Summer 2000: v7n123: Knight-mare continues at Indiana University

Do you see him as the head coach of 11 Big Ten Championship, three NCAA Championships, 763 wins and the 1984 United States Olympic team; or do you see the man that has thrown chairs, broken phones and allegedly choked former player Neil Reed.

The later is how most people see Knight and forget that he is only 117 wins away from passing Dean Smith to have the most coaching victories in the NCAA divisions I.

When current New Mexico State Head Coach Lou Hensen was coaching at Illinois he called Knight "a classic bully." For most of the public that has seen Knight pushing away an assistant coach to yell at his player, Hensen may not have been wrong.

Knight spoke out for the first time since IU handed down zero-tolerance guidelines for an hour on ESPN on Tuesday. Most of that time Knight appeared to be attempting to cushion tough questions by either deflecting the question to the interviewer or trying apply the question outside of the realm of college basketball.

The zero tolerance guidelines state that Knight cannot grab a player in anger or act in any way that may be deemed embarrassing to IU or be fired. Knight would also have to pay a $30,000 fine and apologize to those that have been offended.

During the interview, Knight stated that what he has done in his coaching career, for his players and for the sport of college basketball should be looked at above all instead of his tirades. Knight said, "If you took the percentage of time that I have really gone over board … that’s a pretty small percentage of all the circumstances I have been in."

Basically I am only crazy for a little bit of the time, the rest of the time I am a normal person.

For Knight to say that he should be remembered for what he has done instead of the time that he pulled off his team from an exhibition game against the Soviet Union due to what he perceived as bad calling is hard. People will forget that his program has one of the highest graduation rates for college basketball and instead remember the time he was at practice and seemingly stopped Reed by the throat.
Knight has the support of former and current players and the IU president Myles Brand. In fact it may have been Brand that saved the coaching career.

The one good comment that Knight did make was when asked that if he had made several Final Four appearances in the past several years that IU would not have investigated. Knight said he would have hoped IU would have put winning aside and looked into the program if people felt that there were problems with the way he coached his team.

Actually this investigation should had taken place years before. By now Knight should had been fired and unfortunately the IU let Knight boil over so many times. In fact, in the interview Knight said the IU had not given him any guidelines to follow until now. IU should have been on Knight at the start as opposed to now.

Recently at Long Beach State, former UCLA men’s basketball Head Coach
John Wooden came to campus to speak about sportsmanship in sports. During the conference, Wooden said, "I would not let Knight coach anybody I loved."

In an interview Knight replied to that comment by saying that to his knowledge Wooden has not been to a Knight practice and doubts if Wooden has spoken to any IU players.

If Knight can right this ship, it may be the greatest come back in sports history. If not, he may go down as the Woody Hayes of basketball.