Hoosiers

It isn't the Indianapolis 500, but it is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, so for drivers who grew up in Indiana dreaming of taking the checkered flag while crossing the historic yard of bricks at the finish line, winning the Brickyard 400 is about as good as it can get. Jeff Gordon, whose family moved to Pittsboro, Ind., after he spent his early childhood in Vallejo, Calif.

The Hoosiers have left the building, make way for the team from the "Hoosiers" building. To put it another way, three teams from the state of Indiana had the chance to join Notre Dame is the Sweet 16 Sunday, but only one succeeded. Indiana couldn't do it. Purdue couldn't do it. Butler did it. Before Sunday, the Butler Bulldogs of Indianapolis were best known as the basketball team that loaned its home arena, Hinkle Fieldhouse, to the makers of the ultimate hoop-dreams movie, "Hoosiers."

Mike Davis took over Indiana's basketball program 2 1/2 years ago, but Bob Knight's presence still looms larger than the state of Texas. Just last week, the exiled Knight announced that he was giving back his Texas Tech coaching salary for this season because his team performed below expectations.

Pittsburgh Coach Ben Howland would be more upset at the Panthers missing an opportunity to become No. 1 if Tuesday's loss to Georgia had come in April instead of December. The Panthers wasted a chance to reach the top spot for the first time, losing to the Bulldogs, 79-67, at Athens, Ga. Second-ranked Pittsburgh (9-1) has never been No. 1 in the Associated Press poll. The 1987-88 team also reached No. 2, the only other time the Panthers have been ranked that high. No.

Larry Johnson outdid himself -- and every other running back in Penn State history -- on Saturday. Johnson rushed for 327 yards, a career-high four touchdowns and shattered a 31-year-old school rushing record as he led the 16th-ranked Nittany Lions to a 58-25 Big Ten Conference victory over Indiana. Johnson broke his own single-game school rushing record for the third time this season and surpassed Penn State's single-season record midway through the second quarter.

Indiana learned something in the NCAA championship game. No matter how many times you watch the movie "Hoosiers," it always turns out the same way. Real life doesn't always behave like a movie script. Maryland might have learned something too. There is no such thing as a jinx. Robert H. Williams Monterey Park The Times' Robyn Norwood had it right (March 29), when she noted, "If [Bobby Knight] doesn't congratulate his former players next week, any future talk of loyalty should be met with skepticism."

Indiana held the lead once in the game and held that lead for eight seconds in the second half Monday night before Maryland bushwhacked notions of Bob Knight taking credit for it or Gene Hackman signing on for a "Hoosiers" sequel. For as much as Indiana had the basketball lineage, and the momentum, and the Terrapins' undivided attention, it ran much deeper than that for Maryland. Maryland was bigger, stronger, quicker and, let's face it, has really been a bunch of ticked-off turtles since blowing a 22-point lead to Duke in last year's national semifinals.

Indiana forward Jarrad Odle had a DVD of the movie "Hoosiers" in his gym bag Sunday. Guard Kyle Hornsby used to watch the video before every high school game, and guard Dane Fife says he still likes to walk into an empty gym and yell "Hickory!" for fictional Hickory High, the tiny school that won Indiana's state high school championship in the film.

Question: What can Indiana players expect to do at today's practice? Answer: Nothing. Indiana has a policy of not practicing on Sunday. Especially on Easter Sunday. Coach Mike Davis, a religious man, says he will stay with his plan. "We're going to stick with our same routine that we've been doing since I've been here," Davis said. "The guys have a day to rest. It's Easter, they can go to church if they want to." * Hey, what's this, an athlete who has put a victory in its proper context?