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DAVIS ERA TO END - This season his last - Players tell IDS Davis told them of departure after Wisconsin loss
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. ‑ A speculative week has seemingly climaxed as multiple media outlets reported Wednesday evening that IU men's basketball coach Mike Davis has resigned.
According to the reports, Davis will remain with the team for the rest of the season, but an official resignation announcement could come from the University as early as today. A Sports Illustrated story cites an unnamed source within the athletic department.
"If I say something, I'll say the wrong thing," Davis said after Wednesday night's game. "Trust me, I've been on TV the last three days, so I just need to keep my mouth shut and focus on our basketball team."
The announcement could cap a three-year saga of supposition that appears to have reached the breaking point after a 72-54 loss at Wisconsin last week. Players told the Indiana Daily Student that, on the plane ride home from Madison, Davis told his players he would resign at season's end.
That correlates with media reports that said Davis informed University officials more than a week ago of his resignation. The SI story also added that Davis' attorney and IU have already negotiated the terms of his departure.
IU Athletics Director Rick Greenspan told Davis prior to the season that Hoosier basketball needed to see a resurgence and a return to top form.
"While we share this common goal and are both confident that it will be reached, we also know that our record the last two years is not up to the standards to which Indiana is accustomed and to which we aspire," Greenspan said in a March 22, 2005, press release.
According to Davis' contract, obtained by the IDS Wednesday, the IU head coach will not be paid for the final two years of his contract if he resigns, unless a separate negotiation has been worked out. Davis was due to make $450,000 during the final two years of his deal, not including any promotional income. IU would owe Davis an additional $300,000 in performance incentives if he saw his contract through in good standing to June 30, 2008.
But Davis and IU President Adam Herbert had been in negotiation since Monday, said IU student trustee Casey Cox.
Trustees, University officials and IU media relations officers, including IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre, refused to comment on media reports of Davis' resignation.
IU trustee Vice President Pat Shoulders said it was time to make a polite departure from the Mike Davis era, but Shoulders said he had received no confirmation from authoritative IU sources about Davis' resignation and was responding only to media reports.
Despite the reports, the Hoosiers remained quiet after their loss to Penn State.
"I don't know what's going on," junior guard Rod Wilmont said. "I'm just here to play, that's all. I see stuff on TV, but everybody sees that."
Now that the Davis resignation yarn has appeared to have spun its last thread, the team hopes fan focus can shift back to basketball. Senior guard Marshall Strickland said centering on basketball has been Davis' goal all along.
"He wants us to just play," he said. "He's trying to get us to just block everything out, get on the court and have fun with the game."
The Hoosiers are no strangers to speculation. Davis' job status has been a topic of debate for nearly every one of his six years coaching IU.
After his interim season replacing former IU coach Bob Knight, many speculated that former Hoosier Steve Alford would leave Iowa to take the head coaching position. But Davis was named the head coach, and the team made an appearance in the National Championship game the following season -- silencing critics for the time being.
In 2004, IU failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first time in 19 years, and rumors started to spread. Davis returned last season, but missed the tournament again -- inciting even more grumblings. Among the rumors was gossip that Davis would take a head coaching position at Tulane University.
But nothing compared to the past week. Davis doubters began stepping forward after IU dropped a Jan. 29 road game to Minnesota, which had been 0-6 in conference play. Skepticism continued to rise as the Hoosiers lost three of their next four, but the fires reached their hottest points last weekend when Davis failed to appear at a home game against Iowa due to illness. In the wake of the Wisconsin loss and rampant rumors that he had resigned, Davis' absence only expanded his pool of unpopularity. In an unscientific poll on http://www.idsnews.com, more than 75 percent of voters said they wanted Davis to resign.
