ATLANTA -- Mike Davis is unedited, all the time. He says what's on his mind, talks from the heart and doesn't have to apologize for not conforming to the coaching norm.

He has as good an understanding as anyone about his place in the profession and the importance of coaching in society. He doesn't try to do too much, doesn't think coaching is the end all. But yet he's here, in the national title game, on the biggest stage in the sport, because of the way he coaches.

Indiana isn't the most talented team. The Hoosiers have one star, one lock for the NBA in Jared Jeffries. The rest of the team is filled with role players who have potential, but most haven't reached it yet. The Hoosiers play hard defensively and keep themselves in games that they shouldn't be around at the end. They manufacture points, whether it's from the perimeter or by pounding it inside.

	Indiana's Mike Davis hopes to smile more in the tourney.

They play loose, and with freedom, and they relish it. They actually mirror Davis.

"My style stems toward the NBA," said Davis, who sat down with ESPN for a Sunday Conversation, handled his Final Four media responsibilities but didn't budge on not practicing on Sundays because he sees it as being a day of rest, God, and family.

"I say that because in the NBA, the players make plays and you let players play. I don't try and coach every possession. I let them play and give them a system, and give them freedom to play in the system."

Davis yells, he challenges his players, but he doesn't intimidate them. "Who's going to fear me?" Davis said. "(The players) love that they know they're playing with freedom, but they know that's special. They know they can go out and play and not worry about looking at the bench and worrying if they miss a shot or throw the ball away. I get upset with them if they're not working hard, or not controlling the tempo of the game. It bothers me but I let them know, let them know once and then it's over."

Davis said he thinks about his 16-year old son when he coaches, saying he wouldn't want him to be yelled at during a game. "I want my players to like me," Davis said. "I just feel like if they like you, they'll play hard for you. A lot of times when you have that fear-factor, it gets to a certain point where they may play hard for you, but at the very end, they'll say, 'OK, I'm tired of it.' I think our guys right now don't want the season to end. I think that's because they like me a lot."

Davis isn't naïve about how the Hoosiers got here. The matchups worked in Indiana's favor, playing UNC Wilmington instead of USC in the second round, drawing Kent State instead of Pittsburgh or Alabama in the Elite Eight after beating Duke in the Sweet 16.

Davis also doesn't try to espouse that he knows more than the rest of us, or try and hide behind a great play and say that he devised it in a huddle. He pointed to a play Saturday night called, 'Detroit,' designed for Tom Coverdale to take a 3-pointer. Instead, Jarrad Odle took the 3-pointer and he said the assumption was it was a great call.

"I had no idea Odle was going to shoot a 3-point shot," Davis said. "Do you think I would draw a play to have Odle shoot a 3-point shot?"

And as for the road to Monday night's title game? "We come here and play Oklahoma in the first game instead of Kansas or Maryland. It's the luck of the draw. It's not about coaching. You have to prepare your team, but it all depends on how you match up with certain teams because it's not a seven-game series."

Davis, however, has put in his time as a coach. He coached at a Division III Miles College in Alabama for one season, spent four seasons as a CBA assistant in Wichita Falls, Texas, and then one when the franchise moved to Chicago. He spent two seasons at Alabama before Bob Knight hired him in 1997.

Why join Knight's staff? It's obvious, the two coaches couldn't have been more different.

"I heard he needed a recruiter to go out and get players, but I had never recruited before," Davis said. "I definitely didn't bring that to the table. It was a blessing. It was a situation already in the making for me to be here."

Davis got Indiana into recruiting areas foreign to the Hoosiers like Atlanta (Jeff Newton and A.J. Moye), Charlotte (George Leach) and Louisiana (Donald Perry). When Knight was fired in September of 2000, Davis and assistant John Treloar were originally announced as co-coaches. But Treloar stepped aside and wanted Davis to be the head coach. It's a move that Davis deeply appreciates to this day. The unassuming Treloar was Davis' head coach when he was a player in the CBA and then when Davis was an assistant, and remains his trusted assistant.

"I don't want to lose him because he will definitely be hard to replace," Davis said of the prospect that Treloar could move on as a head coach in the near future. "At the same time, if he happened to step up and say, 'Give Mike the job,' maybe he knew about the pressures of it. For him to say that speaks volumes for him. He could have easily been the head coach. As a matter of fact, I thought they would go with him because he had head coaching experience."

But Indiana president Myles Brand didn't and leaned on Davis to replace Knight. Davis and Knight haven't spoken since Davis was given the "interim" job prior to last season. And there are no plans to reconcile, if that's what is in order.

Former player Steve Alford, now the coach at Iowa, and former player, Mike Krzyzewski of Duke, each had similar estranged relationships with Knight. But Alford and Krzyzewski had to make the first phone call to open up communication again. Alford did in February when his team was struggling. Krzyzewski did last summer when he wanted Knight to induct him into the Basketball Hall of Fame in October.

Will Davis make the call to Knight?

"No," Davis said. "I've only known coach three years and he gave me a great opportunity to be here, but there are people I have known longer that I haven't called. It's no problem. People try and make it a big deal that he doesn't call me but it's no problem at all."

Getting to the Final Four, let alone the national title game should quiet some of his critics, but maybe not all. There is a certain segment of the population in southern Indiana that may never accept him as Knight's successor for a variety of reasons.

"I've thought about moving on," Davis said. "But I owe it to President Brand and (vice president Terry) Clapacs and all those guys for giving me that opportunity. Sometimes enough is enough. But over the last couple of days people have been really nice to me. The attitude has really changed towards me. I just don't want to put my family in a bad situation."

But will Davis get over the negative stuff that will follow him for as long as he's at Indiana, the outsider, the one who replaced Knight?

"It's hard not to think about it because I'm human," Davis said. "When people don't like you it bothers you a bit. They have no reason not to like me. We won 21 games last year and look what we went through. This year we won the Big Ten and lost our best player (Jeffries) to an ankle injury a month before the regular season was over. It bothers me but I have to move on from it."

Davis should get taken care of after this season with a raise, and possibly an extension. He finally got a contract during this season, nearly a year after the interim tag was taken off his name and replaced by head coach. The deal was for four seasons, agreed upon by both parties. But the deal, for $630,000 this season (includes camp) and $530,000 the next three seasons, is for only three more seasons.

	Mike Davis would rather have his players play for him, not in fear of him.

"I hope I get a raise," Davis said laughing.

Admittedly, Davis would rather coach in the NBA, mainly because of his style. But he understands it will take five, maybe 10 years if ever to get there. But getting to the national title game may never happen again. That's why Davis spent Saturday night with his mother, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nephews and his immediate family, which includes his wife and two sons and everyone else from his hometown of Fayette, Ala.

This whole Final Four has been about Davis, especially at least one member of his family. Little Antoine has stolen the show, running around, slapping high-fives with fans and players and the media, being carried around by players and never too far from his father's arms.

"They just stayed until 4:30 in the morning just talking," Davis said. "I really enjoyed that for them because it's big for them. It's big for me, but it's big for them to be in this environment. I don't want to be stuck in a room watching film 24 hours and not enjoy this with my family."

And if Davis, 41, the quiet, hard-working, small town coach from the South, who overcame a stuttering problem, wins the national title Monday he'll be in a select company. He'll be only the fourth African-American coach to win the title, joining John Thompson (Georgetown in 1984), Nolan Richardson (Arkansas in 1994) and Tubby Smith (Kentucky in 1998).

"That's a great class to be in," Davis said. "Those are the guys. I'm not a young coach, but those are the guys you look up to. I have had the opportunity to talk to all three. I remember meeting coach Thompson and I was speechless in his presence. He's an outstanding coach and everybody wanted to play for Georgetown and coach Richardson had an opportunity to speak with him and coach Smith we play every year. To be in that class is special."

But no coaches at the Final Four have been as direct and cavalier as Davis, telling it like it is and not trying to hide behind a façade of how important they were in the game. And that's why he has confidence Indiana can beat Maryland Monday night, just like he thought the Hoosiers could beat Duke and Oklahoma.

"It's already done," Davis said. "I've already claimed it. I have. A victory. Whether we win or not, we'll see. Maryland will have a lot to do with that. Coach (Gary) Williams is a great coach. Coach Williams is intense and coaches every play and guys play hard for him and I hope one day I can get to that point. But I think we can win, I really do. But Juan Dixon stands in the way."

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.