The day Mike Davis resigned and IU allowed him to finish out the season, I felt it was a HUGE mistake. With the tough stretch of their schedule behind them and 5 games against the bottom of the B10 left, a run to close out the season was definitely possible. If he walked away immediately and the team made that run, great for the kids, great for the fans, great for the assistants as they set out to find new jobs. But by keeping Davis on the bench, if the team makes that run, the media will go nuts on IU for forcing Davis out. The IU admin tried to protect themselves with the $40K penalty on Davis if he talks badly about IU. But we all know Davis can't keep his trap shut... so the only thing this can do is end badly should IU go on the run. 3 weeks later we know IU made that run and is 1 game away from making the Sweet 16. And what has Davis been saying?
He isn't blasting IU, but he sure is doing a FINE job of blasting the IU fans. His stock answer to the "Why did you resign?" question is... and I paraphrase from his statement on the Mike and Mike show on Tuesday morning... "The fans at IU have been awful all 6 years. They never got behind me or our team. Last year after we lost to NW they were calling for my head despite us winning 10 games in the conference and I said then that if that happens this year I will step down. And sure enough with us 1 game out of first place the fans were boycotting games and not supporting the kids. So I just felt it wasn't fair for these kids to have to play in that type of environment so I stepped down. "
But instead of getting angry at Davis for simply yapping just as he has done for 6 years, I am going to take my friend MW's advice and embrace it. The IU Administration put themselves in this situation by letting him stick around and be a mouthpiece for IU. They deserve all the pain in the world for that mistake. So I am pulling for IU to keep winning. And with each win, IU becomes a bigger and bigger story. The # of interviews will increase and it will just be a matter of time before Davis blows and all of this will blow up in IU's face.
I'm not an Alford guy, but IU could do worse than him. Yet keeping Davis around has poisoned the water for Alford being named the next IU coach. Just check out the player's quotes about Iowa in today's Star. An interim coaching staff with direction from the IU Administration would never let their current players comment about potential coaches.
IU revels in losses by potential successors - Indystar.com
So my new attitude says... GO IU!
And lets just watch the crap fly over the next couple of weeks. This could get entertaining!
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Steve, you know Davis just can't keep his mouth closed. I like this quote from yesterday.
"My next job, I'll be twice the coach I am now," he said. "My recruiting will be three times better than what it is now."
If an AD out there believes this, they deserve Mike and I for one will be laughing as he destroys another program.
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