Davis: Hoosiers can beat 'anybody'

Interim head coach Mike Davis said the Hoosiers could earn a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament.\nNot long ago, he worried about just getting into the tournament. A few weeks before that, he questioned whether he was cut out to coach the Hoosiers. And before that, IU made six field goals in 20 minutes of play.\nTo Davis and the Hoosiers, those events might seem as if they happened centuries ago. The "new" Hoosiers are a confident bunch peaking at just the right time.\n"They feel they can beat anybody right now," Davis said. "And I feel that way, too."\nHeading into the Big Ten Tournament, the Hoosiers have won their last three games by a combined 79 points. Previously, they faced Illinois and Michigan State in back-to-back games, losing by a total of 15 points. No. 2 Michigan State and No. 4 Illinois could both earn No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament.\nAlthough IU lost those games, Davis said he thinks the schedule-makers did him a favor.\n"It was great that we played those teams back-to-back," Davis said. "That really helped us concentrate more, because we played two really good teams in a row who got into you defensively." \nMidway through the Big Ten season, the Hoosiers lost a pair of road games they said they shouldn't have. The Hoosiers blew a 13-point lead in the final three minutes at Minnesota. One week later, they blew a 17-point halftime lead at Iowa. Davis spent a few minutes by himself after the buzzer sounded.\n"After the Iowa game, everybody was starting to file off the Hoosier bandwagon, and we were at a point where people were starting to talk about what teams we would have here for NIT games," junior forward Kirk Haston said. "Thankfully, we came back and starting playing real basketball after that."\nIU's record stood at 3-4 heading into a critical road game in Columbus, Ohio. The Hoosiers had lost 11 consecutive games outside the state of Indiana and another loss could have crippled IU's NCAA chances. It ended the streak with a 70-67 win against the Buckeyes.\nWith the victory, the Hoosiers started a three-game winning streak. They've won seven of their last nine games.\n"The Iowa game … the Minnesota game … the Kentucky game … we didn't really compete," Davis said. "All of that emotion has helped us get to where we are."\nDavis and Haston credit IU's recent success to better execution on the offensive side, and more intensity and toughness on the defensive side.\n"They understand what's going on right now," Davis said. "I put in a new system, and I believed in it. I knew it would work. But they probably didn't because they were so young. They believe in it now."\nWhen the Hoosiers took the court Nov. 14 against Pepperdine, the starting lineup included two players who saw significant action last season. The team didn't know Davis' system, and it was under intense scrutiny by the fans, the media and the administration.\nIU defeated Pepperdine and South Alabama, earning a trip to New York for the pre-season NIT. The Hoosiers didn't play well in the first game and played even worse in the second, leaving Davis upset with his team.\nHaston notices a big difference between the November Hoosiers and the March Hoosiers.\n"We weren't a team then," Haston said. "We're definitely a team now, and people know their roles. I think we're playing some of the best basketball in the country."\nHaston isn't the only player who said he knows things have improved.\n"I think we're playing our best basketball of the season and that's due to us settling down and being more experienced than we were early in the season," sophomore guard Tom Coverdale said. "We've learned Coach Davis' system. We know what he wants and we're going out and executing it. It's like the season is just beginning"