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Brass Cannon

Where would we be if: Mike Davis had not gone on the 2002 Miracle Run

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Thought I would give us something else to talk about other than the coach search so thought I would post some hypotheticals. 

So where would we be as a program if we didn't have the 2002 year?

Would we have fired Davis sooner and got a good hire and brought us back to greatness or would we be sank even further into obscurity. Does this new coach land Greg Oden and Conley? 

Why don't we all just dream at what could have been?

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Thought I would give us something else to talk about other than the coach search so thought I would post some hypotheticals. 
So where would we be as a program if we didn't have the 2002 year?
Would we have fired Davis sooner and got a good hire and brought us back to greatness or would we be sank even further into obscurity. Does this new coach land Greg Oden and Conley? 
Why don't we all just dream at what could have been?

Could have would have should have. I dont live in what ifs.

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I'd rather just acknowledge that season, and in particular that block by AJ Moye of Carlos Boozer was...fun at the time, but the true downfall of this program.  So few realize how huge an impact Davis' hiring was.  The bigger problem was hiring him on a permanent basis after that first season without doing a search.

I know for a 100% fact Rick Pitino wanted the job and proactively contacted Indiana about it.  Not that he would have been right for the program; but at that time?  His was the kind of name we could have attracted.   Alford would have been in the mix then.  Mike Montgomery was named (Stanford at the time)   John Beliein.  Thad Matta.  Kevin Stallings.   I'm not sure any of them "right," but we would have never had the peaks and valleys of Crean nor the consistent drop of Davis; and certainly never the Sampson mistake.

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This is when I started getting into IU basketball for the first time I was 10 at the time and can remember watching the Duke game in my friend's hotel room and I remember we went swimming afterwards and I can remember watching the final game against Maryland. 

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I'd rather just acknowledge that season, and in particular that block by AJ Moye of Carlos Boozer was...fun at the time, but the true downfall of this program.  So few realize how huge an impact Davis' hiring was.  The bigger problem was hiring him on a permanent basis after that first season without doing a search.
I know for a 100% fact Rick Pitino wanted the job and proactively contacted Indiana about it.  Not that he would have been right for the program; but at that time?  His was the kind of name we could have attracted.   Alford would have been in the mix then.  Mike Montgomery was named (Stanford at the time)   John Beliein.  Thad Matta.  Kevin Stallings.   I'm not sure any of them "right," but we would have never had the peaks and valleys of Crean nor the consistent drop of Davis; and certainly never the Sampson mistake.

If Davis is the reason we ended up Pitino free... I think we owe David a big thank you!


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Belein is the only guy that I regret us not getting on that list. Pitino is a truly phenomenal coach. Develops players 1-12. But he comes with too much baggage. Him and Jurich are a perfect fit and that is the end of the story. All Mike Davis did was what 100% of the people would do in his spot. Assistant with no head coach experience and at a program like IU. He said it best. Should have been Texas Southern, UAB, IU. Instead it went the other way.

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The irony is that just a few years after Davis was hired, IU made the same mistake with the football program. Bill Lynch took over after Coach Hep passed, and we went to a bowl. But that was largely because of the pieces Hep had put into place. Lynch was virtually the same guy as Davis -- a nice, good, decent man who just wasn't equipped to handle running a Big Ten program. 

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On ‎3‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 1:10 PM, Magnanimous said:

This thread could just as easily be painfully renamed where would we be if Oden and Conley came.

Davis would have needed to want them for that to be the case. I know from a prominent former Indiana High School coach that had college connections that he didn't want either because they were one and done players. I also know that Conley got a letter sent to him early in the process by Davis that had the wrong name on it so that was the end of that fwiw.

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On 3/25/2017 at 0:17 PM, Dalton26 said:

Recker cut the ****. If you don't want to talk about it then move along.


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I think he misses being able to post that Crean is coming back and that he and Glass are BFF's.

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Many people have great memories of the 70s,80, and 90s team but my favorite IU basketball memories are that 2002 run. I was 11 years old when that took place and it got me hooked to Indiana basketball for the rest of my life. I do think the administration was too quick to give Davis such a long extension right off the bat.
 

I do wonder what would've happened if they had brought someone else in from the start. If Davis or Treloar were retained as head coach all the players said they would leave. That would've set us back a few years for sure. I do look at all the players that were missed during those Davis years and wonder if Alford would've been given the job if he would've gotten them to come to IU. Oden and Conley are of course the two big ones. Davis told Mike Conley that he was never going to be a big time college point guard and Oden always made it clear he was going to follow Conley. What could have been.

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5 minutes ago, bnkepner said:

Many people have great memories of the 70s,80, and 90s team but my favorite IU basketball memories are that 2002 run. I was 11 years old when that took place and it got me hooked to Indiana basketball for the rest of my life. I do think the administration was too quick to give Davis such a long extension right off the bat.
 

I do wonder what would've happened if they had brought someone else in from the start. If Davis or Treloar were retained as head coach all the players said they would leave. That would've set us back a few years for sure. I do look at all the players that were missed during those Davis years and wonder if Alford would've been given the job if he would've gotten them to come to IU. Oden and Conley are of course the two big ones. Davis told Mike Conley that he was never going to be a big time college point guard and Oden always made it clear he was going to follow Conley. What could have been.

I was 7 during the 2002 run. Of all my favorite sports teams (Cowboys and St. Louis Cardinals) that is by far my favorite memory. Beating Duke was awesome and I remember the rest of the tournament fairly well. 

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Many people have great memories of the 70s,80, and 90s team but my favorite IU basketball memories are that 2002 run. I was 11 years old when that took place and it got me hooked to Indiana basketball for the rest of my life. I do think the administration was too quick to give Davis such a long extension right off the bat.
 
I do wonder what would've happened if they had brought someone else in from the start. If Davis or Treloar were retained as head coach all the players said they would leave. That would've set us back a few years for sure. I do look at all the players that were missed during those Davis years and wonder if Alford would've been given the job if he would've gotten them to come to IU. Oden and Conley are of course the two big ones. Davis told Mike Conley that he was never going to be a big time college point guard and Oden always made it clear he was going to follow Conley. What could have been.


I was 12. Definitely the year I became a super fan.


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