By Mike Lopresti
Gannett News Service

Apparently, the basketball coach at Indiana wants you to know one thing. It was his players' fault.

Just in case you were wondering what a Hoosier team that began 8-0 was doing losing 10 of its last 17 games.

Or if you happened to be puzzled how Indiana, national runner-up last spring, was blown out Sunday in the second round by Pittsburgh. For any question, Mike Davis had the answers.

"This team has been selfish from the time we were 8-0."

But . . .

"(Pittsburgh) is a team that understands how to play. They play the way they're coached. My team hasn't done that in a long time."

But . . .

"My philosophy is fine. These guys just didn't listen to me."

There are many good ways for a coach to explain away defeat in March.

This wasn't one of them.

Varying reactions

The tournament means 63 beaten coaches. Sooner or later they all must vacate, free to choose the tone of their exit. Resigned or relieved, happy just to be there or sad to be leaving, crediting the other team, blaming the officials.

Or crying. Kansas' Roy Williams, a famous weeper, lobbied the NCAA a few years ago to change its postgame interview room policies.

The losers used to go first, but Williams argued they needed more time in the locker room to console themselves (especially the coach at Kansas). So the winners should begin.

And now they do.

Davis won over much of the masses last year with his honesty, his triumph against the odds, his life in the Bloomington frying pan replacing Bob Knight.

Not to mention beating Duke and finishing second in the tournament. It was a feel-good tale, until Maryland finished it.

But plain talk can take a man into some rough neighborhoods. It did Sunday.

Credit the other team after losing. Take responsibility. Look to the future. Honor the past. Dodge and weave past an uncomfortable question.

But don't grab a shovel and dump on the kids. Not 30 minutes after some of them played the last college game they'll ever play. Even if it's true.

Reaction badly timed

Davis' fate while at Indiana will include being eternally compared to the man he replaced.

It's old habit by now. And he does not fare that badly with Bob Knight, though the meltdown with the officials in the Kentucky game was positively Knightly.

This second round beating shouldn't be too damning. Knight lost seven of his last nine NCAA Tournament games at Indiana.

But his reaction was badly timed. In answer to a disappointing season, Knight handed back his salary at Texas Tech. Davis publicly blamed his players.

One has a tint of theatrics to it, the other frustration. But it was easy to notice the difference.

There is a sense of uncertainty in the program. Davis loses three key seniors, from a team that struggled when it was supposed to be surging. Freshman star Bracey Wright may flee to the NBA.

It hasn't been the easiest place to work for a living.

Not for any of the three years since Knight left. It may never be easy for Mike Davis.

"I feel like I can handle anything in my career now," he said before the first round.

But there is always something new to handle. Wright said after Sunday's loss that the Hoosiers were torpedoed this season by their own chemistry problems.

Sounds as if everyone should get a piece of the blame. But in college basketball, when the microphones are on anyway, it's the coach who gets paid to take it.