PHOTD: What Does Bob Knight Do With Chairs When He Is Not Throwing Them?

Why, he passes out in the them of course!

Today’s edition of PHOTD (remember, that means Photo Hilarity of the Day) comes courtesy of the incredible SI Vault (via today’s edition of Hot Clicks). Andy Gray is filling in for Jimmy Traina this week at Hot Clicks, and included some pretty hilarious SI Vault photos among his clicks. He also provided his twitter account address so you can follow him, which I highly encourage you to do. Tons of great pictures linked just on the first page of his recent tweets.

But the greatest one, from my perspective, is of my favorite coach of all-time, Bob Knight.

The photo, which you can see below, is a picture of Coach Knight apparently passed out in a chair in the locker room during the 2002 season. He was at Texas Tech then, and you can see his players in the background. (Click here to see the full-sized picture).

Though it is obviously unintentional in this case, the picture is just further proof of why Coach Knight is one of the most hilarious and entertaining coach of all-time.

Will Bob Knight Attend His Indiana Athletic Hall of Fame Induction?

[Editor's Note: I am happy to welcome Joe O to the writing crew here at MSF. Joe is a native of Greenwood, Indiana and a devote Hoosier fan and grad just like me.  Not surprisingly, his first effort here at MSF deals with man that all of us from southern Indiana grew up worshipping admiring: Bob Knight.

Enjoy, and welcome aboard Joe!]

——————–

Bob Knight. The General.

Three national championships. Eleven Big Ten Championships. Olympic Championship.

Four-time National Coach-of-the-Year. Six time Big Ten Coach-of-the-Year. All-time winningest coach in college basketball history.

Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee.

This is an unbelievable compilation of accomplishments, but one is still missing: an induction into Indiana’s Athletics Hall of Fame. This seems like a no-brainer for the Indiana coach of 29 years, but if you’ve been alive the last couple decades you know about the “departure” of Bob Knight from Indiana and why it’s taken so long for this day to come.

On November 6th of this year, Bob Knight’s name will finally be added to the list.

Now that Coach Knight will finally be inducted, the next question is whether or not he will attend. This question has loomed around the sports world for a few weeks now and one thing is for certain: no one but maybe Coach Knight himself knows the answer to that question.

I can only imagine all the thoughts and questions that must be going through his head.

On one side, the administration that fired him is basically gone, but on the other hand it was a ridiculous timeline of events and sets of egos that got him canned. It’s been almost a full decade and I wouldn’t blame him for still feeling uneasy and not wanting to make the trip.

It must be like that girlfriend that got away; the one that dumped you after a couple years. There were many great moments shared and memories had, but you’ve been trying to close that chapter. Now you have that wedding or event you know she’s going to be at and you’re struggling with whether or not to go.

This is how I envision Coach Knight feeling, with so many great times and memories, but with that sour note at the end. Put yourself in his shoes for a moment and envision that car ride into campus and seeing the first couple glances of Assembly Hall. If he’s as hesitant as he seems, this would be a tough ride to make.

However, Coach Knight may also be taking the opposite approach. If there is one thing we’ve learned from Coach, it’s to expect the unexpected.

This is an enormous honor at any university and especially one with the athletic, most notably basketball, history of Indiana. Even though one of the many things that made him a great coach is he always put the students first and made coaching all about his students and not his individual accomplishments, there must still be some hidden pride in being included in the HOF. He might even see this as “getting the last word in” with those that fired him. Maybe he sees this as an opportunity to close one more door before leaving the game entirely.

Whatever Coach Knight chooses, show or don’t show, I certainly hope that he does. It’s long overdue and as a lifelong Indiana fan, I’d like to be there to honor him as he so rightfully deserves to be honored at the place where he built his legacy.

As with anything Bob Knight though, he’s his own man and he’ll do what he wants to do. Let’s all just hope we see an unbuttoned dress shirt and sweater come November 6th.

**********

LOTD: The Incredible Focus of Braylon Edwards and Bob Knight Cusses Out a Reporter (Video)

We have a dual Link of the Day today, without much commentary from me because tons of work beckons me this morning. But I wanted to most this before I get started.

First, our good friends over at Cleveland Frowns have a new post up in the wake of the NFL Draft that is another solid reminder why the Braylon Edwards Experiment in Cleveland has been such a roller-coaster ride:

LOTD: Hollywood Bray Update — (Cleveland Frowns)

“Last year I was with the Texans [the non-Playoff team who, coincidentally, beat the Browns at Cleveland Stadium in a game that the AP described as leaving the Browns "beaten, battered and bewildered," "their season in shambles"], and when we played [WHOOPED] the Browns, Braylon Edwards asked me between plays if we could talk after the game about modeling and acting.”

Whatever else this indicates, at the very least it shows that Braylon’s head is somewhere else than on the football game when he’s playing in the football game. If Braylon wants to go Hollywood, he should cancel his contract with the Browns and go do that, but the level of play in the NFL is too high for players — even players with Braylon’s talent — to play at the highest level (the level that Braylon is being paid to play at) with their minds not focused 100% on the task at hand.

And then, unfortunately, there is this new video of Bob Knight cussing out a reporter who dared to ask him about the chair throwing incident. Look, you all know that I love Coach Knight, but I don’t really have anything to say in his defense here. He just comes across looking a petulant bully…which is nothing new for him. I’m sure he’s sick of hearing that question about the chiar, but just give a polite, canned answer and move on.

Bob Knight does not do polite, nor does he do canned, which I guess is part of the reason why he is both loved and hated more than almost any other figure in the sports lexicon.

I mean, one time in college I set a stove on fire while boiling water to make mac and cheese. It was only one blip on an otherwise unblemished record of water boiling (up to that point…), but for the rest of my life I will hear about that story. It is what it is. You threw a chair. The price you have to pay is being questioned about it every now and again. Is that really such a big deal?

I grew up in Bloomington in the 80s and early 90s so I’ll never stop loving Coach Knight. I just wish he’d stop doing things like this, which shine a negative light not only on himself but on his supporters as well. Fast forward to the 2:30 second mark for the comment in question. (video of Bob Knight cussing out Netherlands reporter Found via You Been Blinded, via SportsBrite.)

Video: Bob Knight Cusses out Netherlands Reporter Who Asks About Chair

And a few more links:

• Early Thoughts on the 2010 NFL Draft — The Big Lead
• Craziness on ESPN.com – Unicorns? Rainbows? – Deadspin
• More Browns Draft Grades — Waiting For Next Year
• Dexter Fowler is fast — Josh Q. Public

Video: Guitar Hero Commercial with Bob Knight, Rick Pitino, Roy Williams, and Coach K

Oh my goodness.

I’ve only watched this one time and it is already among the five greatest commercials I’ve ever seen. Say what you will about Bob Knight, but is there a college basketball coach in history that has a greater sense of humor?

Behold, the genius of Guitar Hero marketing, and the rage of Bob Knight overshadowing the attitude of Metallica:

Video: Guitar Hero Commercial Featuring Bob Knight, Rick Pitino, Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski and Metallica

The Adventures of Jay and Digger: College Basketball’s Odd Couple

I have been watching Digger Phelps and Jay Bilas provide commentary on college basketball for as long as I can remember. And the differences between the two have always been pretty obvious:

• Jay Bilas comes across as intelligent, thoughtful, and cogent; Digger Phelps comes across as (searching for a way to say this nicely…) not those things.
• Jay Bilas comes across as arrogant, with every word he speaks appearing to be the result of careful deliberation between his ego and pride; Digger Phelps is cool and laid back, the kind of guy you’d want to actually watch a game with, and he appears to just say whatever words come into his head — apparently before they have coalesced into coherent thoughts or sentences.
• Jay Bilas is like the guy in college who was a T.A. for two two different classes per semester; Digger Phelps is like the guy in college who went to two classes all semester.

And honestly, I could go on and on.

But perhaps nothing more accurately displays their differences than the ESPN College Gameday basketball commercial in which Digger Phelps dances like his brain is on fire, while Jay Bilas plays the role of a constipated, perturbed school marm. The still image above is taken from that ESPN commercial. Here is the video:

And for the record, I specifically do not want to add Hubert Davis into the discussion here. Invoking his name will make me think of him laughing, and then I won’t be able to go to sleep, haunted by — damnit, I just thought of it. My night is over.

(Seriously, just saying, does anyone else find Hubert Davis’ laugh a tad annoying? I like Hubert, and I think he has great points (sometimes), and I realize I am not breaking any news here and that this has probably been covered ad nauseum by other blogs — and I readily admit that I myself have an annoying laugh, however with the caveat that I am not on TV — but they should really try to reign Hubert in, especially the times when it seems like he is fake laughing at something that isn’t even supposed to be funny. It’s almost annoying to the point of being unwatchable.)

But I digress…

The reason I even searched for and found the above video and decided to write this post is that tonight, while scrolling through the front page of BallHype, I came across the video embedded a few paragraphs below. This delicious nugget of pure Digger ridiculousness proved to be a gateway to me finding even more reasons why Digger Phelps and Jay Bilas truly are the official Odd Couple of college basketball; and quite possibly the official Odd Couple of all of sports.

Regardless, one thing is true: Digger Phelps is, among many things, odd.

The video below, taken yesterday (February 28th) in Berkeley, California before the UCLA-Cal game, is a great example of this oddness. The picture to the right, in which Digger Phelps appears to be menacingly approaching a terrified Cal cheerleader, is a still from the Cal video.

As you will see, Digger’s “approach” is anything but menacing. Spasmic, hilarious, and disturbing? Yes. But menacing? Not so much.

Watch the video of Digger Phelps putting the dance in “Big Dance” at Cal:

I don’t really know what to say. I thought for sure that this must have just been a one time thing, a nod to the dancing in the ESPN College Gameday commercial. Yet, over in the related videos I saw that there was plenty of more of Digger dancing at college basketball arenas. The following two videos are from February 14th of this year at Wisconsin, according to the descriptions on YouTube:

———-

Sadly, that is not the last one. Here is another, from January 24th, 2009 in Digger’s old stomping grounds of South Bend:

Okay, fine. So Digger has decided to bring the dancing from the Gameday commercial to the arena, I think to myself.

Wrong.

Here is another video, from March of last year, in which Digger actually gets a little bump-and-grind on with a Kansas cheerleader that I have to asume is the hottest girl in the entire state. (This is both a compliment to her and, yes, a complete disparagement of the entire state of Kansas — to which I have never been. So take it for what it’s worth.)

I do not know if this is the entire library of videos available on the Internet that show Digger Phelps engaging in some inappropriate friendly rhythmic movement with attractive, young co-eds. But I am learning that there is an entire subsection of YouTube devoted to the entertaining antics of Digger Phelps.

Regardless of what you think of Digger’s propensity for carefree and unabashed fun (or, as one YouTube video title terms it, Digger being an “attention whore”), one thing is certain: you would never, ever see Jay Bilas doing anything even remotely similar.

Watch this video. These guys can’t even get Jay Bilas to say something funny. Now, it is perfectly possible that Jay Bilas is simply not capable of saying anything funny. In fact, it is quite possible that he has never said anything funny, and certainly cannot do so on command. But still Jay, at least have a little fun or show some semblance of a sense of humor:

At the end of the day, the obvious differences between Digger Phelps and Jay Bilas would probably best manifest themselves if both of them read this post. Digger Phelps would probably laugh, say something that made no sense to anyone, and then start gyrating to no discernible beat. Jay Bilas, on the other hand, would decry the state of education in America that a Big Ten school like Indiana could produce a nincompoop like me who would would spend two hours on a Sunday night creating such rubbish as this post.

Either way, whatever your feelings about Jay Bilas or Digger Phelps individually, you will be seeing a lot of them this month, as the March portion of “March Madness” began today. The madness portion will slowly be building to the incredible crescendo that is the NCAA Tournament, and we will have Jay Bilas and Digger Phelps, college basketball’s odd couple, leading us every step of the way.

And you know what? The differences between the two are actually probably what make them both palatable. Without Digger, the overly serious and joyless Bilas might be more than a tad off-putting. And without Bilas, Digger’s complete ridiculousness might be highlighted to the point of being unwatchable (like Hubert Davis’ laugh). Add them together, with a touch of Bob Knight’s basketball brilliance and a solid host like Rece Davis, and the ESPN College Gameday basketball crew is actually one of the more entertaining and balanced studio crews on any network.

(And you thought this post was just negative and gratuitously mean. I fooled you!)

Of course, the minute Vitale gets added to the mix, all hell breaks loose…

(FYI…careful where you watch this. It’s hilarious, but the language might not be suitable for all audiences or workplace computers. You’ve been warned.)

History Suggests That Indiana Basketball Should Be Elite Again “Sooner” Than Some Think

The Internet has not been kind to the Indiana Hoosiers over the last couple of days.

On Monday, Ryan over at Inside the Hall encapsulated the Hoosier bashing that permeated the sports blogosphere that day. He cites FOMSF Josh Q. Public’s article about Indiana basketball, as well as the initial Deadspin take on the issue from Rick Chandler. As you can see in the comments section of the Josh Q. Public post, I took exception to points being made by both.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am like a papa bear protecting his cub when people pile on Indiana basketball. I realize that a certain amount of piling on is warranted right now given the way our administration has allowed the IU basketball program to sink to the depths it has fallen to this season. But when you start unnecessarily disparaging Bloomington, or making claims that IU basketball is finished as a national powerhouse, I feel the need to stand up and lend some perspective.

The greatest memories of my childhood involve going to IU games at Assembly Hall with my dad, and then heading right out to the driveway afterwards to pretend that I was Calbert Cheaney or Damon Bailey or Brian Evans. You mess with IU basketball and you’re messing with me. As Colin Cowherd likes to say, “fan is short for fanatic.” Well, that is definitely true in this case.

Rick Chandler, mentioned above, posted about Indiana basketball again yesterday. It took the form of a response to the criticism that he received in many corners of the sports blogosphere. And while I did enjoy the post for reasons I will get to in a second, I wholeheartedly disagree with the following assertion that Rick made in his original post and reiterated yesterday:

Oh, Bloomington will still be a great basketball town, but what I mean by basketball backwater is that the Hoosiers will always take a back seat to Duke and North Carolina and UCLA and even Wake Forest and UConn. They’re no longer special. Email me the next time Indiana reaches the Elite Eight. I’ll be waiting.

He frames this point with a terrifically entertaining anecdote of himself as a young reporter getting a surprising 20-minute interview with Bob Knight. He also describes what must have been a surreal scene in Bedford watching Damon Bailey play in high school. While I obviously do not endorse his pessimistic view of the future of IU basketball, I highly recommend reading the post for an entertaining journey back to, admittedly, the old glory days of IU basketball and Coach Knight.

After reading the article, I decided that if Coach Knight had seen enough of the young Rick Chandler to grant him an interview that surprised everyone Rick told the story to later, I could at least offer up the respect of considering his arguments. Maybe he is onto something, and Indiana basketball as I once knew it is like a dinosaur: legendary and powerful in its day, and still worthy of remembering and appreciating with both fondness and awe; but extinct and no longer relevant for contemporary purposes.

I fully realize that I am supremely biased when it comes to IU basketball. I feel like I can rationally analyze the team’s performance and not make predictions or statements that are too outlandish and blinded by fanaticism, but I know that what I consider to be objectivity can sometimes be imbued with the conflict between head and heart that all die-hard fans experience.

So after reading Rick’s article yesterday I decided that for once I would make my best effort to analyze the current state of IU basketball solely with my head, while fully knowing that it would be impossible to totally remove my heart from the proceedings.

Let’s get a few things out of the way that are and have been well established:

1. Indiana basketball still has amazing fan support. I moved from Indianapolis to Dallas last April, so I have to watch IU from afar this year, but the crowds at Assembly Hall have been outstanding this season. I knew that IU fans would rally around this year’s team if they played hard and showed heart. They have.
2. Tom Crean is the right man to get IU basketball headed in the right direction. When a program has sunk to the depressing depths that IU currently wallows in, you need a coach who is pathologically optimistic and positive, almost bordering on irrationality. Tom Crean’s boundless energy and enthusiasm, and his belief in IU basketball, are exactly what we needed in the aftermatch of the coach who will not be named.
3. You can still recruit to Indiana. Considering his late start, I think Tom Crean did an amazing job of bringing in the freshman class that he did this year. Nick Williams was the Player of the Year in Alabama last year, and came with Crean to IU after committing to Marquette. Sure, he mainly followed the man that recruited him, but the idea of playing for a program as historically prestigious as Indiana had to have a little something to do with it. Even Verdell Jones, while not a superstar by any means, was a top-150 recruit who decided to come to Bloomington late in the recruiting season. And we know about Indiana’s outstanding recruiting class coming next year, led by Christian Watford and Maurice Creek. Any rating service you find has it rated in the top-10. And this is a brand new coach recruiting to a school mired in recruiting violations, probation, and very little tournament success since 2002. The Indiana brand must not be completely dead yet.

All of this being said, I am not foolish enough to think that Indiana is still currently on the same level as UCLA, North Carolina, or even Duke, which itself has played below its previously established standards in recent seasons. Even in the Big Ten, Michigan State is now the alpha dog. While teams like Purdue, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Illinois have joined Indiana in a rotating wheel of top-level Big Ten competitiveness this decade, Michigan State is always at or near the top.

But we all know that Indiana basketball once was among the elite of the elite. Between 1975 and 1987, Indiana won three national championships, made eight Sweet 16s, had two undefeated regular seasons, and won six Big Ten titles. Expand that to 1993, the last truly great Indiana team, and there were twelve Sweet 16 appearances, seven Elite 8 appearances, and nine Big Ten titles.

Since 1993? The Hoosiers had a magical run to the National Championship game in 2002, and “only” missed the NCAA tournament twice, but only got to the Sweet 16 one other time (1994) and tied for a Big Ten championship in 2002. That’s it. Considering the greatness that IU fans had become accustomed to, the last 15 and now going on 16 years have been pretty down.

So what basis, if any, is there for IU fans to say that Rick Chandler or any number of other non-believers is wrong to say that Indiana basketball as we once knew it is essentially dead? Is there another college basketball program out there that fell on comparably hard times but was rejuvenated?

Let’s consider UCLA as an example. We know about their greatness under John Wooden, but the last season of Steve Lavin’s tenure and the first season of Ben Howland’s tenure produced a record of 29-36. Over the last three seasons, UCLA has been rejuvenated and reached the Final Four every time. But between 1993 and 2002, the Bruins won a National Title, and played in six Sweet 16s. So while they had a momentary blip of failure, there was not such a systematic and consistent decline as we have experienced in Bloomington. Plus, I don’t think even Rick Chandler would consider UCLA’s campus to be “backwater”, thus rendering UCLA moot for purposes of this comparison.

Kentucky is a proud basketball powerhouse that has fallen on more modest times recently, finishing the last three seasons unranked. But before that Kentucky finished #1, #2, and #7 from 2003-2005. There is not really a comparison to be made here, as Kentucky is currently mediocre but certainly not at the depths of Indiana.

Admittedly, I have not dug as far as I could, but I do not have a perfect college basketball comparison to make that suggests Indiana can reclaim its pre-1994 stature among the elite. Perhaps this absence of a direct comparitive college basketball argument to Rick Chandler’s article can be seen as implicit acknowledgment of the validity of his point; but I ask you to hold on for just a minute. While there is a not an obviously perfect basketball comparison to make (at least that I can find), there could be a pretty solid comparison to make from the world of college football.

The program I will reference and explore is Oklahoma. Let’s do some quick analysis:

National Championships:

• Oklahoma has 7
• Indiana has 5
• Both schools are among the top 5 in history in their respective collegiate sports’ record books.

Conference Championships:

• Oklahoma has 42
• Indiana has 20
• Oklahoma is first in Big 12 history, Indiana is second only to Purdue’s 21 in Big Ten history.

All-Time Wins

• Oklahoma has 791 all-time wins, good for #8 in college football history. The Sooners have won approximately 72.8% of their games.
• Entering this season, Indiana had 1,635 all-time wins, good for 10th all-time heading into this season. (They are 11th now, with Notre Dame vaulting over the Hoosiers). Indiana has won 64.8% of its games.

Legendary Coaches

• Bud Wilkinson followed up a very good coach in Bennie Owen and established Oklahoma as a true national power with 145 wins and 3 National Titles between 1947 and 1963. Barry Switzer continued the tradition with 157 wins and 3 more National Titles between 1973 and 1988.
• Branch McCracken followed up a very good coach in Everett Dean and established Indiana as a true national power 364 victories and 2 National Titles between 1938 and 1965. Bob Knight continued the tradition with 661 wins and and 3 National Titles between 1971 and 2000.

Just looking at these raw numbers, there is certainly a comparison to be made. Yes, Oklahoma has the advantage in each category, other than the striking similarities in coaching history, and if you were comparing Oklahoma football to Indiana basketball, the edge would be to Oklahoma; but that is not the goal here. The goal is to establish the comparison of a national powerhouse, located in a so-called “backwater” college town, that has experienced great success, then fell on hard times, but the resurrected itself back to national prominence.

Consider the performance of Oklahoma in the aftermath of the controversial final few years of Barry Switzer’s tenure. Gary Gibbs took over and won 65% of his games, going to 3 bowl games over half a decade. Howard Schnellenberger coached one disastrous season in which he went 5-5-1. Then John Blake coached the team for two years, going 12-22 and Oklahoma fell off the national radar. Then the Sooners hired Bob Stoops away from Florida, everyone hailed him as the perfect fit for Oklahoma, and the program did a complete 180. Stoops has won 82% of his games, brought another National Title to Norman, and has Oklahoma among the nation’s elite again.

Now consider the performance of Indiana in the aftermath of the controversial final few years of Bob Knight’s tenure. Mike Davis took over and won 59% of his games, reaching four NCAA tournaments and had the one magical run to the title game during his half decade. Then the lying snake who shall not be named coached the team to a 43-15 record over two seasons, but was fired in the middle of last season, after which Dan Dakich coached the team to a disastrous 3-4 finish. Now Tom Crean has taken over, and everyone has hailed him as the perfect fit for Indiana. The team is still struggling with the disaster left behind by the coach who shall not be named however, so the 180 has not been as immediate for Crean and IU as it was for OU under Bob Stoops.

The way I see it, the years after the departure of Bob Knight in Bloomington are following a very similar path to the years after the departure of Barry Switzer in Norman. Right now, Indiana is in the midst of its “John Blake years”, so to speak; with the obvious difference being that Blake was not the long-term answer, but Tom Crean is. Crean has taken over a once elite program that returned all of 30 points last season. This year’s Hoosiers are one of the youngest and least experienced teams in college basketball history. The Hoosiers’ performance this year certainly is not an indictment of Tom Crean, and he should not really be judged by wins and losses until probably two seasons from now, next year at the absolute earliest.

So why can’t Indiana experience the same phenomenal resurrection that Oklahoma has experienced? The fan support of the two school is similar, the strength of the historical brand is similar, and both schools’ administrations are committed to fielding elite-level basketball and football programs, respectively. Plus, Oklahoma’s turnaround was marked by the arrival of a high-energy, high-enthusiasm coach known to be a good recruiter. Tom Crean has arrived in Bloomington with obvious energy and enthusiasm, and is also known as a good recruiter. Plus, unlike Stoops when he came to OU, Crean has head coaching experience and has been to a Final Four. You don’t think the status that comes with being Dwyane Wade’s college coach and having a Final Four on your resume won’t help him on the recruiting trail? Look at next year’s class; it already has.

Plus, if Bloomington is “backwater” then what, exactly, is Norman? As referenced by Ryan over at Inside the Hall, Forbes recently rated Bloomington as one of the top-10 college towns in America. (As an alum, I wholeheartedly concur.) And while no one is claiming that the Forbes list is the be-all end-all, I don’t see Norman on there. Yet Bob Stoops consistently signs top-10 recruiting classes. Additionally, Tom Crean has the opportunity to recruit to a “better” academic institution than Bob Stoops, at least according to the prestigious U.S. News and World Report rankings. Indiana was rated #71 out of all U.S. universities while Oklahoma came in at #108.

Again, let me reiterate: my purpose here is not to try to say that Indiana basketball is better than Oklahoma football, and I’m not trying to tell you that Bloomington and Indiana University are necessarily better than Norman and Oklahoma University. The entire purpose of this breakdown of the two programs and the schools is to show you the similarities, and is my best effort to provide solid evidence that Rick Chandler is wrong to believe that my beloved Indiana Hoosiers basketball program can no longer reach elite levels.

After going through this entire exercise (and completely blowing off work this morning), I feel confident in asking Rick Chandler and any other IU basketball non-believers one very simple question:

If Oklahoma could do it, why can’t IU?

I do not dismiss offhand the possibility that there could be compelling counter-arguments to what I have presented today. But, what I can say is that the process of writing this post has made me even more excited about the Tom Crean era of IU basketball and even more fervent in my belief that the Hoosiers can once again become a consistent national contender. At the very least, the story of Oklahoma football has given me a legitimate and very comparative example to grasp onto as I search for reasons to believe as much in the block IU, the candy-stripe warmups, the banners, and the cream & crimson as I did back in 1993.

Who knows, maybe cream & crimson just happen to be the official colors of college sports powerhouse resurrection? Bob Stoops did it in Norman and I see no reason why Tom Crean cannot do it in Bloomington.

You can assess for yourself whether I am making that judgment more with my heart or with my head. I feel pretty good that it’s a healthy combination of both.

And despite all the naysaying, I feel great about future of the Crean & Crimson.

What do you think?

Can Indiana become an elite college basketball powerhouse again?

• No
• Yes

View Results

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The Latest on Bob Knight Coaching Again, plus a Funny and Angry Trip Down Memory Lane

This weekend, I posted a link from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that received wide play throughout the sports world regarding Bob Knight’s potential interest in the now vacant head coaching position at the University of Georgia. This story was part of a whirlwind weekend of anger and intrigue for the Knight family, which also featured the first national headline grabbing outburst from Pat Knight in his role as head coach at Texas Tech. A chip off the old block indeed. As of yesterday, Pat Knight had not been suspended but was publicly reprimanded by the Big 12 conference.

With regards to the story about Bob Knight possibly coaching again, it appears that there are more legs to this story than just unnamed sources saying Knight would be interested. Bob Knight himself has now come out an said exactly that:

Okay, so that had nothing to do with Georgia job — obviously. But a pretty hilarious commercial nonetheless. Here is the actual recent quote from Bob Knight, per ESPN.com:

“It has to be a situation that I think is right for me and one where I would be right for the university,” Knight said. “I have never said that I wouldn’t coach again. I’ve simply said in the past, if the right situation came along, I would be interested.”

This quote isn’t exactly breaking news in and of itself, but it does jive with the source quoted in the AJC article who said that Knight is intrigued by the idea of coaching in the SEC but does not want it to look like he is out pursuing a job.

Interestingly, a Georgia player, Albert Jackson, is quoted in the same ESPN.com article cited above as saying that he would love to have Bob Knight take over the Bulldogs.

“I would love to have a coach of that caliber, that stature,” Jackson told the Journal-Constitution. “You have a Hall of Fame coach, you have somebody like that, all you can do is be happy. If Bobby Knight wants to come in here, I’d be more than happy.”

Hey, I wholeheartedly agree with Jackson, and have never made a secret of my affinity for Bob Knight. He can be a jerk, a bully, and a raging egomaniac, but he balances his demons by being an outstanding teacher, a great coach, and someone who helps to bring enormous resources (i.e. money, money, money) to whatever school he is with. I think going from Dennis Felton to Bob Knight would be like the equivalent of driving a Chevy Corsica and then walking out to your garage and finding a brand new Mercedes.

However, with that in mind, I do think that we should remind Albert Jackson and the rest of the Georgia faithful exactly what they would be getting if Bob Knight donned the red sweater again. A quick trip down memory lane of some of the more…entertaining…clips of Bob Knight throughout the years.

Let’s start out with Old Faithful, the one action that has become as synonymous with Bob Knight’s coaching career as his 3 National Titles: the chair toss.

Next, we move onto a YouTube “video” that isn’t really a video. Rather, it is audio of one of the more…intense…locker room speeches I have ever heard. (FYI: if you are at work, you might want to save this one for home. Bad language would be an understatement.) There are a variety of theories as to who recorded and leaked this interview. I have never been able to get confirmation, and I’m not sure more than a handful of people really know. Please feel free to update the conspiracy theories in the comments as I may not be up on the latest.

Here is one that I actually hadn’t seen before: Bob Knight going berserk on his own TV show. Old ladies in Indiana love Bob Knight — but not for moments like this, because old ladies in Indiana also love Chuck Marlowe (who, to his credit, put up pretty well with a lot of Knight’s BS over the years).

Here is another classic. Bobby Knight golf outtakes. He oscillates between being ridiculously impressed with himself and hilariously frustrated. The one constant: the F-word.

And speaking of the F-word, let’s hear Coach Knight explain why it is his favorite word. And, I think it should go without saying that language could be an issue with this one if you are at work:

A Top 10 compilation from ESPN of the best Bob Knight sound bytes. This video features my favorites, which include his memorable quotes from Senior Days past in Bloomington:

In another memorable video from Coach Knight’s weekly show with Chuck Marlowe, Knight hilariously brings in the Purdue mascot to the set:

The previous video was Bob Knight the laid back comedian, and the next video is Bob Knight the bully as he displays some of his more negative personality traits:

And back to funny Bobby, with the Minute Maid commercial he did showing the cuddly side that always endeared him to grandmas across Indiana:

And last but not least, since someone will scream and cry if I don’t include it, Bob Knight slapping one of his Texas Tech players in the face. (For the record, I looked for the Neil Reed video, but couldn’t find it. Feel free to embed in comments if you have it.) Albert Jackson and the Bulldogs should at least prepare themselves for a little physical contact if Coach Knight takes over. My advice: look him in the eye when he’s talking to you.

So there you have it, a trip down memory lane with Coach Knight. He is one of the five greatest coaches in basketball history, and certainly the funniest, but also one of the most notoriously angry and loose-tempered icons in the history of sports. Warts and all, I still think Bob Knight would be a great hire for Georgia, and I love to see him back on the sidelines. Say what you will, but college basketball is infintely more entertaining when Bob Knight is coaching.

Report: Bob Knight May Be Interested in Coaching Job at Georgia

Quick post as I am getting ready to go out and help the old man out with some yard work, but I just came across an interesting little tidbit from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via College Hoops Journal via The Big Lead).

Per a report by Furman Bisher at the AJC, Bob Knight may have some interest in coming out of retirement to fill the now vacant head coaching slot at the University of Georgia, bringing his 902 career wins with him. Dennis Felton was recently fired by the Bulldogs.

A couple of interesting quotes from the Bisher article:

“He doesn’t want it to look as if he’s pursuing the job. He’d like to be offered it, and if offered, he’d take it,” said a mutual friend, who did not want to be named but was willing for this columnist to report Knight’s interest.

“He doesn’t want it to look as if he’s looking for work, but I can assure you that he’d like to have the job. It’s the idea of coaching a team in the Southeastern Conference that appeals to him. There are just so many things he could do for Georgia basketball. This would be his last stop, and he likes that.”

Wow. Interesting news on a pretty busy weekend for the Knight family, who added another infamous public blow-up to the family litany last night when Pat Knight went ballistic on the officials in the Texas Tech-Nebraska game.

I have a couple of thoughts about these latest rumors regarding Coach Knight:

1. I’d love to see him coaching again. For me, a born and raised Hoosier and longtime supporter of Coach Knight’s through all of his controversies, I think that college basketball is infinitely more exciting when Coach Knight is on the floor.
2. There is a part of me that would be disappointed to see Coach Knight leave TV. He is absolutely outstanding as a color commentator and I’ve really started to think that it could be a great way to him to ride off into the sunset of his basketball career, while staying relevant and regaling college basketball fans everywhere with his ridiculously awesome insight and knowledge. Assuming he keeps his on-air emotions in check, a few good years on TV could really help to rebuild his reputation, especially with a new generation of basketball fans.
3. If he does take the job at Georgia, I’ll be one of the first IU fans to get some Georgia gear and find out their TV schedule. Assuming no games conflict with IU games (always the first love), I’ll be the newest fervent Bulldog supporter.

Sounds like there is some substance to this story. I’ll stay tuned and post any updates when I hear them. The thought of Coach Knight back on the sidelines is definitely excited for this Hoosier.

Chip Off the Old Block: Pat Knight Gets Ejected, Goes Crazy, Chases After Refs, Should Be Suspended

Well, they say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. If that is true, then Bob Knight must be pretty damn flattered tonight after the actions of his son Pat.

For those of you who have not seen the highlights, Pat Knight went pretty much nucking futs earlier tonight during Texas Tech’s 82-69 loss to Nebraska. He picked up two technical fouls arguing a horrible foul call against one of his players, and also stormed the court to give the referees a pretty serious verbal assault.

The loss dropped Texas Tech to 11-10, and will likely cost Pat Knight a few dollars and possibly a game or two. It does, however, give him something to talk about the dinner table with his dad when the conversation turns to hunting…referees.

Just watch the video:

It certainly looked like the Texas Tech player got hosed on the call. Here was Pat Knight’s reaction after the game, according to the ESPN.com recap:

“My job is to protect my players,” he said. “If you all didn’t see what happened, then that’s your fault. Just see what happened. My job is to protect my players and you can only sit there and take so much. And so I got to protect my boys. That’s my job.”

….

“I’m not going to get into the officiating,” he said. “It’s pretty obvious what I did and what my feelings are. I left them out there on the court, so it’s pretty obvious.”

He certainly did make his feelings obvious. And as a sycophantic supporter of Bob Knight (and, by extension, Pat Knight) I have to say that I applaud him. And for the record, you’ll have to forgive me, as I grew up in Bloomington sitting seven rows behind the IU bench for most of my childhood. As anyone living in Bloomington and going to IU games between the years of 1986 and 1994 knows, there was Bob Knight and God…in that order. Pathetic? Perhaps. True? Sadly, probably.

The truth of the matter, if I were a betting man (which I am not), is that I bet Texas Tech losing 5 out of 6 games coming into this one, and being down 56-44 at the time of the outburst, has as much or more to do with Pat Knight going crazy than the officiating. Bob Knight may have been crazy back in the day, but he was also often very calculating (sometimes). He would blow up for one of four reasons: 1) because the officiating really was bad and he wanted to make a point; 2) because he wanted to provide a spark for his team; 3) to take the pressure of his team by making the story all about him; or 4) because he really is just crazy and can’t control himself.

Okay, so maybe 90% of his blow-ups were because of reason #4, but what do you want from me? I’m a Hoosier. (And if you can’t already tell from this rambling and fence-jumping post, my feelings about Bob Knight are somewhat conflicting. Welcome to Hoosier Nation.)

Anyway, while I’m sure Pat was having something of an out-of-body experience in which his anger, frustration, and rage completely took over (chip off the old block), I would venture to guess that at least a small part of his blow-up was to light a fire under his team. Send a “hey, look how much I care damnit, you better play hard and card too” kind of message. If so, it kind of worked, as Texas Tech pulled within 5 with 3:16 to go. Never mind the fact that Nebraska still won by 13 anyway.

He’s Pat Knight, and we all know who his dad is and what he’s done. Honestly, it was probably only a matter of time before he went nuts on an official. And, like good little Hoosiers, the Red Raider faithful was behind Pat Knight — cheering him loudly as he provided the “do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do” example for his players that his father was famous for doing.

Look, I wrote a 30 page paper in high school listing off all Bob Knight’s transgressions and giving the Bloomington “company line” defending him. Only once I got to college and lived through his firing and the aftermath did I start to emerge from my protective early-90s Hoosier bubble and appreciate the nuances, many good and many bad, of the great Bob Knight. (Of course, I didn’t really acknowledge the bad ones until after that speech I gave, the day after Myles Brand fired him, on the steps of Assembly Hall in front of 5,000 screaming Knight supporters.)

Most IU fans I know still love Bob Knight, for obvious reasons. And for obvious reasons they follow Texas Tech and support Pat Knight. And I would imagine that most IU fans, like me, were not surprised by what they saw tonight. My advice to Texas Tech — and what is in the best long-term interests of Pat — is to take swift disciplinary action and nip this one in the bud.

Bob Knight seemed to be empowered a little more each time he acted like an asshole and got away with it. Sure, his ridiculous winning percentage helped, but IU’s kowtowing to him eventually created the massive I-can-do-wrong-and-will-face-no-consequence attitude that got him fired. If Texas Tech shows Pat Knight that there is someone at the school bigger and more important than him early in his career, maybe it will help to curb the development of some of his father’s more extreme, and detrimental, traits.

Luckily for Texas Tech, and for Pat, he hasn’t won enough yet to be immune from or above rebuke.

I think Pat Knight will be a great coach; not as good as his dad, but very good in his own right. He is certainly under enormous pressure living in his dad’s shadow, and his is struggling right now with a mediocre team. Blowing up like he did tonight is understandable (if you grew up watching and rooting for his dad anyway), but certainly not acceptable. I actually hope to see him get suspended, but only if it helps him to realize that while he would obviously do well to emulate his father as a coach, there are certain lessons in the Bob Knight Coaching Handbook that are counter-productive to follow.

Like the one Pat followed tonight.

Legendary Basketball Coach Pete Newell Passes Away – Bob Knight Pays Tribute

Sadly, one of the greatest teaching legends in the history of basketball recently passed away.

Pete Newell, who conducted the annual “Big Man Camp” that was annually attended by a multitude of accomplished professional basketball players, died this week at the age of 93.

In addition to his world famous instructional camp for big men, Pete Newell spent time as the General Manager for the Los Angeles Lakers and was a successful coach at the level for the San Francisco Dons, the Michigan State Spartans, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Growing up as an Indiana fan, I was introduced to the legend of Pete Newell early and often because he was one of idols and mentors of former Indiana coach Bob Knight. Coach Knight has become famous for some of his more notorious displays of disrespect, but Pete Newell was one of the few people in basketball that Knight held up on a pedestal and truly respected.

Recently, on ESPN, Coach Knight paid tribute to Pete Newell. His concluding statement: “Nobody contributed more to this game and its history than Pete Newell did.” You can view the entire tribute here. I don’t think I have ever seen Coach Knight with such a solemn disposition.

Visit the wikipedia page for Pete Newell to learn more about the legendary coach. The Los Angeles Lakers website also has a tribute to Newell.

Rest in peace Coach Newell. The world of basketball lost one of its most influential teachers, but there is no question that the teachings and philosophies of Pete Newell will live on and have great influence in the world of basketball as long as the game is played.

[tags]pete newell, bob knight, basketball[/tags]

Bob Knight Signs Contract With ESPN to be Studio and Game Analyst

In a sports story that is simply delicious with irony, Bob Knight is now an official member of the media. Details were released today of Knight’s contract with ESPN that will make him a regular contributor to college basketball studio shows, as well as a color announcer for select games.

Bob Knight stepped into the media ring last year after retiring from Texas Tech as the all-time winningest coach in the history of mens college basketball. For Knight, it meant joining forces with the very same group of people with whom he had such an antagonistic relationship with during his coaching career.

By most accounts, Bob Knight was outstanding during his short stint as a studio analyst during last year’s NCAA tournament. He is obviously extremely informed and knowledgeable, but also very insightful and concise in his analysis and explanation — not always an easy thing for a former coach to do. Plus, there is always the added excitement of Knight being capable of saying anything at any time. Surely ESPN has to be at least slightly worried that Knight could explode on-air at some point — or perhaps that is precisely part of the attraction.

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Either way, as anyone who has read my posts about IU basketball knows, I firmly believe that college basketball is a much better and more entertaining place when Bob Knight is prominently involved. Now he will be on a regular basis. Here are a few of the details of his new engagement with ESPN:

• Bob Knight will be the color announcer for weekly Thursday night games on ESPN. He’ll be with Dan Shulman until Brent Musberger finishes up his football duties on January 15th, at which time Knight will be looking live at college basketball games with Musberger beside him doing play-by-play.
• Bob Knight will appear weekly on SportsCenter in January and February, as well as be a special guest on Mike and Mike in the Morning and the Tirico & Ven Pelt shows beginning in December.
• He will also make appearances for the 8 College GameDay shows scheduled for the upcoming basketball season. These should be the most entertaining moments of the season involving Knight, as he will be able to banter back and forth with old friends Dick Vitale and Digger Phelps and eat Rece Davis for lunch if Davis ever tries to reign him in.

For fans of Bob Knight, and even for haters, today’s report is exciting. Love him or hate him, Bob Knight knows more about basketball than 99.99% of people who have ever lived and he is good at talking about it. Plus, there’s nothing like watching a TV show when no level of conduct or speech — good or bad — is outside the realm of possibility.

[tags]espn, bob knight, college basketball[/tags]

Bob Knight May Coach Again | All-Time Winningest NCAA Mens Basketball Coach

This will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me, but you can officially count me among the legion of Indiana University die-hards who would love to see Bob Knight get back into coaching. And according to a recent interview given by Bob Knight, the possibility is certainly there.

Speaking to Mickey Maurer on the Indianapolis TV show “Mickey’s Corner”, the all-time winningest coach in history of NCAA Division I Men’s College Basketball said the following, according to ESPN.com:

“I got nothing else to do. It would just depend on the circumstances.”

Admittedly, this is not much to go on and perhaps this post is filled more with wishful thinking than plausible conjecture. All I know is that, for me anyway, college basketball is more entertaining, interesting, and ethical universe when Bob Knight is actively involved. Actually, another quote of Knight’s from the interview is even more interesting:

“In college basketball, if you get caught cheating, they should shoot you because you’re too dumb to be alive.”

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