Day 10

Winnipeg, Manitoba - We have completed filming the numerous practices and scrimmages and have even gotten in a few games. On Monday, Bobby Knight's Indiana University Hoosiers will be taking on Digger Phelps' Notre Dame Fighting Irish. It's one of three really big games in the movie (and the Hoosiers' season). The other two games are both against the University of Michigan (home and away). Today, we shot Indiana versus Michigan, when Indiana was at home. This was the first of the two meetings that season of these two perennial Big Ten powerhouses.

As I watched these skilled basketball players and our actor/players, I began to wonder about Knight and his incredible success as a coach. How did he take these non-superstar players and turn them into winners? How does he do that season after season? While Alford, Thomas, Calloway and Morgan were all good college players, they were not outstanding. Only Alford stood out on a national level.

In all the years Knight coached at Indiana, he only had two players that I can think of that ended up being exemplary NBA players - Isaiah Thomas and Quinn Buckner. None of the players on this team or the NCAA Champion team of the following year (which was made up of a number of these players) had memorable NBA careers.

Compare that to the student athletes that played for other coaches that have enjoyed Knight's level of success. John Wooden had one NBA all-star after another, from Lew Alcindor to Bill Walton. From Sidney Wickes & Curtis Rowe to Keith Wilkes. How about Dean Smith? He had that guy named Jordan and James Worthy. He also had a pretty good player named Vince Carter. Even Coach K has had a bevy of talent. Elton Brand is leading the Clippers in scoring and Shane Battier is already an impact player.

Why didn't these basketball stars go to Indiana? Was it because of Knight's notorious temper or because his program was so demanding of the players and didn't allow for any improvising or "street ball" technique?

There is a wonderful passage in Mitch Albom's book FAB FIVE (about the five highly touted freshman who were all recruited to play for the University of Michigan). Jalen Rose and Chris Webber, who were both from Detroit, had decided that they were going to attend the same college together. They were the two most sought after high school players in the country and they were best friends. One day they decide to drive down from Ann Arbor to Bloomington to watch a Bobby Knight practice. They sneak into Assembly Hall (which, in itself, is hard to believe) and watch Knight verbally punish his players. They didn't stay long. They knew that Bobby Knight would never let them play the kind of basketball they had come to love. He would never let them run the court like they did in their gym in Detroit.

So how do you explain Knight's level of success without these marqueé athletes? Are his achievements that much more remarkable because of the caliber of his players? Or, to the contrary, did the most gifted athletes stay away from Indiana because he stifles creativity and is too demanding? It's one of those conundrums about Knight that makes him so fascinating and makes playing him so interesting. I'm not sure which side I come down on.

You'll have to decide on your own when you see A SEASON ON THE BRINK on March 10th.

Past Diaries

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9