Bobby Knight's at it again

[tar heel]

I can't believe this guy soon is going to have more wins than Dean Smith or Adolph Rupp.

 

[4cruisin]

I don't get why any institution would want him associated with them....winning record or not. The guy is a creep.

 

[Deb in IA]

I don't get why any institution would want him associated with them

Because he wins.

 

[cardaway]

Most people in the business don't have a problem with this latest incident. If it had been a different coach it wouldn't have even made the news.

 

[Sir Real]

He also has a great graduation rate among his players.

 

[salmoneous]

I dislike Bobby Knight as much as anybody. But the player himself, his Mom, every other player I've heard interviewed, every other coach, etc. have all said this is no big deal.

So why should we care?

 

[Bob Slydell]

Most people in the business don't have a problem with this latest incident. If it had been a different coach it wouldn't have even made the news.

I'm certainly no Bobby Knight fan, but this incident goes completely unnoticed if it's not Bobby Knight.

Nobody said you had to have class and tact to be a winning coach.

 

[tar heel]

I care b/c it sounded like more of the same, and he'll probably pass Dean Smith before January 1. I'll freely admit that I hate like heck that Knight is going to have the record.

Smith's graduation rate, btw, was almost 100%. A lot took more than four years, but so do students not playing basketball.

You guys are right that it wouldn't have been noticed if it wasn't Knight, but it WAS Knight.

 

[Geoff_M]

If this had taken place with any other coach in the NCAA, no one would have said a single thing about it. The press relishes in magnifying any thing that Knight does... Anything. End of subject.

I'm an Indiana grad who admires Knight's accomplishments and only wish that he would be wearing a Cream-n-Crimson sweater when he breaks Smith's record.

 

[SoonerGirl]

I dislike Bobby Knight as much as anybody. But the player himself, his Mom, every other player I've heard interviewed, every other coach, etc. have all said this is no big deal.

So why should we care?

I agree. I don't like him one bit, but when I read about this latest incident my thought was, so what? Of course, I didn't see it on video so I don't know with how much force he lifted the players chin, but I just can't imagine that it was nearly that big of deal. He hasn't done anything really outragous in awhile, I think the media is hungry to pounce on anything.

 

[Bob Slydell]

I care b/c it sounded like more of the same, and he'll probably pass Dean Smith before January 1. I'll freely admit that I hate like heck that Knight is going to have the record.

Smith's graduation rate, btw, was almost 100%. A lot took more than four years, but so do students not playing basketball.

Having his record eclipsed by Knight isn't going to diminish what Dean Smith (or Adolph Rupp, for that matter) meant to the sport of college basketball.

 

[Galahad]

So a player wasn't looking at him - he pushes the player's chin up so he looks at him -and it's a "incident"?

I'm an Indiana grad who admires Knight's accomplishments and only wish that he would be wearing an Cream and Crimson sweater when he brakes Smith's record.

 

[SoonerGirl]

Having his record eclipsed by Knight isn't going to diminish what Dean Smith (or Adolph Rupp, for that matter) meant to the sport of college basketball.

So true, Bob Knight's reputation will follow him reguardless of what the record books say, people will remember how Dean Smith was good for college basketball, and Bob Knight was not.

 

[Deb in IA]

If this had taken place with any other coach in the NCAA, no one would have send a single thing about it. The press relishes in magnifying any thing that Knight does... Anything. End of subject.

Absolutely. That's why he despises the press so much (and frankly, I don't blame him).

Look, anyone who doesn't know that Bob Knight has a bad temper must have been living in a cave for the last 30 years. EVERYONE, from the players, to the refs, to the school officials know this -- and knew it when they hired him. And yet, the players still WILLINGLY play for him. Why? Maybe because he's successful? Maybe because he has high expectations of them? Maybe because he's a good coach?

 

[cardaway]

Looks like more like people are upset about the record than anything else. Get used to it. Coaches are being hired younger and younger, and they play more games per season. Even Knights record will not last.

 

[disneydude91]

If it was any other coach that did what Knight did last nightwe wouldn't even be talking about it.

 

[Deb in IA]

I can't believe this guy soon is going to have more wins than Dean Smith or Adolph Rupp.

In addition, Adolph Rupp wasn't a stellar personality either. He was widely thought to be if not a racist, then certainly a racial segregationist. Remember that Disney movie, "Glory Road"?

And from Wikipedia:

Rupp is widely regarded as a racial segregationist, or at the very least unwilling to recruit black players. However, this reputation is not clearly supported by all available evidence, and the subject remains controversial to this day.

Most of Rupp's coaching career was in the era of institutionalized segregation in the American South. Rupp was among the first coaches in the two major southern conferences, the SEC and ACC, to recruit African-American players. Other colleges in other parts of the country had been using black players before the 1960s (e.g., Oscar Robertson at the University of Cincinnati, Wilt Chamberlain at the University of Kansas and Bill Russell at the University of San Francisco); however, other southern schools not only did not have black players, but would refuse to play against schools that had a single black player on the roster. Rupp scheduled games against integrated teams since the 1950s, and he tried to recruit African-American players (one of whom was Wes Unseld, who instead would play at the University of Louisville) as early as 1964. Rupp twice, before the infamous 1966 tournament, formally petitioned the SEC to allow black players to play in the conference. Both times, UK cast the only votes in favor of integration.[1]

The Final Four in 1966 also included another all-white team, Duke University. The loss of the all-white Wildcats team in the 1966 NCAA finals to Texas Western College (now the University of Texas at El Paso) under Don Haskins, who started five black players, was long after the fact held out as a sign of change in the game.

Sports Illustrated writer Frank Deford, who was in the Wildcats locker room during half-time of the championship game against Texas Western, reported that Rupp called the Texas Western team "coons".

 

[tar heel]

I know the stories about Rupp -- I was just trying to be nice to the UK fans.

Smith, on the other hand, was in the forefront of integrating Chapel Hill. He and his minister, Bob Seymour, took a black person to lunch at an all-white lunch counter. He also recruited black players pretty much from the day he took over as head coach.

I'm a diehard Tar Heel, and I also just like Dean Smith. Bob's right, of course, not having the record won't take away from his accomplishments. I just wish he had a lock on the record like Richard Petty does with NASCAR. The difference, of course, is that there are now MORE college basketball games (and thus victory opportunities) than in Smith's early days, exactly the opposite of what's happened in NASCAR.