With 10 minutes to go in the national final Monday night, the Indiana Hoosiers were threatening to pull off one of the biggest upsets in NCAA tournament history.
The overmatched Hoosiers, playing from behind all night, had finally surged ahead of heavily favored Maryland. The Terrapins were staggering and thousands of Indiana fanatics in the Georgia Dome were screeching.
But then the Hoosiers made a fatal mistake.
They left Terrapins star Juan Dixon alone. What were they thinking? Thirteen seconds after Indiana took its first lead of the game, Dixon buried a three-pointer to spark Maryland’s 64-52 victory over the Hoosiers Monday night in front of 53,406.
“He’s been a great player for us,” Maryland coach Gary Williams said of Dixon, who was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player after scoring a game-high 18 points.
Maryland, long thought to be a cursed program, won its first national title.
“Juan-derful!” said a placard hoisted in the Maryland rooting section.
“I was just trying to be patient,” Dixon said. “I tried to let the game just come to me. “
It took every bit of courage Maryland had to overcome a spirited, gritty Indiana team.
But when it comes to courage, few can match Dixon, a senior from Baltimore who saw both his parents die of AIDS when he was in high school.
For much of the game, it looked as if Dixon would not be enough against the Hoosiers.
The opening 20 minutes was a virtual carbon copy of the first half of Indiana’s victory over Oklahoma in the semifinals.
It was ragged. It was ugly. And it was exactly what Indiana scripted.
In the Oklahoma game, Hoosiers star Jared Jeffries sat out a large chunk of the first half with foul problems, but the Sooners couldn’t put the Hoosiers away. And Indiana’s Jarrad Odle knocked down a three-point shot in the waning seconds to send Indiana into the locker room down by only four points. Oklahoma never recovered, and Indiana coasted to a 73-64 victory.
On Monday night, Jeffries picked up his second foul eight minutes into the game, with Maryland leading 17-8. When Jeffries walked to the bench, the Terrapins smelled blood. Maryland scored six of the next nine points to take its biggest lead, 23-11.
It looked like the end of a nice little story.
The Hoosiers were going to go back to Bloomington with their heads held high. They had done the unthinkable by reaching the season’s final Monday night. Losing to a superior opponent wouldn’t diminish a magnificent month.
But it’s been folly to doubt Indiana in the last three weeks. So perhaps it should have come as no surprise that with their best player on the bench, facing mismatches at virtually every position, the Hoosiers slowly began to take over the game.
They summoned the heart and will that had become their tourney trademark.
With the final seconds draining, gimpy point guard Tom Coverdale dribbled in on Maryland’s Steve Blake and laid the ball off the glass. The Hoosiers still trailed 31-25. But they ran off the floor pumping their fists as if they’d just won the game.
Maryland did its part to help the Hoosiers hang around.
Maryland seemed to be in panic as the game wore on. The Terps rushed their shots and handled the basketball as if it were greased. In the first half Maryland had 10 turnovers, six of them by backcourt veterans Blake and Dixon.
The Hoosiers kept whittling away in the second half. Guard Dane Fife, whom Dixon had torched for 11 first-half points, knocked down a pair of three-point shots.
Indiana surged ahead 44-42 on Jared Jeffries’ layup.
The game was there for Indiana to steal.
But Maryland answered with–who else?–Dixon. Blake whirled down the lane, drew a couple of defenders and then pitched the ball out to Dixon, who was all alone on the left wing.
Dixon buried a three-pointer for his first points in 20 minutes.
“Steve just set me up perfectly,” Dixon said.
Dixon’s dagger proved to be the end of the joyride for Indiana (25-12). Maryland (32-4) outscored Indiana 19-7 the rest of the way.
As the horn sounded, Dixon fired the ball at the Georgia Dome roof, then tackled 6-8 Lonny Baxter in a sweaty, tearful embrace.
“Lonny and me beat the odds and led our team to a title,” Dixon said.” I can’t put into words how excited I am now.”
