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Stay Hard Bobby Knight

Surly Bevo

By Surly Bevo
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realgreggym

realgreggym 835

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In the early 70s, we were in the Far West Classic in Portland and Indiana was one of the other teams in the tournament. It was early in Coach Knight's career. We had the last game that evening and Indiana played in the first game against BYU. Our coaches let us go to that game and it was amazing. These names won't mean anything to you younger guys, but the Indiana guards were Bobby Wilkerson and Quinn Buckner. The BYU guards would cross the mis court line and those 2 guards would shut them down. It was scary. Anyway, during the game, there was a loose ball headed toward the Indiana bench.  Their freshman center was Kent Benson who was a highly recruited 6' 10 white kid. He goes diving for the ball and saves it but goes flying into the bench chair right next to Coach Knight. Coach gets up and starts yelling at the kid to get up and back onto the court. 

The poor kid is trying to get up but his leg is stuck in the chair. He falls back down on the court trying to get his leg out and Coach Knight is still screaming at him to go play defense. The kid finally gets up and goes running down the court. Everyone is laughing except for that kid.

Some of you can act like assholes but there was never a shortage of kids that wanted to play for him at Indiana. 

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UpperWestside

UpperWestside 6159

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On 11/2/2023 at 12:03 AM, TwiceHorn said:

Was he really a dick in his personal life?

Seemed more part of his coaching persona than anything else.  And arguably what made him great.

I think that he was just wired like this most of the time. Charles Pierce wrote an article on Defector detailing an interview he attempted to conduct with him years ago. It was strange to say the least how Knight treated him. 
 

I liked another coach who had quite a temper in John Chaney. The difference between them is Chaney pushed his players hard, but seemed to genuinely care for each of them. Knight is someone I never got that impression of. He was a massive bully and it carried over into how he acted away from the court.

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Underdog

Underdog 28544

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I always forget he became HC at the age of 24, I find that incredible.  Certainly on the Mt. Rushmore of CBB coaches. 
 

Saw a post yesterday on X that in the last 18 months, Hall @ UK, Crum @ UL and now Knight have passed, three big mainstays of my childhood. 

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Underdog

Underdog 28544

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15 hours ago, realgreggym said:

In the early 70s, we were in the Far West Classic in Portland and Indiana was one of the other teams in the tournament. It was early in Coach Knight's career. We had the last game that evening and Indiana played in the first game against BYU. Our coaches let us go to that game and it was amazing. These names won't mean anything to you younger guys, but the Indiana guards were Bobby Wilkerson and Quinn Buckner. The BYU guards would cross the mis court line and those 2 guards would shut them down. It was scary. Anyway, during the game, there was a loose ball headed toward the Indiana bench.  Their freshman center was Kent Benson who was a highly recruited 6' 10 white kid. He goes diving for the ball and saves it but goes flying into the bench chair right next to Coach Knight. Coach gets up and starts yelling at the kid to get up and back onto the court. 

The poor kid is trying to get up but his leg is stuck in the chair. He falls back down on the court trying to get his leg out and Coach Knight is still screaming at him to go play defense. The kid finally gets up and goes running down the court. Everyone is laughing except for that kid.

Some of you can act like assholes but there was never a shortage of kids that wanted to play for him at Indiana. 

Good stuff.  Makes me think back before ESPN days of schools holding their own Holiday Tournaments around Christmas break, UKIT, IU Classic, ECAC Holiday Tournament, even the Orange & Sugar Bowls had tournament. 

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Carl Spackler

Carl Spackler 3479

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15 hours ago, realgreggym said:

In the early 70s, we were in the Far West Classic in Portland and Indiana was one of the other teams in the tournament. It was early in Coach Knight's career. We had the last game that evening and Indiana played in the first game against BYU. Our coaches let us go to that game and it was amazing. These names won't mean anything to you younger guys, but the Indiana guards were Bobby Wilkerson and Quinn Buckner. The BYU guards would cross the mis court line and those 2 guards would shut them down. It was scary. Anyway, during the game, there was a loose ball headed toward the Indiana bench.  Their freshman center was Kent Benson who was a highly recruited 6' 10 white kid. He goes diving for the ball and saves it but goes flying into the bench chair right next to Coach Knight. Coach gets up and starts yelling at the kid to get up and back onto the court. 

The poor kid is trying to get up but his leg is stuck in the chair. He falls back down on the court trying to get his leg out and Coach Knight is still screaming at him to go play defense. The kid finally gets up and goes running down the court. Everyone is laughing except for that kid.

Some of you can act like assholes but there was never a shortage of kids that wanted to play for him at Indiana. 

My high school coach played for South Dakota when he was in college.  He talked about playing IU in the mid-70's.  I can still recall him marveling at how suffocating IU's halfcourt defense was.

Knight knew basketball inside and out.  He was also a deeply flawed person.     

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realgreggym

realgreggym 835

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3 hours ago, Underdog said:

Good stuff.  Makes me think back before ESPN days of schools holding their own Holiday Tournaments around Christmas break, UKIT, IU Classic, ECAC Holiday Tournament, even the Orange & Sugar Bowls had tournament. 

Underdog, you are correct. Back then, there were only a handful of Christmas tournaments, and the Far West Classic was probably the largest. Back in the SWC days before ESPN, there was the Saturday game of the week.  If I remember correctly, we were on TV twice during the conference season each year. It's great to see many games now but I think that ESPN is ruining college sports, BTW, we also played in the Senior Bowl Classic which was the day before the Senior Bowl football game if I remember correctly. . 

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GhostOfTomJoad

GhostOfTomJoad 9323

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On 11/2/2023 at 3:17 PM, The Ace of Aces said:

Bird left IU because Knight ignored him when he was homesick. He literally went out of his way to avoid speaking to Bird.

My favorite Knight story is when Glenn Robinson was on a campus for a visit Knight couldn't be bothered to meet him. So Robinson went to Purdue instead of received the National Player of the Year award.

He picked on people smaller than him. The worst kind of bully. 

Bird has publicly stated that Knight's actions (or inactions; he barely acknowledged Bird at all) had nothing to do with his decision to go back home to French Lick. Bloomington was a HUGE city to Bird. Knight has admitted he made a mistake pairing Bird with Jim Wisman, 6'3 guard, as his freshman roommate. Wisman had money and a closet full of clothes. Bird had 2 pairs of jeans, 3 shirts and no money. Wisman told Larry he could borrow any of his shirts he wanted--that would be funny to see 6'9 Bird trying to find one that fit--but that just made Bird more self conscious about his background.

I'm not defending Knight for being a grade A asshole his entire life, but Larry Bird was as tough a sonofabitch that ever played. If he thought a coach would get the best out of him he wouldn't back down to any of his antics. Hell, he loved being coached by Bill freaking Fitch in the NBA. Good luck finding another dozen pros with the same sentiment. Bird went to IU because everyone told him that's where he should go (he initially really wanted to go to Kentucky, but was that recruiting trip left a bad taste in his mouth). 

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The Ace of Aces

The Ace of Aces 5175

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8 hours ago, GhostOfTomJoad said:

Bird has publicly stated that Knight's actions (or inactions; he barely acknowledged Bird at all) had nothing to do with his decision to go back home to French Lick. Bloomington was a HUGE city to Bird. Knight has admitted he made a mistake pairing Bird with Jim Wisman, 6'3 guard, as his freshman roommate. Wisman had money and a closet full of clothes. Bird had 2 pairs of jeans, 3 shirts and no money. Wisman told Larry he could borrow any of his shirts he wanted--that would be funny to see 6'9 Bird trying to find one that fit--but that just made Bird more self conscious about his background.

I'm not defending Knight for being a grade A asshole his entire life, but Larry Bird was as tough a sonofabitch that ever played. If he thought a coach would get the best out of him he wouldn't back down to any of his antics. Hell, he loved being coached by Bill freaking Fitch in the NBA. Good luck finding another dozen pros with the same sentiment. Bird went to IU because everyone told him that's where he should go (he initially really wanted to go to Kentucky, but was that recruiting trip left a bad taste in his mouth). 

Fair but Knoght did apologize for his behavior to Bird. 

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aggie08

aggie08 21481

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1 hour ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

I don’t get why people have to always point out the flaws in others. Everyone on here has demons and are assholes. Just say rip or move on.

Because death shouldn't exonerate you from being a terrible human being?

Also, this is a message board, not his eulogy.

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