Hoosiers

Maryland's 4-0 start is history - along with its No. 21 national basketball ranking - wiped out by back-to-back losses in Hawaii last week. But Gary Williams isn't sweating yet. "We're a good basketball team, and we'll prove it," the Terps coach said Monday before his team left for tonight's contest at Indiana. Maryland (4-2) hopes to recapture its swagger against the Hoosiers (3-3) in a game that is part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Indiana could be the antidote for the Terps.

The final buzzer sounded, Juan Dixon and Lonny Baxter tumbled to the Georgia Dome floor locked in a joyous embrace, and the Maryland Terrapins had completed their historic journey by winning the first men's national basketball championship in school history. The Terps have shown their mettle in so many ways throughout this marvelous season, and the Indiana Hoosiers brought out yet another layer of toughness in Maryland last night. Indiana used tenacious defense and outside shooting to push the Terps to the brink of a stunning upset.

INDIANAPOLIS -- They weren't supposed to be so tough, this small and scrappy team from little Xavier. They weren't supposed to start three guards, all 6 feet and smaller, and stay with top-ranked, top-seeded Indiana in the second round of the NCAA Midwest Regional.If the Musketeers weren't intimidated by the taller, stronger Hoosiers, then surely they would be stunned by the crowd of 37,411 at the Hoosier Dome. "I was afraid to look into the stands," joked Xavier coach Pete Gillen. "There's more people up there than in Bulgaria."

Penn State was picky in choosing game film to study Indiana. The Hoosier horror flick that was the 83-20 defeat last week to Wisconsin was tossed aside to focus on what Indiana did right its two previous games, losses to Iowa and Northwestern by a combined eight points. That's the team coach Joe Paterno thinks the Nittany Lions (6-4, 3-3 Big Ten) will face when the schools meet Saturday at FedEx Field in Landover, Md. "I watched it when it was … Wisconsin was ahead 30, 40 points and then I didn't waste time looking at it," Paterno said.

ST. LOUIS -- Indiana forward Calbert Cheaney went back to Bloomington last night with a scrapbook of memories from his storied career as a Hoosier, and with the Most Outstanding Player Award from this year's NCAA Midwest Regional.But Cheaney probably would trade everything for something he never got in the past four years: a national championship. Cheaney was denied the opportunity when top-ranked, top-seeded Indiana lost to second-seeded Kansas last night, 83-77, at the St. Louis Arena."Everybody dreams when you go to a major college of winning it one day," said Cheaney, who finished as the all-time leading scorer in Indiana and Big Ten history.

ST. LOUIS -- Indiana coach Bob Knight likes to say that when Calbert Cheaney is at his best, the All-American forward is "hard to guard."Last night Cheaney was virtually impossible to guard. Louisville tried three different players and nearly as many different defenses. None worked.In a typically dazzling 32-point performance, Cheaney hit 10 of 12 shots from both the field and the foul line to lead the top-ranked, top-seeded Hoosiers past the fifth-seeded Cardinals, 82-69, in the first NCAA Midwest Regional at the Arena.

They are nearly over the disappointment of last season's defeat to Maryland in the NCAA championship game. They are probably past the jet lag from last week's trip to Hawaii, where they won the Maui Invitational. The Indiana Hoosiers will come into tonight's rematch with the Terrapins at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis hoping to avenge that loss while trying to keep their level of play as high as it has been in a 4-0 start. Like Maryland, Indiana has reshaped its roster from the one that made a six-game run last March.

Maryland's 4-0 start is history - along with its No. 21 national basketball ranking - wiped out by back-to-back losses in Hawaii last week. But Gary Williams isn't sweating yet. "We're a good basketball team, and we'll prove it," the Terps coach said Monday before his team left for tonight's contest at Indiana. Maryland (4-2) hopes to recapture its swagger against the Hoosiers (3-3) in a game that is part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Indiana could be the antidote for the Terps.

ATLANTA -- Dane Fife's video inspiration is the basketball classic Hoosiers. His role is defensive stopper. And his method of locker room madness is designed to release his own tension as much as anyone else's. For the past three games of the NCAA tournament, Indiana's senior has been the equalizer for the Hoosiers. In a span of 10 giddy days, Fife has effectively shut down three of the tournament's best shooting guards. Next up: Maryland All-American Juan Dixon. It's a matchup that could go a long way toward determining tonight's NCAA championship game at the Georgia Dome.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Though the calendar and history books will reflect that Kansas actually beat Indiana 83-65 on the first day of spring, the seeds of the win were probably sown last October.That's when Hoosiers mentor Bobby Knight invited Roy Williams, the third-year coach at Kansas, to come to Bloomington and watch his team practice.The invitation had actually been extended a season before, but Williams, a longtime assistant to North Carolina coach Dean Smith, was just able this year to go to the Indiana campus.

Denard Robinson, QB, Michigan Buzz: He became the first player in FBS history to pass for 200 yards and rush for 200 yards in a regular-season game twice in his career when he led the Wolverines on a game-winning drive Saturday against Indiana. Up next: No. 17 Michigan State, Saturday. Terrelle Pryor, QB, Ohio State Buzz: A strained left quadriceps derailed his performance Saturday against Illinois and showed why the Buckeyes need Pryor in the lineup.

Towson (0-0) at Indiana (0-0) Time: Thursday, 7:30 p.m. Radio: 1370 AM Television: Big Ten Network Series record: First meeting What's at stake: The Tigers will open their 42nd season of football by traveling to play a FBS opponent for the third straight year. They've been beaten, by Navy and Northwestern, respectively, 41-13 and 47-14. Though Indiana is a perennial also-ran, tonight's game should probably follow the same pattern.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana certainly isn't the college basketball powerhouse that it once was, but Loyola's surprising victory over the Hoosiers Tuesday night is still one the Greyhounds will savor. Loyola saw a 24-point first half lead evaporate, but Brett Harvey converted a 4-point play in the final minutes to put the Greyhounds back on top and they held to win at Indiana's Assembly Hall. "We all know there's great history here," said Harvey, who scored a game-high 25 points.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - -Maryland coach Gary Williams didn't call Tuesday night's game here at Assembly Hall a must-win for the Terrapins, but he certainly didn't want to look back on the Big Ten/ACC Challenge meeting with the Hoosiers the same way he did on last week's trip to the Maui Invitational. With a strong finish that quieted a raucous and sometimes expletive-chanting crowd, Williams and the Terps won't have to do that. Desperate for a confidence-builder after falling out of the Top 25 with back-to-back losses in Hawaii, Maryland turned its first true road game of the 2009-10 season into an 80-68 victory.

Maryland's 4-0 start is history - along with its No. 21 national basketball ranking - wiped out by back-to-back losses in Hawaii last week. But Gary Williams isn't sweating yet. "We're a good basketball team, and we'll prove it," the Terps coach said Monday before his team left for tonight's contest at Indiana. Maryland (4-2) hopes to recapture its swagger against the Hoosiers (3-3) in a game that is part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Indiana could be the antidote for the Terps.

Maryland's 4-0 start is history - along with its No. 21 national basketball ranking - wiped out by back-to-back losses in Hawaii last week. But Gary Williams isn't sweating yet. "We're a good basketball team, and we'll prove it," the Terps coach said Monday before his team left for tonight's contest at Indiana. Maryland (4-2) hopes to recapture its swagger against the Hoosiers (3-3) in a game that is part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Indiana could be the antidote for the Terps.

ATLANTA - In search of past glory, Indiana's unheralded Hoosiers extended their miracle March run to the final day of the season with one more stunning upset in the NCAA tournament. Last night's 73-64 victory over No. 2 seed Oklahoma in the national semifinals at the Georgia Dome sends the fifth-seeded Hoosiers into tomorrow night's championship game against Maryland, which ousted Kansas, 97-88. And they did it the hard way, at that. Their best player, Jared Jeffries, managed just eight points after getting in first-half foul trouble.

ATLANTA - How many surprises can Indiana's feisty Hoosiers squeeze out of this NCAA tournament, anyway? Having already bagged a No. 1 seed in the South Regional, Indiana will try to sneak past a No. 2 seed, Oklahoma, in tonight's first national semifinal at the Georgia Dome. The fifth-seeded Hoosiers warmed to the task yesterday when coach Mike Davis embraced his team's underdog role and guard Tom Coverdale left wide-open the door of uncertainty about his gimpy left ankle. Asked about Final Four matchups, Davis was coy. "Well, I don't think we match up with anyone in this tournament individually, other than Jared Jeffries," the second-year coach said.

Gerald Henderson scored nine of his 21 points in the final two minutes to help No. 7 Duke beat No. 24 Florida State, 84-81, last night. Kyle Singler scored 20 points, Jon Scheyer added 17 and Henderson had 10 rebounds for the Blue Devils (25-5, 11-4 Atlantic Coast Conference). They won their fifth straight, matched the NCAA record for most wins in a decade with 286 and moved a half game behind No. 2 North Carolina in the league standings. Toney Douglas scored 27 points for the Seminoles (22-8, 9-6)

Former Indiana standout Eric Gordon believes drug use caused a rift on last season's Hoosiers, according to a story posted on The Indianapolis Star's Web site last night. Gordon declined to identify which players allegedly used drugs but said D.J. White and two others still on the team were among those who did not. Gordon, who left after his freshman season and now starts for the Los Angeles Clippers, said some players' drug use led to friction on the team. Then-coach Kelvin Sampson tried to stop it, Gordon told the newspaper, but Sampson "was just so focused on basketball and winning and everything."