| | He has divided a community, defied the authorities, inspired
protest rallies and forced high-ranking officials to do backflips
over whether he should be allowed to stay.
No, this is not a story about Elian Gonzalez.
This one's about Bob Knight.
A video out this week on CNN/SI proves one more time that Knight
wasn't exaggerating when he claimed to be in the business of
molding young men. So it shouldn't come as a surprise to see him
"molding" the windpipe of one of his players, believed to be
former Indiana guard Neil Reed, during practice a few years ago.
Knight, after all, has done worse in the middle of games. He
once kicked his own kid, Pat, whose only crime was taking up
valuable space on the Hoosier bench.
There are times when defending Knight requires a shower
afterward, and this is one of them. What he did to Reed was
inexcusable; everything Knight said it would be, and more. When
first asked about it, on the eve of the NCAA tournament, Knight
answered, "Maybe I grabbed Neil Reed by the shoulder, maybe I took
him by the back of the neck, I don't know. I don't remember
everything I've done in practice."
Turns out Knight is not the only one with a bad memory. The
assistants who talked about their coach "guiding" players to
spots on the court by grabbing a shoulder or a waist need a
refresher course in anatomy. But Reed's version, too, missed the
mark, especially the part about other coaches having to separate
Knight from him.
The bottom line?
There is nothing new here for the committee deciding Knight's
future. He has been bullying everyone around him -- his own kid,
kids who play for him, referees, opposing coaches, university
administrators -- for years. The only thing that's changed is that
now, clips of him raging out of control can be downloaded from the
Internet.
Besides, nobody ever changes sides in this debate. Stories about
Knight pile up in the newspapers and 500 people show up on the
steps of Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind., to protest. Their
gripe was not so much with what was in the stories, but what was
left out.
Yet Knight's good deeds are almost as well-known as the
misadventures. He doesn't cut corners recruiting kids and they
graduate. Few make the NBA anymore, but none turn up on police
blotters, either. If the point is to weed out coaches ruining
college basketball, there are dozens of coaches in line ahead of
Knight.
But there's something that should give his defenders pause, too.
Indiana's program, once among the best, is running in place. It's
no longer just a changing world passing Knight by; there is
mounting evidence the game is, too.
He still wins -- 20 games a year, on average -- but the big ones
more and more elude his grasp. The Hoosiers haven't advanced past
the second round of the NCAA Tournament the last half-dozen years.
Over that stretch, their losing margin has averaged 15.2 points a
game. But it's not just distractions like the Reed flare-up that
are to blame.
Indiana hasn't won a Big Ten title since 1993, and it's no
longer heresy to argue Knight has slipped to fourth- or fifth-best
coach in his own league. Besides Tom Izzo, who took Michigan State
to the national title, most people building a team from scratch
would take Illinois' Lon Kruger and Ohio State's Jim O'Brien ahead
of him.
Since February, 1993, Indiana is 1-27 away from Assembly Hall
against league teams with winning records. The motion principles
that Knight used to revolutionize the game and win three national
titles -- the last in 1987 -- need revising in the context of the
3-point shot and 35-second clock.
Gene Keady, who coaches nearby at Purdue, now routinely beats
out Knight for recruits in the heavily urban, northwest corner of
Indiana. Former Knight disciple and Hoosier hero Steve Alford, now
coaching at conference rival Iowa, figures to be a contender for
kids in the rest of the state. Increasingly, players who dreamed
about playing at Indiana -- Reed, Jason Collier, Luke Recker -- now
plot how to defect.
The publicity over this film clip probably means more parents
will bar the door when they hear Knight's footsteps on the porch.
But it won't get him fired. And it shouldn't.
Knight is making that case himself. The evidence in the film
clip is getting most of the attention. But it's something in black
and white, the columns marked wins and losses, that will cost him
his place sooner rather than later. | |
ALSO SEE
Tape shows Knight grabbing Reed by neck in Hoosiers practice
Knight's supporters gather for rally on Indiana campus
Report: IU releases details of Knight's contract
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