Coverdale breaks out of slump, reappears as team's floor leader

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- When the Hoosier's road losing streak began over a month ago at Ohio State, Coach Mike Davis lamented that his team lacked a true leader, a floor general who could pull the team together during tough times and infuse some confidence.\nAfter the Hoosiers' home win against Michigan Feb. 12, he said he had decided to take over the leadership role rather than look to any of his seniors.\nHe ran drills in practice that forced players to talk to each other, hoping it would foster team communication.\nThen this past Monday he sat down with senior guard Tom Coverdale, who had been enduring a long scoring slump, and apparently something stuck.\n"He played (well) in practice the last couple of days," Davis said. "We had a long talk on Monday and I just asked him, 'How do you want to be remembered at Indiana?'" \nIn Wednesday night's 79-63 win against Iowa, Coverdale showed how he wanted to be remembered, finishing the game with 17 points on 6-10 shooting overall, 5-8 from the three-point line, six assists, and only one turnover in 33 minutes.\nCoverdale had not scored in double figures since Feb. 1 when he had 14 at Louisville.\nHe went on to score eight points at Northwestern, five against Michigan State, seven against Michigan and five at Wisconsin. During that four game stretch he was a mere 18 of 38 overall and only two of 22 from the three-point line.\nBut that all changed last night.\n"It definitely felt good to hit a couple shots," he said. "I'll be the first to tell you that I've been struggling lately so to come out and hit some threes early I thought helped my confidence a lot, and hopefully I'm back on track."\nAside from the impressive stat line, it was apparent that Coverdale helped the team play much more cohesively last night.\nAfter nearly every IU shooting foul, Coverdale gathered his teammates in the lane for a brief conversation before the Hawkeyes shot their free-throws. He also talked to the other Hoosiers on the floor during defensive plays and offensive sets.\n"We played at Wisconsin and no one said a word on the floor, and here I am over here screaming and hollering," Davis said. "And tonight I looked out there and saw Coverdale, when whoever fouled (Iowa's Glen) Worley for the last basket they made to go on a 7-0 run (to begin the second half), screaming and hollering and said 'Let's go guys, let's go' and you need guys on the floor showing leadership."\nSeniors Kyle Hornsby and Jeff Newton also got into the act, communicating with their teammates on both ends of the court.\n"(Coverdale) and I and Newt have all tried to step up in this past week and provide some vocal leadership," Hornsby said. \nCoverdale explained that the largest difference in last night's win did not have to do with any player in particular but had everything to do with the team playing as a unit and cheering each other on -- characteristics that had been missing for quite a while.\n"There were no individuals. We all played as a team and all got excited together, and it just looked like we were all having fun," he said. "That's the reason we were winning and we got back to that, and we just had fun playing basketball again"