RIP Bobby Knight

Knight lost Glenn Robinson and Eric Montross in recruiting by being a boor. Either would've put those 92 and 93 teams on to another level. Both and you might have a second undefeated season.

 

That was a feature, not a bug.

 

Calipari is on your list of all time coaches, and Wooden isn't. Shit, Bob Higgins is on your list!!!

 

Feinstein’s column has a story about Knight recruiting Calbert Cheaney after he had already committed to Evansville and Jim Crews calling him out on it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/11/02/bob-knight-john-feinstein/

 

You can see the Neil Reed choke, for a second, on the grainy footage.

The headbutt to the player, in-game, as the player sat down on the bench (forgive me, I don't recall the name of the player) was much more egregious.

 

Reusse had some good stuff on one of Knight's top media friends, Sid Hartman. And this story from former Gophers coach Jim Dutcher.

Legendary Indiana coach Bobby Knight and his temper loom large in Minnesota memories

 

Granted. But anyone who saw him throw the chair in what, 1985, saw an asshole who went too far.

 

Sure, but Knight was a jackass in real time, and we all knew it.

I agree that an earlier generation of parents - 1965, say, especially in Indiana - might have desired a real firebreathing disciplinarian.

But by 1985 throwing that chair looked unhinged.

 

I think we’re retrofitting our modern sensibilities onto how he was viewed 30 years ago.

Knight’s antics were considered funny even in the mid-1990s. Sportscenter played the chair throw and his funny faces and abuse of reporters in press conferences for laughs alongside Lou Pinella stealing a base and kicking dirt on an umpire. Dan and Keith presented him as a funny person. He was considered a character. He was a blooper reel.

It wasn’t until Neil Reid that proper scrutiny came down on him completely.