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.
Playing from behind all night, the overmatched Hoosiers had finally surged ahead of heavily favored Maryland.
But then the Hoosiers made a fatal mistake–they left Terrapins star Juan Dixon alone. And eight seconds after Indiana had taken took its first lead of the game, Dixon buried a three-pointer to spark Maryland’s 64-52 victory over the Hoosiers in front of 53,406.
“Basically, the whole game I was just telling the guys that we were going to win,” said Dixon, who scored 18 points and was named the Final Four’s most outstanding player.
Dixon made it happen, delivering Maryland’s first national title.
Indiana lost for the first time in six trips to the final. But the Hoosiers gave thousands of red-clad fans in the Georgia Dome reason to cheer.
They had done the unthinkable by even reaching the season’s final night. Fifth seeds are supposed to be watching the final at home with a bowl of popcorn.
“We’re disappointed that we lost,” Indiana guard Tom Coverdale said. “But I think when we look back, we’ll be proud of the fact that we got Indiana back competing for a national championship again, and hopefully we’ll be back here again next year.”
Said Indiana coach Mike Davis, “We had a chance, but Maryland is a much better basketball team than we are.”
For much of the game, it looked as if the Hoosiers’ magic run would end in a net-cutting ceremony.
In the first 30 minutes, Indiana used the same scheme that had beaten favored Oklahoma in the national semifinals two nights earlier.
They forced Maryland to play down to their level.
It was ragged. It was ugly. And it was effective.
Maryland (32-4) shot only 43.8 percent from the floor. The Terrapins had lost two of the three games in which they’d failed to score 70 points, and Indiana (25-12) held them to 21 under their season average, 85.
“We fought them hard and we had them where we wanted them, but we really didn’t play that well,” Indiana’s Jarrad Odle said. “They are a great team, but we just didn’t play too well. We thought that if we executed everything, we could win by 10 or 15, but it just didn’t fall our way.”
Indeed, the Terrapins forced the Hoosiers to become a one-dimensional team, firing away from beyond the arc. That has worked well for Indiana this season, but a sound game plan requires more inside scoring.
Indiana hit 10-of-23 three-point shots but converted only 10-of-35 inside the arc. The Terps blocked six shots and walloped the smaller Hoosiers on the boards 42-31.
Still, Indiana refused to fold. Facing mismatches at virtually every position, the Hoosiers displayed the heart and will that had become their tourney trademark.
They surged ahead 44-42 when Coverdale threaded a pass into the lane and found Jared Jeffries, who laid the ball off the glass.
The game was there for Indiana to steal.
“I knew they had a big shot,” said Dixon, who didn’t know what the score was. “The fans went wild.”
Indiana was the best story here this weekend. But Dixon was the best player. And that’s why it came as no surprise when the Terps responded to Jeffries’ bucket by finding their senior leader.
The play happened in a heartbeat. Point guard Steve Blake broke an Indiana trap, whirled down the lane and 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.
“He made a great pass,” Dixon said, “And I made a tough shot.”
Dixon finished the tournament with 155 points in six games. “We knew he would be a handful,” Davis said.
Dixon’s dagger proved to be the end of Indiana’s joy ride. Maryland 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-foot-8-inch 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 what I feel right now.”
