Bob Knight Calls Out Calipari

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josh087, you mention only one NBA All Star, which I'm certain you're correct about, but that's not to imply he didn't have talent there. I guess this was always my pet peeve about him. Some people acted as if he won those titles with so-so players. If a person could check back I would guess he had great recruiting classes. I too think he was an excellent coach, but I also think he had great talent on his teams.
 

Sure - it's not like I was suiting up and playing for him or anything - Guys like Alan Henderson, Scott May, Calbert Cheaney, Steve Alford were all very talented obviously. And Knight was smart enough to know he needed talent to go along with his system.

But most dominent teams are led by great NBA players, especially during the era of the 70s, 80s and 90s where most NBA guys were 3 & 4 year college players.

Look at all of the great UNC, Duke, Georgetown, etc teams. When they won titles it was with premier NBA players. Worthy, Jordan, Ewing, Laettner, Hill, etc. Sure, every once in a while a Villanova or NC State team would come along and get hot in the tournament, but these were average teams during the course of the year.

The fact that Knight won as much as he did, as consistently as he did year after year without top NBA players is a true testiment.
 

Chem,

I kind of like BK! He just doesn't belong around students with his unpredictable behavior. Let him coach pro ball. Let's see how far he would get with his intimidation tactics.
 

Gopher4Life said:
Good in-game coach, interesting book, university benefactor, but behavior of a 6-year old.
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Bingo! I've always marveled at the guys who preach and rail about "discipline" but personally they have no self-discipline. Bob, much like his buddy Parcels and Holtz, are also solid examples of "when the going gets tough, they quit". Couldn't win at Texas Tech? Leave in mid-season. Miami or Dallas jobs rough sledding? Quit. Can't make it with the New York Jets or Gophers? Take off!

Can't take Brewster or Mason's attitude with fellow employees? Knight made them look like choirboys!

Add all the great things he's done, the ton of Mc Donald's All Americans he coached then subtract throwing a plant at the Secretary of your Boss, telling the Boss to "get the F out of my locker room" and then break a commitment : it means your gone.

Oh, he's still right about Calipari!:drink:
 

I eagerly await Bob Knight's views on his close friends Jerry Tarkanian and Norm Ellenberger. He didn't have a problem hiring Norm to be his assistant after he was charged with 52 counts of wire fraud in federal court.

It seems that Knight's "ethics" only extend so far. I don't need lectures from a man who was fired from Indiana for gross misconduct, physically abused players and staff and should have been suspended from the NCAA tournament for his actions on more than one occasion. If Lynn Nance hadn't been restrained in 75 from kicking Knight's ass maybe the bully would have learned some humility.
 


Tarkanian

My favorite Tark story comes from 1979. UNLV was recruiting Sam Bowie of Lebanon PA but so was Kentucky and Marquette.

Tark flew East to talk to Bowie's HS coach, who said (words to the effect) Sam's Driving A Cadillac Now. And If He's Driving A Cadillac, He's Going To Kentucky.

Bowie attended UK.
 

Bob Knight might be the best college coach of all time. He won games, graduated players, and did it without cheating. Those facts are undisputable. Now say what you will about the rest of the things he did. He shouldn't have done them and in the end it cost him his job rightly or wrongly.

He made is players do things the right way and made really care for them. One time he found out one of his players at IU(forget the name) has on crack. I don't think that player left Assembly Hall until the next morning he was running so much. Needless to say he was clean after that.

Another time he had a player quit after his first year(again forget the name) but the player put himself for school at IU and got is degree. When RMK found this out he worte the kid check for his cost of attendence. The guy cares about is players.

I think Gene Keady was cut from the same cloth as Knight(not nearly the basketball mind but not the baggage either) you could toss Heathcote in that group as well. I think there are still quite a few B10 coaches in that same mold. With Tubby and Painter at the top of the list you can also include Izzo and Weber to start out with.

But my all time favorite Bob Knight story is the chair tossing game. That game was against who else but Purdue the arch rival. It might have been Keady's first trip to Ass Hall. But anyway Bobby already had a T so the Purdue player(forgot the name sorry) was getting ready to shot the freethrows when Knight tossed the chair. Needless to say he was T'ed up again so Purdue has 4 freethrows. The Purdue guy only made two so when he walked back to the huddle Keady said to him(as you can only think of his look and what he said that was omitted) "if we lose this game you are walking home" Purdue ended winning the game.

As for the Calipari comments he is right on. The NCAA is all about the money. Someone hit the nail on the head about ESPN and the SEC. They paid a *#^@ ton of money to get SEC football and now is stuck with a sub-par basketball product. ESPN almost had to do it because if the SEC would have formed there own network(ala BTN) they would have be sunk when it comes to college football. So right now it is in there best interest to promote the SEC and bash the B10.
 

mnboiler said:
Bob Knight might be the best college coach of all time. He won games, graduated players, and did it without cheating. Those facts are undisputable. Now say what you will about the rest of the things he did. He shouldn't have done them and in the end it cost him his job rightly or wrongly.

He made is players do things the right way and made really care for them. One time he found out one of his players at IU(forget the name) has on crack. I don't think that player left Assembly Hall until the next morning he was running so much. Needless to say he was clean after that.

Another time he had a player quit after his first year(again forget the name) but the player put himself for school at IU and got is degree. When RMK found this out he worte the kid check for his cost of attendence. The guy cares about is players.

I think Gene Keady was cut from the same cloth as Knight(not nearly the basketball mind but not the baggage either) you could toss Heathcote in that group as well. I think there are still quite a few B10 coaches in that same mold. With Tubby and Painter at the top of the list you can also include Izzo and Weber to start out with.

But my all time favorite Bob Knight story is the chair tossing game. That game was against who else but Purdue the arch rival. It might have been Keady's first trip to Ass Hall. But anyway Bobby already had a T so the Purdue player(forgot the name sorry) was getting ready to shot the freethrows when Knight tossed the chair. Needless to say he was T'ed up again so Purdue has 4 freethrows. The Purdue guy only made two so when he walked back to the huddle Keady said to him(as you can only think of his look and what he said that was omitted) "if we lose this game you are walking home" Purdue ended winning the game.

As for the Calipari comments he is right on. The NCAA is all about the money. Someone hit the nail on the head about ESPN and the SEC. They paid a *#^@ ton of money to get SEC football and now is stuck with a sub-par basketball product. ESPN almost had to do it because if the SEC would have formed there own network(ala BTN) they would have be sunk when it comes to college football. So right now it is in there best interest to promote the SEC and bash the B10.
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Believe the FT shooter was Steve Reid, not sure.
 

Jike Spingleton said:
Warning: name dropping ahead.

The two innings I spent chatting with Bob Knight (along with Bill Parcells and Ron Wolf) during a St. Louis Cardinals game a couple years ago remains one of the highlights of my career. Parcells put me up to saying "it is an honor to meet the greatest proponent of the zone defense" when he introdiced me to Knight, and that prompted Knight to go on, literally, a five-minute pseudo tirade about Parcells using the prevent defense. I recall looking over at Parcells in the middle of it and he just shrugged and grinned. One of the most surreal and hilarious things I've ever witnessed.

I will watch any game where Knight is the analyst, he's by far the best, IMO. Almost balances out Brent Musberger....
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Look at you...talking about your close, personal friends, Sid ;)

Just kidding, thanks for sharing. I remember seeing that photo with them on your Facebook (or was it so long ago it was Myspace), and literally drooling with envy!
 



Those who never were around when Bob Knight was building men, you could not have handled it. Period.
 






Knight's supposed to care about his players, but Neil Reed, Ricky Calloway, Lawrence Funderburke. Luke Recker and many others who transferred out of Indiana University might not be so impressed with his care. He preaches discipline, but the chair throwing, kicking his own kid, vase smashing, assaulting an assistant, and an A.D. (I think) shows that's just for others. He's what college coaching is all about but there is the Kotex in Alan Henderson's locker, the toilet paper example to his players, and the quote about enjoying rape. One of his Big Ten colleagues called him, "the classic bully." Winning basketball games and graduating most of his players if they stuck around doesn't make up for that.
 

Play for Bobby = you graduate.

What was his graduation percentage? It was through the roof, if memory serves.

More please.
 

Dr.Don said:
Those who never were around when Bob Knight was building men, you could not have handled it. Period.
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I don't know how anyone can support the kind of person he is. There is no nobility or honor about his methods or actions. The ends don't justify the means. He's a small, bitter and petty bully (while an outstanding basketball mind) who had no problem stressing discipline to everybody but himself.
 

I'll have to admit that I've always found Knight a study in contradictions. I think the guy is brilliant in terms of intellect and can be a superb teacher. OTOH, he has displayed a mind-boggling lack of maturity and the false machismo of a true bully.

And I'm afraid we'll need to agree to disagree, Dr Don. I'm just as glad that the days of Knight's style of in-your-face coaching are done. I much prefer Tubby's style and it's a sharp contrast to Knight's inability either to control himself or to treat his players with respect.
 

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