Pat Knight continues to follow in his father's footsteps

Bobby Knight is, has been, and always will be one of the best when it comes to giving good quote.

Don't believe me? Watch this.

His son Pat, now the coach at Texas Tech, may be trying to emulate his father. Take a look at this press conference at the Red Raiders loss to New Mexico. The good stuff starts about a minute in:



Like they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

(h/t WWL's Hoops blog)
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Bobby Knight takes a shot at Coach Cal

Bobby Knight has always said what was on his mind.

It was part of his charm. (Did I really just call Bobby Knight charming?)

And just because he is now working for the World Wide Leader, you thought that was going to change?

Knight spoke last night at a fundraiser for the Indiana Hall of Fame, and, as he usually is, Knight was candid, outspoken, and hating on the NCAA.

If this current NCAA administration planned the Normandy invasion, we would have landed in Portugal.

See? Charming.
(photo credit: DoubleAZone)

But the line that is going to draw the most attention around the blogosphere is a shot he took at Coach Cal:

We've gotten into this situation where integrity is really lacking and that's why I'm glad I'm not coaching. You see we've got a coach at Kentucky who put two schools on probation and he's still coaching. I really don't understand that.

He continued:

And very few people know this, but a kid can play the first semester as a freshman, pass six hours of anything and play in the NCAA tournament without ever attending a class in the second semester. I don't think that's right.

He's right. We talked quite a bit this summer about the very issue of college basketball's integrity. Its a cesspool, and while the NABC's Ethics Committee is at least posturing like they want to make changes, it probably doesn't hurt to have someone with the national notoriety of a Bobby Knight publicly pushing for a change.

The ironic part?

Knight may have actually railed against a way to clean up at least a portion of the sport. Part of the reason that a coach will cheat on the recruiting trail or look the other way when a player is not getting the most education out of his scholarship is a direct result of the pressure on these guys to win and win quickly. A major conference coach is almost always "put on the hot seat" if a team he is coaching that is expected to make the NCAA Tournament doesn't a few years in a row.

Knight said during his speech that he doesn't believe the NCAA Tournament should expand because he doesn't believe any team should get a bye. But if the tourney did expand to 96 teams, and fewer major conference coaches were put on the hot seat, wouldn't that mean that fewer of those coaches would risk their career and reputation by committing recruiting violations or influencing grades?

Possibly. Probably not.

College sports are a business, and a very profitable one at times. If Enron and Bear Stearns taught us anything, ethical practices are not the first priority when money's involved. It's all about the benjamins, baby.

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UPDATE: Bobby Knight not attending HOF ceremony

UPDATE: According to Dickie V (via Twitter), Bobby Knight will not be attending Indiana's Hall of Fame ceremony. Can't say I'm surprised.


Back in August, news came out that Bob Knight was going to be inducted into the Indiana University hall of fame. Many were critical of this decision by IU, mainly because most believed it a long shot that Knight would be willing to let bygones be bygones.

But last week, private donors (read Indiana alumni) decided to give Knight $75,000 to settle a lawsuit filed against the University by Knight.

Olive branch extended.

But on Monday, Knight returned that check.

Why?

Because, as Knight said, his issue is with the university, not the alumni.

Maybe he isn't going to be at the induction ceremony after all...

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Bob Knight as a Color guy?

It looks like those rumors of Bobby Knight returning to the sidelines won't be coming to fruition, at least for this season. After experimenting with Knight as an in-studio analyst at the end of last season, the Worldwide Leader has decided to put Knight in the booth this year. He will be paired up with Brent Musberger for Thursday night games and Dan Shulman for various non-conference games during the week.

I'm not sure how this will work out for ESPN. On the one hand, there may not be anyone in the world that knows his x's and o's better than Knight. But at times last year, Knight seemed bored on-air and gave off this vibe that talking about basketball on TV was below him. It didn't seem like he enjoyed what he was doing, although I'm sure a large part of that is just Bob Knight being surly old Bob Knight (I'm sure Dickie V's ass-kissing only helped the situation). And how long do you think it would be until he dropped an F-bomb live on the air?

But as I said before, there may not be anyone that knows the game better than Knight, even if he is a bit inexperienced on air. ESPN is pairing him with two of the best and most experienced play-by-play guys out there in Shulman and Musberger. Do you think the WWL has the stones to assign Knight to an Indiana game?

So other interesting news and notes:

Chris Broussard caught up with Brandon Jennings in Rome. It looks like the young fella is doing pretty good for himself. I've been saying it from the beginning - this was a great decision by Jennings.

The LA Times and New York Times both had interesting pieces on how the new three-point line is effecting college hoopers. Will we end up being right? Continue reading...