RIP Bobby Knight

Omar said:
Still haven’t heard a good reason why he’s the greatest coach of all time, if he couldn’t get past the 2nd round the last 6 years at IU. To me, his unwillingness to change Offense was more of an issue than his abrasive nature.
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Like alot of things for many people, if we have to explain it to you, you won't understand. Yes, there was the abrasive nature, but you have to understand that was kind of the way back pre 90's before the shoe companies and money ruled college sports. Point be known, if college hoops doesn't add the shot clock and 3 point line, Knight's teams probably dominate even more. All those rule changes made coaching less important and strictly talent took over. Do you know Knight had one NBA all star in his entire time at IU and that was Isaiah Thomas, who was there only 2 years? Just a couple examples. The 1981 NCAA final game, IU beats North Carolina. Carolina had James Worthy and Sam Perkins two who ended up with long successful college careers, Al Wood was actaully the Carolina all american that year. IU had Isaiah Thomas, Ray Tolbert, Randy Whitman, Ted Kitchell and Landon Turner.
1987, IU / Syracuse. Syracuse had Derek Coleman, Rony Seikaly and Sherman Douglas, IU had sharpshooter Steve Alford, a couple of jucos and a bunch of tough guys. But this was Knight's genius. There were obviously many many NBA stars from the big ten, but Knights teams dominated the conference standings.
 
Hey for you guys that want more on Knight, take it from a guy who knew him best. Dan Dakich, played for Knight, was a captain, was an assistant for 17 years at IU before becoming the head coach at Bowling Green. Go to youtube and search Dan Dakich/ Outkick. Dakich now a radio/ podcast host and really provides alot of insight, good and bad of his time with Knight. Not a fluff story either as they had a falling out years ago when both worked at ESPN. But Dak shoots straight from the hip on Knight, IU basketball history and it's pretty dang entertaining.
 
14Red said:
Hey for you guys that want more on Knight, take it from a guy who knew him best. Dan Dakich, played for Knight, was a captain, was an assistant for 17 years at IU before becoming the head coach at Bowling Green. Go to youtube and search Dan Dakich/ Outkick. Dakich now a radio/ podcast host and really provides alot of insight, good and bad of his time with Knight. Not a fluff story either as they had a falling out years ago when both worked at ESPN. But Dak shoots straight from the hip on Knight, IU basketball history and it's pretty dang entertaining.
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It's fruitless to have a battle of the wits vs an unarmed man so best to ignore the lil 5 foot nothing, 100 nothing without an speck of athletic ability troll we know as Omar.
 
14Red said:
Like alot of things for many people, if we have to explain it to you, you won't understand. Yes, there was the abrasive nature, but you have to understand that was kind of the way back pre 90's before the shoe companies and money ruled college sports. Point be known, if college hoops doesn't add the shot clock and 3 point line, Knight's teams probably dominate even more. All those rule changes made coaching less important and strictly talent took over. Do you know Knight had one NBA all star in his entire time at IU and that was Isaiah Thomas, who was there only 2 years? Just a couple examples. The 1981 NCAA final game, IU beats North Carolina. Carolina had James Worthy and Sam Perkins two who ended up with long successful college careers, Al Wood was actaully the Carolina all american that year. IU had Isaiah Thomas, Ray Tolbert, Randy Whitman, Ted Kitchell and Landon Turner.
1987, IU / Syracuse. Syracuse had Derek Coleman, Rony Seikaly and Sherman Douglas, IU had sharpshooter Steve Alford, a couple of jucos and a bunch of tough guys. But this was Knight's genius. There were obviously many many NBA stars from the big ten, but Knights teams dominated the conference standings.
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But they did add those things and he never adapted. To me, that tarnishes his on court legacy more than anything. He would’ve kept dragging IU down with him just because he wouldn’t admit the Motion Offense was out of date
 
Thavoice said:
It's fruitless to have a battle of the wits vs an unarmed man so best to ignore the lil 5 foot nothing, 100 nothing without an speck of athletic ability troll we know as Omar.
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It’s a legitimate question. You can’t be the greatest of all time when you were failing the last 1/4 of your tenure. Again, from 1995-2000, he never got out of the 2nd round. He would’ve rather had IU go winless running his Offense than change.
 
Omar said:
But they did add those things and he never adapted. To me, that tarnishes his on court legacy more than anything. He would’ve kept dragging IU down with him just because he wouldn’t admit the Motion Offense was out of date
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Actually Omar, the 2002 Indiana Hoosiers made that epic run to the final game and lost to Maryland. Tom Coverdale, Jared Jeffries, Jarad Odel, Kyle Hornsby, Dane Fife, AJ Moye, Jeff Newton. Mike Davis was an assistant under Knight, and somehow got the job. This was his 2nd season and pretty much all of those guys other than the freshmen were recruited when Knight was still at IU. And they ran alot of the same stuff.
Also circle back to the early 90's with Calbert Cheney, Alan Henderson, Damon Bailey, Greg Graham, Pat Graham, Chris Reynolds, Jamal Meeks, Matt Nover....and they were in the final four in 92, lost to Duke, and elite 8 in '93, lost to Kansas. So it's not like IU became Northwestern and Minnesota.
 
One of the ironys looking back at the life of Bob Knight, he HATED the media and massaging the schedule for TV and ESPN. He was most concerned with winning, playing well, gradating players and kids staying out of trouble. The NCAA/ Big ten sold its soul to the devil when they started playing games at 9PM EST for TV purposes. Remember back in the day on channel 4 that IU games were Thursdays at 7pm and Saturday afternoons, that's it. Everyone played at those times and you didn't have wall to wall games on TV every night of the week. Players were college students most days, was in class most of the time. Can you imagine Knight dealing with the NIL stuff going on now? Honestly guys like Knight probably kept the NIL stuff away as long as possible.
 
14Red said:
One of the ironys looking back at the life of Bob Knight, he HATED the media and massaging the schedule for TV and ESPN. He was most concerned with winning, playing well, gradating players and kids staying out of trouble. The NCAA/ Big ten sold its soul to the devil when they started playing games at 9PM EST for TV purposes. Remember back in the day on channel 4 that IU games were Thursdays at 7pm and Saturday afternoons, that's it. Everyone played at those times and you didn't have wall to wall games on TV every night of the week. Players were college students most days, was in class most of the time. Can you imagine Knight dealing with the NIL stuff going on now? Honestly guys like Knight probably kept the NIL stuff away as long as possible.
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1993 if Alan Henderson doesnt hurt his knee I like their chances....
 
14Red said:
Actually Omar, the 2002 Indiana Hoosiers made that epic run to the final game and lost to Maryland. Tom Coverdale, Jared Jeffries, Jarad Odel, Kyle Hornsby, Dane Fife, AJ Moye, Jeff Newton. Mike Davis was an assistant under Knight, and somehow got the job. This was his 2nd season and pretty much all of those guys other than the freshmen were recruited when Knight was still at IU. And they ran alot of the same stuff.
Also circle back to the early 90's with Calbert Cheney, Alan Henderson, Damon Bailey, Greg Graham, Pat Graham, Chris Reynolds, Jamal Meeks, Matt Nover....and they were in the final four in 92, lost to Duke, and elite 8 in '93, lost to Kansas. So it's not like IU became Northwestern and Minnesota.
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They weren’t coached by Knight. And they didn’t become NW or MN, but for the “greatest of all time”, the standard should be higher.
 
14Red said:
Your standards are pretty high.
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Not failing the last 1/4 of your career? And shouldn’t the standards be highest for the greatest of all time? It’s mind boggling to me how anyone can ignore this. He didn’t care about winning, he cared about his ego and doing things his way.

I actually find myself disliking him more for his stubbornness in his philosophy than being an abusive a hole.
 
Omar said:
Not failing the last 1/4 of your career? And shouldn’t the standards be highest for the greatest of all time? It’s mind boggling to me how anyone can ignore this. He didn’t care about winning, he cared about his ego and doing things his way.

I actually find myself disliking him more for his stubbornness in his philosophy than being an abusive a hole.
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Oh I think you're missing the point. And yes, there was some drop off, but only the last few years. Dan Dakich said as much as he stopped recruiting. But the fact that most of his players were on that 2002 runner up still says something. Last 1/4? So your gauging greatest of all time on championships alone?
As I said when I started this, if we have to explain it to you, you'll never understand.
 
14Red said:
Oh I think you're missing the point. And yes, there was some drop off, but only the last few years. Dan Dakich said as much as he stopped recruiting. But the fact that most of his players were on that 2002 runner up still says something. Last 1/4? So your gauging greatest of all time on championships alone?
As I said when I started this, if we have to explain it to you, you'll never understand.
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Ugh yeah, number of titles and wins is kind of a major factor.
 
I don’t think anyone was ever calling Bobby Knight the GOAT but no doubt he’s top 5 along with K, Wooden, Jim Calhoun, himself, and Rupp.
 
Yea, I don't see anything on here claiming he was THE BEST college basketball coach. He certainly is in that rarified air with Wooden, Dean Smith and company. I think you draw some parallel's good and bad with guys like Paul Bear Bryant, Woody Hayes, Joe Paterno and the like. When coaches have success, they rope is let go more and more and suddenly they are an icon. Administration, student bodies and alumni do this and it's really a self fulfilling prophecy. Heck the media and even today's media add to this with wall to wall coverage of our favorite programs and colleges.
 
Knight had some decline in his success in his last few years. Most do if they coach into their 60s. That doesn’t negate how dominant his prime years were. It’s very rare to go out on top. Only Al McGuire and John Wooden come to mind, and Al retired as a young man.
 
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