Pass the Tylenol

Please, all of you just keep it down. I can't take any more of this. It's making my temples throb. All I've been getting for the past four days have been e-mails, phone calls, instant messages and even Facebook.com messages listing the reasons Mike Davis must be fired immediately.\nAside from calling me everything from a "twerp that doesn't know anything about basketball" to a "conservative stoolie" (yeah, I didn't understand that one either), all the negative e-mails I've received have said that if Davis goes now, things will immediately get better. Guess what? They won't. You can disagree with me, that's absolutely fine ... you'll be wrong, but that's fine.\nIf Davis is fired now, this season is over. \nAs it stands now, the Hoosiers are not playing good basketball. That's painfully obvious. This team needs something to fire it up, to motivate it. Regardless what some middle-aged, Diet Coke-swilling, message board-trolling idiots might say, these players love their coach. Why not let them rally around him? During the second half of their 70-67 loss to Iowa on Saturday, you could see them giving their all to try and pull it out for their incredibly sick coach. If one or two more shots fall in key situations, this column might be about how they refused to lose to the top team in the conference.\nIf you think the negative reactions from the fans aren't affecting the team, again, you're wrong. Sitting in the press room after Saturday's game, you could tell by the looks on several players' faces that they were simply out-matched. Not by the game, not by the disciplined play of the Hawkeyes, but by the situation they have been put in. These players all have very strong feelings for Davis, and sometimes those feelings are more important than wins to college-aged athletes. Let's remember, these aren't professionals. This isn't supposed to be a business -- it's still supposed to be a game.\nSeeing someone you admire, adore and care for continuously ridiculed by the very people who claim to be rooting for you is a state of limbo that has to be incredibly difficult for these kids. Players have even been quoted saying that all the negativity has affected the morale of the team and has clouded its focus.\nIf something is going to happen to the IU coaching situation, it will come at the end of the season. Firing Davis now serves no purpose. One of the assistants would be promoted for the rest of the season, the team's problems would only worsen, the players would feel the University has no confidence in them and they would self-destruct. It would not help at all, so stop calling for it.\nThose of you who claim to be for the players but against the coach are idiots. When you come to games and boo, you are booing the team, not just the coach. So, either come and root on the players who are giving everything they have or don't show up. Rally around these kids who have gone through so much or sit at home and jeer at your television. Heck, put your ticket on eBay. I'm sure there's someone in this state who would kill to be able to go and cheer on their Hoosiers.\nLook people, I'm not a Davis apologist. I know the reasons people want him fired and I understand the argument. But I just don't see how attacking him would help things right now. You can call me names all you want but that doesn't change the fact that, regardless of your intentions, you are giving IU fans a bad name and making the players feel they have no support.\nI'm tired of the same stupid arguments over and over. Let's all just root for the team and hope it does well. What happens in the off-season will happen in the off-season. So, until then, please just shut up. I've got a headache.