A Remarkable Run

Six months ago, the Hoosiers were mired in conditioning drills, running around Assembly Hall and Memorial Stadium to get into playing shape. While Mike Davis was challenging his players to a sprint that ended with a hamstring injury for Davis, assistant coach John Treloar was telling the Hoosiers something he had noticed.\nTreloar told his players the season ahead had promise.\n"He said we can do some great things this season," A.J. Moye said.\nAlso before the season began, Moye and Jeff Newton noticed the Final Four was going to be played in their hometown of Atlanta. They joked they would be going home at the end of the season.\n Little did they know they would be going home to play for a national championship.\n "We said it back in August," Newton said. "Me and A.J. said we were going home to the Final Four and it worked out."\n It was a long way off, but a trip to the Final Four was the third of three goals IU wanted to accomplish in the 2001-2002 season. And while many students had left campus for Thanksgiving break, the Hoosiers started their season on Sunday night, Nov. 18 at Charlotte. No cameras for a team that wasn't supposed to do much this season.\n The Hoosiers came from behind that night to win, 65-61. And IU laid out how the Hoosiers would win the rest of the season. Great defense, a solid bench, a team effort and a coach that talked with the fans as much as he did with his players during the game.\n"That's my game. I have a good time," Davis said after the season's first win. "I'm just so blessed to be here."\nDavis would carry that attitude all season and his players would adopt that philosophy. The Hoosiers weren't expected to win, so why not just win?\nBut their faith in each other would be tested. Davis bemoaned a tough schedule to start the season and with good reason. By the time IU was ready to start Big Ten play, the Hoosiers sat at 7-5, Davis was being criticized for statements made in a court deposition and IU had played just two games at Assembly Hall.\nAgain, with most students still at home, this time for Christmas, the Hoosiers got a big lift from Jarrad Odle and won at Northwestern Jan. 2, 59-44. Davis had pulled his team together and said it was them against the world.\nThe Hoosiers heeded his words and started to roll. A win at then-No.13 Iowa Jan. 13 had IU in a first place tie with Ohio State at 4-0 atop the Big Ten. That's when the questions and the looks of surprise began to come the Hoosiers' way. \nHow is IU winning? The doubting got old, but the Hoosiers got used to it.\n"We don't consider ourselves underdogs," Dane Fife said before the NCAA title game. "We believe we can win this basketball game, just like we have all season."\nThe doubts were never louder than when the Hoosiers lost on a last second jumper by Luke Recker in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis March 9, 62-60. IU was supposed to pack it in from there. The stage was set for another quick exit from the NCAA tournament.\n"Until we go out there and win, we can't say anything," Coverdale said after the loss to the Hawkeyes.\nThe Hoosiers took out Utah and UNC-Wilmington in the first two rounds in Sacramento before beating No.1 Duke in Lexington. A win against Kent State got IU to the Final Four and on the national stage.\nThe national media asked questions about whose players were winning, Bob Knight's or Davis'. The Hoosiers still revere their former coach, but they know who was in charge this season.\n"Coach Davis is the coach right now," Newton said. "We know that, he knows that. We try to stay away from all those types of distractions."\nAfter beating Oklahoma in the national semifinals, IU fell to Maryland in the national title game Monday night, 64-52. The run had come to an end and the Hoosiers felt a little disappointed.\n"It's more of a feeling of coming up short," Jeffries said Monday night. "Maybe a week from now, if we all look back, maybe it will be a little bit different. But right now it's just the feeling of coming up short."\nThis wasn't a team that had one player who determined whether or not the Hoosiers would win. Jeffries led the team with 15 points and more than seven rebounds per game. \nBut just like they started the season together, with only each other, IU spent the entire season winning and losing together. \nThe Hoosiers will remember what they did in the 2001-2002 season.\n"We played so well together as a team and it has brought me so much joy," Fife said. "It is something that I will never forget"