This is a story about religion. It's also a story about Indiana University basketball. Some would say it's the same thing.
The protagonist is Hoosiers coach Mike Davis. Antagonists? Take your pick.
There's Bobby Knight, Davis' former boss who was fired in 2000 and publicly disowned Davis for accepting Indiana's job offer of a lifetime. There's the faction of Indiana fans still angry about Knight's firing. There are the critics who smell blood every time the Hoosiers lose, although Davis' 63.8 winning percentage rivals the 66.1 of Knight's final five years.
And then there's Mike Davis, undermining himself with brutal honesty, saying things other coaches may think but never say, skewering himself on his own vulnerability.
This is a story about the phone Davis doesn't answer, the pregame introduction he doesn't relish and the nights he doesn't sleep.
This is a story about Davis' friendship with Arizona State coach Rob Evans and the discussions they have, discussions that have led Davis to his Bible to read about a man who can move mountains, but only if he forgives his enemies.
Faith comes easy to Davis, the grandson of a Baptist minister. Forgiveness is harder. He's working at it. "I'm trying to live my coaching and my life through Mark 11:23-26," Davis says. "It talks about if you have the faith, that a mountain can be moved -- a mountain can be moved. And when you pray you can't have ill feelings, because if you do, God won't forgive your sins. That's what I'm trying to live, but I hear stuff every day. I don't answer the phone any more because you wouldn't believe the stuff I hear."
After bad losses, and there have been a few in Indiana's 7-6 start this season, Davis hears about people who cover recruiting on the Internet -- information hounds who call Davis' recruits, asking kids who already have signed with Indiana if they plan to follow through on that commitment.
He hears about online polls asking Indiana fans to vote on Davis' replacement. He hears rumblings that Knight and various Knight faithful continue to badmouth him for choosing a dream job over unemployment in September 2000.
"You never know how strong you are until you go through things. That's from childhood on up," says Davis, who grew up poor and stuttering in rural Alabama, surviving poverty by picking blueberries, overcoming his speech impediment with painstaking practice. "Hey, I'm going through it now. There's sleepless nights, there's stomachaches. Hate for my name to be called out because I never know how people are going to respond to it. Hate to go on my radio show because of what they're going to say. That's part of the job, but when you're human ..."
Which is Davis' biggest problem, of course.
The last coach at Indiana was an immortal, but Davis wears his humanity like one of his predecessor's red sweaters -- and both are hard on the eyes.
After a loss to Kentucky during his 2000-01 season as interim coach, Davis wondered aloud if he was good enough for the job. Not much later, the phone rang in Davis' office. It was Arizona State's Evans, a respected, veteran coach, offering the right words at the right time.
"He wanted to listen. He wanted to hear," Evans says. "I told him, 'You're learning, you're struggling, you get a lot of criticism. But you're doing things the right way. You just have to continue to stay the course.' I called him because it's a lonely world out there, to be coaching."
Davis' second Indiana team, in 2001-02, is right there with 1996 runner-up Syracuse as the least talented NCAA finalists of the past 15 years. His first and third Indiana teams were similarly skilled but still won 21 games each.
Three years after publicly debating his worthiness, Davis no longer wonders if he should be Indiana's coach. Now he wonders why everyone else seems unsure.
"Who would question a guy that had good personnel, but not great, and played for a national championship his first full year as the coach?" Davis says. "Who would question a guy that has taken this personnel and won NCAA (Tournament) games every year? I know I can do it, but I'm going to take a lot of shots. The way I got the job is one reason. I replaced a hero, a legend, and who am I to do that?"
This season's team is a mish-mash of freshmen, sophomores, walk-ons and 6-foot-3 power forwards, and Davis has led the Hoosiers to wins at Notre Dame and Michigan.
There have been ugly losses, too. The Hoosiers have lost three times by at least 30 points, the first time that has happened to Indiana since 1911-12. The winners of those games were Wake Forest, Kentucky and Wisconsin -- Final Four candidates, all.
The Hoosiers are trying to avoid becoming the first Indiana team since 1984 not to reach the NCAA Tournament. They are not Final Four contenders, but Davis wonders how many programs would be, with this youth and this schedule.
"How many coaches out there would have the nerve to play the schedule I'm playing? Ninety percent wouldn't dare," Davis says. "Michigan State has played the same schedule we've played, and they've lost the same (number of) games. Nobody questions (Tom) Izzo, and they shouldn't. He's a great coach, but he's got that schedule."
Help is on the way. Davis' third full year of recruiting has been his best, with four top 50 signees highlighted by likely McDonald's All-Americans Josh Smith and D.J. White.
"The Lakers lose because Shaq and Malone are out, but everyone knows when they heal up, help is coming," Davis says. "No doubt, my help is coming."
Well, there's some doubt, and that's a reason Davis still gets stress stomachaches. Skilled and 6-9, Josh Smith is a special talent, rare even by Indiana's standards, but he is being prodded to go pro.
"Everyone wants him to go out," Davis says of the 2004 NBA Draft. "I didn't hear Carmelo Anthony should come out (from high school in 2003). I heard Carmelo Anthony should go to school. But when they talk about my guy, he should go out? Why? Because I'm his coach?"
Davis knows how this sounds. It sounds ...
"All coaches are paranoid," he says, anticipating the question in mid-sentence. "But I have a reason to be paranoid. Michigan State has lost some games, but nobody's calling their recruits. I'm never going to be judged like other people are judged, because of who I am and how I got here.
"My phone rings, and it's a friend telling me they were defending me. That's great, but don't tell me that. If somebody says they defended you, that means somebody said something about you. You don't want to hear that. And then you multiply it by 10,000. It could make me bitter, but that's why I read Mark 11:23-26. I don't want to be bitter."
Sometimes he knows not what he does, but forgive Mike Davis for his imperfections. He's working at it.
www.sportsline.com
The protagonist is Hoosiers coach Mike Davis. Antagonists? Take your pick.
There's Bobby Knight, Davis' former boss who was fired in 2000 and publicly disowned Davis for accepting Indiana's job offer of a lifetime. There's the faction of Indiana fans still angry about Knight's firing. There are the critics who smell blood every time the Hoosiers lose, although Davis' 63.8 winning percentage rivals the 66.1 of Knight's final five years.
And then there's Mike Davis, undermining himself with brutal honesty, saying things other coaches may think but never say, skewering himself on his own vulnerability.
This is a story about the phone Davis doesn't answer, the pregame introduction he doesn't relish and the nights he doesn't sleep.
This is a story about Davis' friendship with Arizona State coach Rob Evans and the discussions they have, discussions that have led Davis to his Bible to read about a man who can move mountains, but only if he forgives his enemies.
Faith comes easy to Davis, the grandson of a Baptist minister. Forgiveness is harder. He's working at it. "I'm trying to live my coaching and my life through Mark 11:23-26," Davis says. "It talks about if you have the faith, that a mountain can be moved -- a mountain can be moved. And when you pray you can't have ill feelings, because if you do, God won't forgive your sins. That's what I'm trying to live, but I hear stuff every day. I don't answer the phone any more because you wouldn't believe the stuff I hear."
After bad losses, and there have been a few in Indiana's 7-6 start this season, Davis hears about people who cover recruiting on the Internet -- information hounds who call Davis' recruits, asking kids who already have signed with Indiana if they plan to follow through on that commitment.
He hears about online polls asking Indiana fans to vote on Davis' replacement. He hears rumblings that Knight and various Knight faithful continue to badmouth him for choosing a dream job over unemployment in September 2000.
"You never know how strong you are until you go through things. That's from childhood on up," says Davis, who grew up poor and stuttering in rural Alabama, surviving poverty by picking blueberries, overcoming his speech impediment with painstaking practice. "Hey, I'm going through it now. There's sleepless nights, there's stomachaches. Hate for my name to be called out because I never know how people are going to respond to it. Hate to go on my radio show because of what they're going to say. That's part of the job, but when you're human ..."
Which is Davis' biggest problem, of course.
The last coach at Indiana was an immortal, but Davis wears his humanity like one of his predecessor's red sweaters -- and both are hard on the eyes.
After a loss to Kentucky during his 2000-01 season as interim coach, Davis wondered aloud if he was good enough for the job. Not much later, the phone rang in Davis' office. It was Arizona State's Evans, a respected, veteran coach, offering the right words at the right time.
"He wanted to listen. He wanted to hear," Evans says. "I told him, 'You're learning, you're struggling, you get a lot of criticism. But you're doing things the right way. You just have to continue to stay the course.' I called him because it's a lonely world out there, to be coaching."
Davis' second Indiana team, in 2001-02, is right there with 1996 runner-up Syracuse as the least talented NCAA finalists of the past 15 years. His first and third Indiana teams were similarly skilled but still won 21 games each.
Three years after publicly debating his worthiness, Davis no longer wonders if he should be Indiana's coach. Now he wonders why everyone else seems unsure.
"Who would question a guy that had good personnel, but not great, and played for a national championship his first full year as the coach?" Davis says. "Who would question a guy that has taken this personnel and won NCAA (Tournament) games every year? I know I can do it, but I'm going to take a lot of shots. The way I got the job is one reason. I replaced a hero, a legend, and who am I to do that?"
This season's team is a mish-mash of freshmen, sophomores, walk-ons and 6-foot-3 power forwards, and Davis has led the Hoosiers to wins at Notre Dame and Michigan.
There have been ugly losses, too. The Hoosiers have lost three times by at least 30 points, the first time that has happened to Indiana since 1911-12. The winners of those games were Wake Forest, Kentucky and Wisconsin -- Final Four candidates, all.
The Hoosiers are trying to avoid becoming the first Indiana team since 1984 not to reach the NCAA Tournament. They are not Final Four contenders, but Davis wonders how many programs would be, with this youth and this schedule.
"How many coaches out there would have the nerve to play the schedule I'm playing? Ninety percent wouldn't dare," Davis says. "Michigan State has played the same schedule we've played, and they've lost the same (number of) games. Nobody questions (Tom) Izzo, and they shouldn't. He's a great coach, but he's got that schedule."
Help is on the way. Davis' third full year of recruiting has been his best, with four top 50 signees highlighted by likely McDonald's All-Americans Josh Smith and D.J. White.
"The Lakers lose because Shaq and Malone are out, but everyone knows when they heal up, help is coming," Davis says. "No doubt, my help is coming."
Well, there's some doubt, and that's a reason Davis still gets stress stomachaches. Skilled and 6-9, Josh Smith is a special talent, rare even by Indiana's standards, but he is being prodded to go pro.
"Everyone wants him to go out," Davis says of the 2004 NBA Draft. "I didn't hear Carmelo Anthony should come out (from high school in 2003). I heard Carmelo Anthony should go to school. But when they talk about my guy, he should go out? Why? Because I'm his coach?"
Davis knows how this sounds. It sounds ...
"All coaches are paranoid," he says, anticipating the question in mid-sentence. "But I have a reason to be paranoid. Michigan State has lost some games, but nobody's calling their recruits. I'm never going to be judged like other people are judged, because of who I am and how I got here.
"My phone rings, and it's a friend telling me they were defending me. That's great, but don't tell me that. If somebody says they defended you, that means somebody said something about you. You don't want to hear that. And then you multiply it by 10,000. It could make me bitter, but that's why I read Mark 11:23-26. I don't want to be bitter."
Sometimes he knows not what he does, but forgive Mike Davis for his imperfections. He's working at it.
www.sportsline.com
