Day 8

Winnipeg, Manitoba - It's Wednesday of our second week of shooting. As I mentioned in my diary entry yesterday, we continued with our work inside Assembly Hall, recreating scrimmages and practices from the 1985-86 Indiana University basketball season. Yesterday was more of the same.

Part of what I find so fascinating about playing this character is the complexity of his emotions. Bobby Knight uses anger as both a motivational tool and a means of dealing with his enormous frustration at not having control. While his actions are not always commendable, they do seem to frequently be effective. During this "season on the brink" in 1985-86, he had three players who were often the focus of his ire: Daryl Thomas, Steve Alford and Delray Brooks.

As portrayed in the film (and the book), his attempts to get Brooks to play the game the Knight way were unsuccessful. Eventually, Delray quit the team and transferred to Providence to play for Rick Pitino. But with Daryl Thomas and Steve Alford, it was a different story. With Daryl Thomas, Knight yelled, embarrassed, scolded, mentored and abused him about thinking on the court, remembering position, where to shoot and where to be to rebound. It worked. Daryl slowly became a better player and a smarter player. He withstood the onslaught of Knight invectives and matured as a basketball player. Thomas was part of the NCAA championship team in 1986-87.

With Steve Alford, Knight rode him quite a bit about his defensive skills. There was little to challenge about his offensive skills. Alford was a natural born shooter and led the team in scoring. He worked well off screens and played within the Knight system. What Knight wanted from Alford, and where he was pushing him, was to become the leader of the team. He was frustrated that Alford didn't take command of the team on the floor or get on them when they weren't working hard enough in practice.

Again, the Knight tormenting seemed to have an impact. Alford eventually did become the leader of the team and even stood up to The General himself. In a critical scene we shot today, Alford glares back at Coach Knight after being constantly ridiculed for his defensive positioning. John Feinstein, the author of the book the movie is based on, took particular notice of this instance in the book when he refers to the moment when "the simmering antagonism between Knight and Alford, that feeling of rivalry that seems to exist just below the surface, exploded in everyone's face." It starts when Alford, running back on defense, accidentally bumps Thomas. Knight bellows at Alford and then, as it says in the script, "throws his most withering glare at Alford. Alford - to everyone's astonishment, including most likely his own, glares back."

It's a subtle moment, but a big one in the maturation of a player becoming a leader.

More tomorrow.

Past Diaries

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