USA Today
My Two Cents: Surviving April Fool's, Big Ten Shooters, Final Four Jealousy and Prank For the Ages
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — We're a day away from college basketball's title game, and it's always a half-happy, half-sad day for me. It's great drama, but then when it's over, we have to go seven months without college basketball.
And that stinks.
But while I'm waking up on the final Sunday of the year, I had some random thoughts on all that's gone on this week. So, here I am, firing away. Happy Sunday to all of you.
April foolery
The pranksters were all out on Friday when April 1 rolled around. Some were obvious April Fool's jokes — like Mike Woodson leaving Indiana to coach the New York Knicks next year. That one didn't get us.
But the one that really made us spit out our coffee came from the usually staid Wisconsin basketball office. On their official Twitter account, they announced that renowned Big Ten agitator Brad Davison was coming back for a sixth year. The guard that everyone loves to hate — except Badgers fans, of course, and fiance Tyra Buss, the Indiana's women's hoops legend — was coming back for another year.
It looks real, doesn't it?
I fell for it, and even reached out to confirm. A few hours later, though, Davison posted a video saying it was just a joke, doing it because so many people actually believed it.
I rode out April Fool's Day this year, and I'm glad I did. I had a story, though, and kept it in my back pocket. Maybe later.
Shooters can shoot
During these two decades of Indiana coming up short in reaching the Final Four, nothing bothers Indiana natives more than watching the Hoosiers get drilled by better shooters around the Big Ten.
That made Thursday night night really tough. In the national three-point contest in New Orleans, there was Iowa's Jordan Bohannon, Illinois' Alfonso Plummer, Purdue's Sasha Stefanovic and Wisconsin's Brad Davison all knocking down shots as part of the eight-man field — with no Hoosiers to be found.
Stefanovic and Plummer got knocked out in the first round, Plummer losing on a tiebreaker. But Bohannon — who's been at Iowa for six years and ended Indiana's great Big Ten Tournament run with a banked half-court heave in March — and Davison kept rolling through the bracket.
And when they reached the finals, the heads of Indiana fans were about to explode. Who the heck do you root for in a Bohannon vs. Davison matchup? Bohannon won by one point, and some Indiana fans went to Twitter to say that the only enjoyable part of the whole night was seeing Davison miss his last year.
Can't wait for the day when Indiana's lineup is full of guys who can knock down threes on a regular basis.
Farewell to Coach K
Mike Krzyzewski's brilliant career as the greatest college coach ever came to a close on Saturday night when his Blue Devils lost to arch-rival North Carolina 81-77 in the Final Four.
It's funny how Indiana fans have learned to hate him over the years, especially since he comes from the Bob Knight coaching tree. He played for Knight at Army, spent a year with him in Bloomington in the mid-1970s, and coached at Army before heading to Duke in 1980.
All he's done is win five national titles and make his way to a record 13 Final Fours. He's won 1,202 games in his 47 years as a head coach — and I think I can say with confidence that no one will ever win more games.
Think about this. If you won 30 games a year for FORTY years, you'd still fall short of Coach K's record. Indiana, if you need the reminder, hasn't won 30 games in a season since 1993.
The Knight-Krzyzewski relationship soured over the years, which is too bad because they are both so much alike. They're two of the most stubborn people I've ever known. Now that basketball is done for Coach K, I hope he comes to Bloomington and makes amends with Knight before it's too late.
Hubert Davis and Mike Woodson
North Carolina and Indiana both reached back into its past and hired former players to run their respective programs this year. Woodson went from 12 wins to 21 at Indiana, leading the Hoosiers to their first NCAA Tournament in six years,.
Hubert Davis will coach the Tar Heels in the national championship game on Monday night.
If it wasn't for the fact that UNC is a legit blueblood in the sport, this would be a great Cinderella story ,too. They didn't win the ACC league or tournament title, lost nine games and were a No. 8 seed coming into the tournament. But they've already won three games as underdogs (Baylor, UCLA, Duke) and now are on the brink of another title on Monday night against Kansas.
A lot of UNC fans didn't like the idea of hiring Davis, who had no head coaching experience. Indiana fans said the same thing about Woodson, who's spent his entire career in the NBA and had no college coaching experience.
Indiana fans certainly long for the day when Woodson can lead his alma mater back to the promised land.
Final note, Brad and Tyra edition
Oh, OK, I'll share this little story. Before I decided to sit out April Fool's Day, I thought up this little fictional tale.
Can you imagine Brad Davison in an Indiana basketball uniform?
Before we did a podcast together prior to Wisconsin's game against Indiana in Bloomington, I ran this scenario past Davison.
What would have happened last April while Davison was deciding on what to do with his fifth COVID-granted season if Indiana women's basketball coach Teri Moren had hired Buss, the school's all-time leading scorer, as an assistant coach? Davison and Buss are getting married in July, and Tyra is an assistant coach now at Milwaukee, a rising star in the coaching business.
If Buss was returning to Bloomington, would Davison had come with her and played this past season with the Hoosiers? Could you imagine the look on the Indiana coaches faces if they saw Davison carrying Buss' boxes into Cook Hall?
''Well, I've never once thought about that for sure, but I'll be honest, if Tyra was going to be there, I probably would have thought about it at least for a little bit'' Davison said. "I know Coach (Dane) Fife well because he's friends with Coach (Joe) Krabbenhoft up here at Wisconsin, and I know all about the Indiana basketball history.
"I know Indiana fans hate me because I'm the enemy, but they would have loved me on their team, that's for sure. And I love playing in Assembly Hall. I never once thought about that until you brought it up, but wouldn't that have been something? Me at Indiana? That's really a stretch, Tom.''
Yeah, it's a stretch. A little.
Now that makes your head want to explode, too, right?
