More non-sense from writers and wanna-be experts on all things IU. If you're quoting Dakich, you should at least point out he wanted the job and his conflict of interest in everything he says.
It's no secret after Coach Knight was fired it was Myles Brand and the spineless board of trustees who wanted to de-emphasize IU basketball and never let a coach have that much power again.
Doing what they could to avoid Open Door (sunshine) laws they booted Coach Knight and began the process of taking the program down a notch. But they still needed the money! What they failed to realize is Bob Knight was making IU a ton of money but he was not making them pay him like a top tier coach. From that point on these pin heads couldn't figure out how to identify, hire, and pay for a top coach. They tried to cut corners.
Davis was not a great coach. Every Davis conversation must include "he's a good guy" but nobody really cares at this point. His fragile ego was as much to blame as people not accepting him. Sampson can coach but never fit in at Indiana and was too stupid to follow basic rules he had already been punished for violating. IU should have known better. Dakich has proven over an over why he should never lead a top program. Crean is another nice guy but his used car salesman routine got old fast and he could not figure out why Indiana high school kids and their coaches did not warm to him. At least IU realized you have to start paying for coaches. Archie is still to be decided and although he is not off to a great start I still have hope for him.
Fred Glass gets a lot of blame and some of it is fair, but he did realize college basketball is an arms race. Facilities, salaries, promotion are all part of the game. When you have schools building luxury housing facilities, giving them a private chef, and working it out where they end up in a $300,000+ car, you have to make some tough decisions to compete.
In spite of all of that, it's those in charge at the very top that put things into motion. They shot the program in the back because they wanted to prove a point and had no clue what to do next. They cut ties and moved on with their lives but the program did not.
A), de-emphasizing basketball, and not wanting the coach to have the same amount of power as Knight, are hardly one and the same.
B), Mike Davis was a much better coach than given credit for.
that 2002 team flat out played hard, as hard as any IU team ever, and played flat out great defense.
and those guys barely saw the floor under Knight, were 2 yrs removed, not one, so don't give me the "Knight's team" crappola. (and outplayed Kelvin Sampson's OU team in the final 4).
big men really prospered and developed with MD's teams.
JJ, Newton, DJ, Marco.
his final team at IU is probably top 10 if DJ doesn't go down at the beginning of the season, changing the entire look of the team.
has any coach in the nation, ever, had to try and recruit and coach in a more maliciously spiteful and vindictive atmosphere than MD did.
NO. nothing else even comes remotely close.
it was absolutely disgraceful, and combined with the blind worship of an obviously total ahole to everyone outside IU/RMK nation, no doubt placed IU basketball in a very bad light.
that said, how many black coaches have ever been highly successful long term in the midwest at the highest level?
how many in the nation? ever?
would have been interesting to see how well Mike Davis could have done at IU with the fan backing all his successors have gotten, rather than everyone publicly spitting not only in his face, but those he recruited, even white players, just because of who recruited them and who they played for.
not sure we are as open minded as we would like to think we are. and it's not just IU.
pop quiz,
name 5 white five star or Mc Donald's AA HS players, ever, who were successfully recruited by a black coach, other than at that player's geographic home school, or for whom there was some very strong legacy tie, such as the player's father played on the same college team with the black coach.
ok, name 4.
three?
two?
one?
can someone, anyone, name even one? ever?
how Alabama has never gone after MD, i know not.
