Community voices strong opinions on IU coach

Some Bloomington residents gathering at local watering holes for happy hour had strong opinions about the resignation of IU men's basketball coach Mike Davis. Most of them thought Davis -- following the legacy of former IU men's basketball coach Bobby Knight -- never had a chance at IU. Davis just didn't have the experience to live up to high expectations of the demanding IU fans, some said.\n"We're a state where 70 percent of the people are coaches," said Tim Dittenmore, a Bloomington resident. "Even when you win, you hear people comment."\nDittenmore said he blamed the administration for putting Davis in an impossible situation, but he said he has hope for the future because of the "smart \ndecision" by Athletic Director Rick Greenspan, who was responsible for hiring Terry Hoeppner, the IU football coach. He said he thinks Greenspan will make another good decision with the new basketball coach.\nBut while some welcomed giving Davis the boot, others had sympathy for the high standards that Davis had to live up to in Indiana.\n"I always criticize him," said Spiro Athanas, while sipping on a tall, foamy mug of beer, "but I feel sorry for him."\nAthanas added he believed Davis caused his own fall as well.\n"He could never communicate," Athanas said. "He was never politik. If it came to his head, he said it."\nAaron Trimpe, a 1994 IU alumnus, had a similar view on the matter. \n"What do I think of Mike Davis? I'm celebrating," Trimpe said as he walked in the Irish Lion wearing a red IU hat and pullover -- but he blamed the administration as well. \n"Who do we still pay -- (Gerry) DiNardo, (Mike) McNeely? Probably still paying Cam Cameron. We're still paying off Knight," he said, "Bad decision after bad decision."\nThe recent setbacks are not just Davis' fault, said Roberta "Bobbi" Knight, a Bloomington bartender, who just happens to share the name of the former IU men's basketball coach. \n"It's not all on the coach," she said. "It's the players, too. It's a team game."\nBartender Knight served up a drink for Lloyd Sherrill while he reminisced about Coach Knight's reign -- back when he was a kid "playing basketball on the barn."\n"IU basketball was my institution," he said. "Now it seems like it all turned sour a little bit."\nAaron Rogers, a 1989 IU alumnus, said he realized that the program had soured while he was flipping through the channels Wednesday and came across the last two minutes of the Penn State and IU basketball game.\n"I saw that Penn State was ahead by a couple of points, and I was actually happy," Rogers said. "That felt bad. That felt almost traitorous."\nJohn West, another Bloomington bargoer, said he was just relieved that the uncertainty of the last few weeks is over.\n"It just cuts off the speculation," West said. "Now he can just get on and coach the best he can for the balance of the season"