Indiana Indiana/Illinois Illinois Men's College Basketball recap on ESPN

The fallout from Bob Knight's firing was just too messy, too public to overcome in one season. There were so many distractions, there was no way Indiana could excel.

Yet look at Davis' Hoosiers now. They're in the Big Ten tournament final after knocking off No. 4 Illinois 58-56 Saturday. Tom Coverdale had 17 points, and Kirk Haston blocked Frank Williams' last-second layup attempt.

Iowa beat Penn State 94-74 in Saturday's other semifinal.

"When the season started, the players stepped up and said we wanted coach Davis to be here or a lot of us probably wouldn't have come back," Coverdale said. "If he's not the coach after what he's done, something's wrong."

The Hoosiers (21-11) have won nine of their last 11 games, and Davis is the first Indiana coach to win 21 games in his first season. In one year, Davis has already won more games in the Big Ten tournament (two) than Knight managed in three years (one).

"I feel real good about this ball team right now," Davis said. "Our confidence is sky-high."

It should be. Illinois, the tournament's top seed, probably had a chance to lock up the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region of the NCAAs after Michigan State lost to Penn State on Friday night.

Instead, the Illini (24-7) put together one of their sloppiest and most disorganized efforts of the season.

"Indiana's a tough defensive team, but about all we took were tough shots," Illinois coach Bill Self said. "And you're not supposed to make a lot of those."

The Illini shot less than 33 percent and had 12 turnovers. Williams, with 14 points, was the only Illinois player in double figures. Cory Bradford had nine points on 3-of-11 shooting. Sergio McClain missed two free throws in the last 50 seconds and finished with two points.

And then there was Williams. He was nearly perfect Friday with a season-high 11 assists and no turnovers in 30 minutes, and then he followed it up with an impressive offensive display in the first half Saturday.

But he disappeared in the second half, scoring just three points. Part of the reason was Indiana's Dane Fife, who smothered the Big Ten's player of the year.

"It's always scary to go against Frank because he can do so many things," Fife said. "He can pass, he can handle the ball, he can shoot. He's just a great player."

Even worse, Williams played totally out of control in the closing minutes, when Illinois needed him most. In the final 2:18, he had a turnover, a bad pass and a wild shot.

Williams finished with four turnovers and three assists.

"I was a little selfish today," Williams said. "Guys were open in the last game and I was finding them. I'll take this as a learning experience."

But Self said Williams was being too hard on himself.

"He made the right plays," Self said. "When we don't execute, we end up watching Frank. He tried to make the effort to get everybody involved. But we had poor movement."

Despite the Illini's problems, they still had a chance to win as Indiana went scoreless over the final 4:16. Trailing 58-54, McClain was fouled with 49 seconds to go and made the first free throw.

He missed the second, but Cook got the rebound and Haston was called for another foul on McClain. He airballed his first attempt and made the second, giving Indiana the ball back with 45 seconds left.

Jared Jeffries missed a short, running jumper with about 15 seconds left, but he grabbed his own rebound and kicked it back outside to Fife. It took about two seconds before Illinois could foul anyone, and the first Hoosier they could get to was Coverdale.

Coverdale missed both shots with 8.9 seconds left, and Williams eventually came up with the rebound. He stumbled, regained control and drove the entire length of the floor, putting up an off-balance layup attempt that was swatted away by Haston as time expired.

"He's a big-time player in clutch situations," Haston said. "Once I saw him coming down the middle of the lane, I knew he was going to try and take that shot so I just tried to get in the right spot."

Haston finished with 16 points, three blocks and two steals. Jeffries had 10 points and seven rebounds. Jared Odle, who played a total of 36 minutes in Indiana's last 13 games, had seven rebounds in 29 minutes.

"Someone told me we kind of reminded them of the '81 (national) championship team," Odle said. "They didn't have a real good beginning of the year and then put something together at the end and made a run.

"We've got guys playing better than we ever have before. We've got things going in the right direction. As long as we keep them rolling, I think we're going to make a little run in the tournament."

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