ATLANTA -- The mayor or Noblesville sent a fruit basket to Tom Coverdale at the hotel. The electronic message board in front of the only bank in Swayzee is running a good luck message to Jarrad Odle. In Huntington, it seems like the entire town will be surrounding televisions Monday night, and their local product is a redshirt freshman.

And down in Bloomington, well, there is more than a little interest.

"I've heard it's just crazy," said Jared Jeffries, a sophomore from Bloomington.

Tom Coverdale takes great pride in winning games for the 25,450 people in his hometown of Noblesville, Ind.(AP)

Indiana is playing for the national championship, and as momentous as that is from New Albany to Merrillville, it is even bigger in the four small towns that have five favorite sons on the roster. Not to over romanticize it, but being an Indiana player from Indiana is beyond big.

"It's basically like being President," said Odle, who hails from Swayzee (pop. 1100), which sits about 60 miles north of Indianapolis. "Anywhere you go people recognize you, whether it is a small town or a big city."

While IU's opponent Monday, Maryland, certainly has its share of fans, the Terrapins have never captured the imagination of their home state the way the Hoosiers do. Not there is any shame in that. There are few, if any, states where basketball is woven into the culture more than Indiana. The saying there is the game might have been invented in Massachusetts, but it was perfected in Indiana.

The roots are easy to see. In the small farming towns that dot the state, basketball was the perfect fit. Almost any high school can get at least five players together and form a team. With the harvest in and the work pace slowed during the long winter, the sport provided the perfect entertainment option.

Until recently, the state held the greatest high school tournament in the country, a single elimination free-for-all featuring no classifications for enrollment. In 1954, little Milan High, behind sharpshooter Bobby Plump, won the whole shebang. A few decades later, Hollywood immortalized the accomplishment in Hoosiers,

And oh yes, the state university in Bloomington has won five national championships.

It's why everyone in the state plays ball as a kid and follows it as an adult.

"As a kid growing up in Indiana, you always have a basketball in your hand," said Odle.

Said Jeffries: "There is like 100 little AAU summer leagues throughout the state. They'll play in little barns, put up a hoop and have like 50. They'll divide into five teams, play each other 15 times and have a champion. They do that everywhere, from Kendallville all the way down to Silver City. All the small towns make sure the kids have the opportunity to play basketball."

Indiana has five Indiana players on its roster: Jeffries, Odle, Coverdale (Noblesville), Scott May (Bloomington) and redshirt freshman Sean Kline (Huntington).

All grew up engrossed in the game, playing nonstop and dreaming of getting the chance to come to Indiana and deliver a national title to the state. Monday, the chance arrives. Everyone knows that being a Hoosier is one thing. Being a Hoosier on a national championship team is something else.

"They'll remember you for the rest of your life," said Jeffries. "No matter what you go through, no matter what you do, you'll always have a big family at Assembly Hall and in Indiana. You're a legend, from the walk-on player all the way up to the starting player. When I signed with Indiana, my goal was to give something back to the state of Indiana."

This is an Indiana team, too. Three starters hail from the state, and while Indiana has plenty of larger urban areas such as Indianapolis, Gary or Ft. Wayne, none of these Hoosiers hail from even a moderately sized city. They grew up weaned on the game and Indiana tradition, taught the national championship years -- 1940, 1953, 1976, 1981, 1987 -- at an early age.

"Every guy on our team is from a small town," said Odle. "(But) I'm probably the biggest country boy of them all."

At least Odle admits it. Which is good. The Hoosiers tend to play the game, at-least-my-town-is-bigger-than-yours.

According to Odle, Swayzee has "a bank, a gas station, a convenience store and a supermarket." It is famous for more than producing the Hoosiers' starting forward, though. Swayzee High was once involved in a nine-overtime game, which the town claims is a world record.

"You drive into to town and there is a sign that says so," said Odle. "That's kind of what Swayzee has been known for."

Swayzee is so small that even the other guys make fun of it. Kyle Hornsby hails from tiny Anacoco, La., a place so small Stanford coach Mike Montgomery called it "Mayberry" when he showed up on a recruiting trip, and Jeffries jokes its isolation prohibited Hornsby from watching IU's 1987 championship team on TV.

"Hornsby didn't have a TV back in Louisiana then," said Jeffries. "Mostly radio accounts."

But even Anacoco is bigger than Swayzee.

"We have one stop light, the high school right there, two or three convenience stores and one or two locally owned restaurants," said Hornsby. "That's it. But we don't have 'Tractor Day.' Jared said everybody drives their tractor to school and they judge the cleanest tractor and what have you. And they award prizes. When I heard that, I knew I had it pretty good."

Over in the relative metropolis of Noblesville (pop. 25,450) the claim to fame has always been Tom Abernethy, a town product who played on Indiana's 1976 NCAA champions. Coverdale has known Abernethy his entire life, and the Hoosier legend stopped by the current Hoosiers point guard's room Saturday after the semifinal victory over Oklahoma to check in on him and wish him luck.

"As long as I can remember, I wanted to play at IU," said Coverdale. "It seems every kid in Indiana dreams about playing there. When I got the scholarship offer I took it and didn't look any further. It is great to be able to bring happiness to a town and fans of a team.

"Noblesville has been great my whole career. It's something I take great pride in, having all the people back me even when I was a freshman and was not playing."

The Hoosiers will take the Georgia Dome floor Monday night playing for themselves, of course. But they will also be playing for so much more. Their uniforms do not have their names printed on the back and never will, according to coach Mike Davis.

"It's not about anyone but Indiana."

Big city Indiana, the school Indiana and, maybe more than anything else, small hometown Indiana -- where "Tractor Day" might soon include a national championship parade.