody put a hand in Coverdale's face, I don't care if you have to cover him 25 feet away from the hoop, he's killing us."\nI thought the Spartan players did a nice job executing. Then with 12 seconds before intermission, Coverdale catches and launches from 28 feet, hitting nothing but twine. \nWell coach, at least there was a hand in his face.\nHis performance was enhanced by the sharpshooting of fellow guard Dane Fife and the defense of forward Jared Jeffries. The rest of the team wasn't exactly stone-cold, either.\nWe might never see a performance like that from any IU guard this year. That is, unless IU coach Mike Davis implements some plays with double screens to open up Coverdale for 30-foot jumpers.\n\nDavis' new best friends\nOn Monday's broadcast of "The Mike Davis Show" at the Student Recreational Sports Center, a student told the coach of his dismay with the referees and asked for the coach's response. Davis' response was poetic:\n"I love referees now."\nThough the broadcast was on radio, I could nearly see the dollar signs in his eye when he followed that statement with, "$10,000 is a lot of money."\n Davis was referring the fine handed to him by the Big Ten following unfavorable comments about the referees after the Butler loss.\n No doubt Davis learned his lesson. In the first half Tuesday, an MSU player scrambled for someone to pass to but missed his target and the ball rolled out of bounds. The referees, claiming the ball touched Jeffries, whistled in favor of the Spartans. Jeffries argued as Davis crossed his arms and dipped his head. \nWith the amount of close games this season and the Hoosiers on the losing side of many of them, Davis has realized that costing his team points with technical fouls could mean the difference. \nOf course, Tuesday night there were plenty of points to spare.