Bloomington, Ind. ? Indiana athletic director Michael McNeely’s carrot-and-stick approach is about to produce big dividends for basketball coach Mike Davis.

Davis’s upcoming pay raise he and McNeely were set to meet today to work out the final details will elevate him to the upper tier of Big Ten coaches. That will reward him for guiding the Hoosiers to the NCAA tourney title game.

“We’re very pleased with the way the team finished,” McNeely said. “It’s a great story, about a bunch of guys who played well together. They blended well as a team. There were teams you’d have expected to be in the Final Four and the championship game. I don’t know that anybody expected Indiana to be there, except maybe for the players and coaches.”

Davis is expected to sign a six-year deal paying him $800,000 annually for the first three years, more for the final three, plus a substantial bonus payment after his third season.

The total package could be worth as much as $860,000 annually, which would rank him behind Michigan State’s Tom Izzo ($1.1 million), right with Ohio State’s Jim O’Brien ($869,000) and just ahead of Illinois’ Bill Self ($825,000).

That’s a big boost from the four-year deal Davis signed in January. That contract paid $540,000 annually, which put him among the lower Big Ten coaches.

Davis publicly lobbied for a raise during the Final Four.