Davis to leave as Indiana coach at end of season
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana coach Mike Davis, the embattled heir to one of college basketball's elite programs, resigned Thursday after months of speculation and increased criticism during the Hoosiers' late-season slump.
Davis, under intense pressure almost from the moment he succeeded Bob Knight in 2000, will remain with the team through the end of this season.
"I felt like it was time for this program to be united," Davis said at a news conference. "I want our players to get it out of their minds whether coach Davis is returning. It's time for Indiana basketball to move forward."
IU president Adam Herbert said Davis initiated discussions about a coaching change a few days before the Feb. 4 game against Connecticut. Athletic director Rick Greenspan said a new coach probably won't be hired until after the Final Four in April.
Davis said he had dealt with rumors almost every year about whether he would return and believed it was time to move on.
"I wanted it to be on my terms," Davis said.
Davis has won 109 games and was the first Indiana coach -- Knight included -- to start with three straight seasons of at least 20 victories. He took the Hoosiers to the NCAA finals in 2002, losing to Maryland in the championship game, but did it with many of the Knight holdovers.
After Knight was fired in September 2000, most of the players had threatened to quit. Several days later, they agreed to stay if the Hoosiers made one of Knight's assistants the coach.
"I felt like we were a family and our family was being torn apart, and I didn't want it torn apart any more," said IPFW coach Dane Fife, one of the players who fought for Davis and later coached under him.
Davis was named interim coach and another assistant, John Treloar, was named associate coach. In March 2001, then-president Myles Brand removed the interim tag from Davis' title after he went 21-13 and got the Hoosiers into the NCAA Tournament.
But once Knight's players had left, the team's fortunes began to plunge.
