Hoosier fans have already won

Start the grill.\n Make your reservations at your favorite sports bar. Buy a new styrofoam cooler from Wal-Mart. Bring all your friends in from out of town. Call the people you know at Purdue and laugh in their faces.\nBloomington has been revitalized, and tomorrow night the world stops for two hours when the Hoosiers take the court on the grandest of stages at the 2002 Final Four.\nTomorrow night will be a landmark event for IU students. Regardless of the outcome, stories will be told Monday and many more Mondays in future years. Students will remember exactly where they were the night their school played in the national semifinal. The innocent freshmen won't realize that this might not happen again during their college careers. The seniors will break from their late-semester job searches and flood bars and apartment complexes in recognition that life in the "real world" will never render this type of spirit and excitement.\nThe students are why this game is important.\nBeyond the binge drinking, late-night pizza and early classes, there is a place where all the worries of school are submerged and the need to celebrate is overwhelming. The basketball team is made up of students who represent other students, and together they suffer and celebrate. Some students followed IU basketball from infancy, while others casually watched on Saturdays. But for better or worse, when people inside and out of the University think of IU, they don't think of the excellent business and music schools. They think of basketball.\nThe same students who can't afford milk for their Cheerios or find time to do assigned class readings have scraped up the cash and set aside two days for a trip to Atlanta.\nAlumni and pure-hearted fans are the backbone of the program. Their presence is respected and support is undying, but the students are the voice. And without them the team is not successful.\n6:07 p.m. represents the culmination of the sweat, tears, disappointments and triumphs of the 2002 basketball season. The clash with a blazing-hot Oklahoma Sooners team is beyond any analysis. Some have written the Hoosiers off as fortunate to get this far but unlikely to survive. None of it matters at tip-off time. The Hoosiers will win if they do the things that make them a great basketball team. The Sooners will win if IU plays with hesitation or without heart. It's that simple.\nHead coach Mike Davis shocked the world with the win against Duke. His team's postseason success is a testament to how good a team can be when it believes in the system and philosophies of its coach. No team accidentally gets to the Final Four, and IU is no exception.\nI talked to a high school friend late Sunday night who is now a junior at Miami University (Ohio). He told me congratulations on the Final Four as though I was the one who hit 15 three pointers against Kent State. Never an IU fan before, he couldn't stop praising Davis.\nHe is the man, I love that guy, he is so cool.\nI agreed.\nI told him about the chaos since the Duke victory. I described the Mardi Gras-like atmosphere on Kirkwood Avenue and scene at Showalter Fountain. He was envious and said he could only imagine.\nI said he couldn't.\nThe basketball team has given its students and fans new life, and the team has feasted on the excitement. Regardless of tomorrow night's outcome, students should be thankful for the memories their team has provided. The team should be equally as appreciative. \nAs game time approaches, the team and its fans again face the fact that they are not suppose to win.\nBut those fans, and especially students fortunate enough to be attending school during this miraculous run through the tournament, will remember exactly where they watched the game. Because of that, they've already won.