Who would be the best coach next season at Indiana?

The possibilities will become endless as the men's basketball season wears down and coaching positions and coaches become readily available.

Names ranging from Chicago Bulls head coach Tim Floyd to sabbatical-taking Utah coach Rick Majerus to even former Boston Celtics president and head coach Rick Pitino are among the long list of rumors circulating around Bloomington.

Well, count Pitino out, because with his Lexus dealership in Lexington, Ky., his thoroughbreds in the Bluegrass State and his Las Vegas buddies calling, coming to Indiana would be financial suicide.

All of the other possible coaches being mentioned all have positives and negatives to consider before coming to Indiana.

But wait, the people who want Mike Davis out and another coach in are forgetting one thing.

Davis is prototypical Indiana material.

He has a tremendous work ethic, a good relationship with his players and great recruiting ties in the south, where he now has the chance of pulling players not only from the Midwest, but from all over the country.

But some people at Indiana are so interested in looking outside the program for a coach with national attention who will come to the Hoosiers and. . .and. . .what?

Anything anyone coming to Indiana can possibly do, Davis can get done.

Davis has a team of underclassmen in an awkward situation of having to face daily rumors surrounding the next coach at Indiana.

The scary possibility is that for many of the current Hoosiers, they could run the risk of playing for three different coaches in three seasons.

Definitely not traditional Indiana, and surely not what the university wants for their student-athletes.

Davis has the Hoosiers at 10-7, with the highlight of beating former No. 1 Michigan State in Bloomington on Jan. 7. He has a dynamite 6-foot-9 freshman in Jared Jeffries, who is going to be a future star at Indiana. And he has a talented and steady Bob Knight-trained group of players that are slowly learning the Mike Davis coaching style.

Imagine the talent-laden Hoosiers, who have shocked opponents with improved shooting from the outside, a frontcourt that will be one of the best in the Big Ten next season and quality student-athletes having to be thrown into an entirely new system next fall.

Davis is starting to get all of his pieces in place.

He has established his team, his recruiting ties and the future of Indiana basketball. The first-year coach just needs to impress the people at Indiana enough to convince them that he is good enough to stay on with the Hoosiers next season.

Indiana needs to stop looking outside the program for its next head coach.

They need to stop looking in the NBA or wait for the magical coach to appear from the college ranks to take over next season in Bloomington.

Instead of looking all over the country for their next head coach, they should take a quick look in Assembly Hall and realize that Mike Davis is the best man for the job.