All Bob Knight offers this NCAA Tournament is a brilliant mind, a combustible temper and more personality -- by a mile -- than most of the other 64 coaches combined.
What's not to like?
You're going to mention he's got a fault or two, aren't you?
Glass houses, my friend, glass houses.
Tell me you've never tossed a potted plant, thrown a chair, kicked a kid or sprinkled conversations with an array of four-letter words. You say you haven't done that since junior high?
OK, you've got a point. Knight can be an obnoxious, overbearing, profane bully. His R-rated tantrum on ESPN in December should have gotten him at least a reprimand.
Texas Tech officials looked the other way that day, just as they did when he and the school's chancellor got into a dust-up at a salad bar a few weeks later. Indiana University officials did the same thing for most of his 29 seasons there.
Let's be glad they did.
Because Bob Knight is back in the NCAAs, we get to listen to something besides Roy Williams whining and Bob Huggins growling for at least a couple of days.
What's with Bob Huggins anyway?
Is he imitating a caveman, or trying to be funny?
He's scary.
This year, someone else can bring up the University of Cincinnati's graduation rate.
Here's hoping The General has another great run in him. Here's hoping we get the full Knight treatment the next couple of weeks, from lectures to eruptions to notebook-filling quotes to, most of all, basketball the way it was meant to be played.
Here's hoping the Red Raiders defeat ninth-seeded Charlotte on Thursday in Raleigh and get a shot a top-seeded Saint Joe's in the second round.
Knight has been a non-factor in the NCAAs in recent years and probably won't be around long this year with a roster about half as talented as his typical Indiana team.
Swingman Andre Emmett is a pure scorer, and guards Jarrius Jackson and Ronald Ross are more than serviceable. But the Red Raiders are small, probably too small to last long in the Tournament.
It would also be a mistake to underestimate Knight. Eight players are averaging at least 10 minutes a game, and with its ball movement and defensive pressure, Texas Tech will not be an easy mark.
But there will be no Final Four, either. Knight probably knows this. He has made Texas Tech competitive, but in a conference in which Texas and Kansas are always going to get better players, he may be close to the ceiling of what Tech can be in basketball.
(Industry gossip has him interested in the Ohio State job if Jim O'Brien leaves.)
I know, I know. On your list of sympathetic figures, Knight probably falls somewhere below Martha Stewart and Michael Eisner and a few others.
He has acted boorishly so often that his good deeds and his intellect may never be fully appreciated.
You've probably heard about the time he grabbed a student at Indiana. You've heard about the time he got in a spat in Puerto Rico, cursed a reporter and did a lot of other silly things.
You probably haven't heard about the time he sat down with Hall of Fame coach Pete Newell one summer and showed him some new plays he'd been tinkering with.
What Knight showed Newell that day was what came to be known as the motion offense, which only revolutionized the game and has been used over the years by virtually every coach at every level.
You probably haven't heard about his summer trips to see Henry Iba at Oklahoma State, Don Haskins at UTEP and Abe Lemons at Texas. In these settings, he was the brilliant, respectful pupil picking the brains of the best minds in his business.
Even after he won his first national title at Indiana, he made these trips. This was his way of telling those guys: "I learned from you. You still are the ones who matter."
In a business in which coaches typically see themselves as royalty -- and believe me, Knight is not perfect in this regard -- Knight always understood the importance of academics.
As a professor at IU told me a few years ago, "I can't imagine any coach ever understanding the role of sports at a big university better than coach Knight."
That's why he has raised money for libraries and other academic initiatives over the years. Teachers also know that Knight doesn't tolerate players cutting classes.
Inside the gym, no coach has ever been better at breaking down an opponent or preparing a team, at teaching fundamentals or at seeing the big picture.
So maybe Knight, who needs 49 more wins to pass Dean Smith for the top spot on the all-time list, will have some fun this month. Maybe it'll be fun for all of us. It would definitely be interesting.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2450860
What's not to like?
You're going to mention he's got a fault or two, aren't you?
Glass houses, my friend, glass houses.
Tell me you've never tossed a potted plant, thrown a chair, kicked a kid or sprinkled conversations with an array of four-letter words. You say you haven't done that since junior high?
OK, you've got a point. Knight can be an obnoxious, overbearing, profane bully. His R-rated tantrum on ESPN in December should have gotten him at least a reprimand.
Texas Tech officials looked the other way that day, just as they did when he and the school's chancellor got into a dust-up at a salad bar a few weeks later. Indiana University officials did the same thing for most of his 29 seasons there.
Let's be glad they did.
Because Bob Knight is back in the NCAAs, we get to listen to something besides Roy Williams whining and Bob Huggins growling for at least a couple of days.
What's with Bob Huggins anyway?
Is he imitating a caveman, or trying to be funny?
He's scary.
This year, someone else can bring up the University of Cincinnati's graduation rate.
Here's hoping The General has another great run in him. Here's hoping we get the full Knight treatment the next couple of weeks, from lectures to eruptions to notebook-filling quotes to, most of all, basketball the way it was meant to be played.
Here's hoping the Red Raiders defeat ninth-seeded Charlotte on Thursday in Raleigh and get a shot a top-seeded Saint Joe's in the second round.
Knight has been a non-factor in the NCAAs in recent years and probably won't be around long this year with a roster about half as talented as his typical Indiana team.
Swingman Andre Emmett is a pure scorer, and guards Jarrius Jackson and Ronald Ross are more than serviceable. But the Red Raiders are small, probably too small to last long in the Tournament.
It would also be a mistake to underestimate Knight. Eight players are averaging at least 10 minutes a game, and with its ball movement and defensive pressure, Texas Tech will not be an easy mark.
But there will be no Final Four, either. Knight probably knows this. He has made Texas Tech competitive, but in a conference in which Texas and Kansas are always going to get better players, he may be close to the ceiling of what Tech can be in basketball.
(Industry gossip has him interested in the Ohio State job if Jim O'Brien leaves.)
I know, I know. On your list of sympathetic figures, Knight probably falls somewhere below Martha Stewart and Michael Eisner and a few others.
He has acted boorishly so often that his good deeds and his intellect may never be fully appreciated.
You've probably heard about the time he grabbed a student at Indiana. You've heard about the time he got in a spat in Puerto Rico, cursed a reporter and did a lot of other silly things.
You probably haven't heard about the time he sat down with Hall of Fame coach Pete Newell one summer and showed him some new plays he'd been tinkering with.
What Knight showed Newell that day was what came to be known as the motion offense, which only revolutionized the game and has been used over the years by virtually every coach at every level.
You probably haven't heard about his summer trips to see Henry Iba at Oklahoma State, Don Haskins at UTEP and Abe Lemons at Texas. In these settings, he was the brilliant, respectful pupil picking the brains of the best minds in his business.
Even after he won his first national title at Indiana, he made these trips. This was his way of telling those guys: "I learned from you. You still are the ones who matter."
In a business in which coaches typically see themselves as royalty -- and believe me, Knight is not perfect in this regard -- Knight always understood the importance of academics.
As a professor at IU told me a few years ago, "I can't imagine any coach ever understanding the role of sports at a big university better than coach Knight."
That's why he has raised money for libraries and other academic initiatives over the years. Teachers also know that Knight doesn't tolerate players cutting classes.
Inside the gym, no coach has ever been better at breaking down an opponent or preparing a team, at teaching fundamentals or at seeing the big picture.
So maybe Knight, who needs 49 more wins to pass Dean Smith for the top spot on the all-time list, will have some fun this month. Maybe it'll be fun for all of us. It would definitely be interesting.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2450860
