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Indiana University Sports
- Coach is gone and
one look at the current Indiana University basketball team confirms
it. Look at them as they trot through their warmups: a slovenly
collection of goatees, chin whiskers, baggier uniform trunks,
new low-cut shoes, individuals wearing different styles of socks
(some high, some low). The old days are gone. (January 15,
2001)
- "Coverdale's
confidence has went down. . ." --IU television broadcaster,
and former IU player, Ted Kitchel, commenting on current
guard Tom Coverdale during the Indiana-Ohio State game January
31.
- This morning's Indianapolis
Star--A Gannett newspaper--announced the resignation of Dr.
Bill Benner, legendary sports columnist and AntiChrist
to the Grape Kool-Aid Crowd. Bill is accepting a post as vice-president
of the Indiana Sports Corporation, a local organization which
solicits, promotes, and organizes major sporting events for the
city. Bill's last column will be February 18. Callers to radio
talk shows last evening were already joking that Coach
had got The Benster fired. Rumors were floating, too, that the
new regime at the Star was anxious to clean out the old
crowd, particularly the high-priced veterans, to help shape up
the bottom line. This appears to actually be a resignation, but
one of those where Bill "caught the drift," as they
say, and saved them the trouble of a firing. Both sides are doubtless
happier. Insiders report morale has been drooping since Gannett's
takeover of the paper and its inevitable inauguration of a New
Era. I imagine he'll be on the internet soon to send a cryptic
message to some former Hoosiers List colleagues, bitter words
to the effect that he hopes they're happy now, now that Coach
has extracted His Vengeance, or perhaps just a simple, "Having
gotten Coach fired, my work (perhaps he'll even refer to it as
his life's mission) here at the Star is done now."
We'll see. (February 7, 2001)
Coach Has 'Em Roarin'
At Fishes And Loaves Night
- Coach spoke last night.
The Indianapolis Star reports that over 2,000 people paid
$34 apiece to listen to Coach speak in public last night at the
Wagon Wheel Playhouse in Warsaw, Indiana. The place only holds
about 800, so Knight spoke three times to accommodate the worshipful
throngs. People rose to their feet and roared their approval when
Coach entered the room. They interrupted Coach with applause.
Except for Coach's ever-present profanity, this reminds me of
Christ at Fishes and Loaves Night. (February 18, 2001)
IU Basketball's All-Century
Guys (With One Big One Missing)
- Fan voting has been
announced for Indiana University's All-Century basketball team.
The school is celebrating 100 years of college basketball. The
ballot given to fans instructed them to vote for their top
10 favorites. But when the school released the results it
named the top 15, without explaining the departure from
its own implied rules. The only qualification was that the player
had to have appeared in an IU uniform. The stalwart lads in alphabetical
order: Steve Alford, Damon Bailey, Walt Bellamy, Kent Benson,
Quinn Buckner, Calbert Cheaney, Archie Dees, A. J. Guyton, Alan
Henderson, Bob Leonard, Scott May, George McGinness, Jimmy Rayl,
Don Schlundt,, and Isiah Thomas. Amazingly, the fifth leading
scorer in IU history, Mike Woodson, did not make the top 15.
I differ here. I'd delete Rayl, Leonard, Buckner and Guyton from
that list, and add Woodson. The Van Arsdale twins didn't make
it, either. Maybe it's because W and V are late in the alphabet
and voters were exhausted or never got that far down on the ballot.
It works that way in real-life elections. The Vans are not the
no-brainer Woodson is, though. Time to sue for a recount.
- And isn't it time
Indiana University celebrated Over 100 years of Cruel and Unusual
Punishment from its football program?
- The Indianapolis
Star's sports editor, Bob Kravitz, is hysterical again
in this morning's edition. He says IU absolutely must give
Mike Davis the permanent job immediately--if not sooner--because
it is simply intolerable that Bob Knight get a job before Mike
Davis does. And rumors are flying that Coach is gonna get a job
soon. Kravitz properly ridicules the university administration--as
I do--as a (my words, not quite Kravitz's) bunch of handwringing,
trembling chickenshits, and is highly critical of Coach, too.
But his obsession--this is about his third such column in recent
weeks--with stampeding the Davis thing is an overreach.
I'll grant that Knight getting a job--any job--is an outrage,
but that and the coaching situation at IU are separate matters.
Kravitz needs a sedative. (March 9, 2001)
- Coach, meanwhile,
is rumored to be in highly secret discussions with Texas Tech
officials about the soon-to-be-vacant basketball coaching position
there.
- One of the co-hosts
on the morning sports talk show on WSCR radio in Chicago said
this morning that if Louisville doesn't get Rick Pitino
for its new coach--and he thinks it will--then Michigan is gonna
go after him, just as soon as it can fire its present coach,
Brian Ellerbee. So while other schools ardently pursue
Pitino--arguably the best college coach in the country--IU fumbles
and bumbles, and remains a prisoner of its own incompetence.
It makes my guts churn deep down to think of Pitino and Louisville
in the Final Four within three or four years, or Michigan there
in the same time if it gets him, while we dither along and choose
someone who's not quite so threatening.
- One courageous TV
station last night actually interviewed a veteran legal expert
in the field of libel and defamation and the chap allowed as how
"Knight has a long, long way to go to meet the standard of
proof" needed for such claims. Maybe so. But IU had better
hope it gets heard by a judge. If a jury gets hold of it,
Knight wins in a rout.
- The awesome power
of self-delusion notwithstanding, Knight surely isn't serious
about suing. I see this as a legal tactic. He knows he's dealing
with weak-kneed adversaries. His notice of intent to maybe
sue is a power play to extract something--surely money--from the
university. If I'm IU and I have two, though, I'm praying Knight
will sue and it will go to court. Then we can get all this into
the historical record, including the many stories which remain
to be made public. The real-world IU will likely cave and
settle out of court at whatever price it takes to get Coach to
stop menacing them.
- Huge numbers of people
share Kravitz's feeling that Mike Davis has earned the
permanent coaching job at Indiana. He's done such a great job
in such a difficult situation, they say; he's such a fine person,
and the kids like him. Well, he is a fine person. He has represented
the university, his team, and himself splendidly. He has done
a decent job with the team. He has been a delightful and uplifting
change from the unrelenting ugliness of Bob Knight. I have
no great objection to Davis getting the job. I am certain he will
get it. But giving Mike Davis the job is an admission by Indiana
that it is not questing for athletic excellence. Davis--with one
year's experience as a head coach--would not even be considered
for this position if the search were occurring under normal conditions.
I wish Indiana could do otherwise, would spare no effort to hire
the best basketball coach in the world. But IU hasn't a clue about
what excellence is and what it demands. So for other more compelling
reasons, it will hire far less than the best coach it can
possibly find. It will hire Mike Davis. (March 10, 2001)
Brody's Revenge
- One of the beautiful
ironies of Sunday's IU loss to Iowa was Brody Boyd. Though not
widely reported at the time, Boyd was said to be seriously
interested in Indiana back when he was a high school junior.
Between the spring of Boyd's junior year and the time he signed
with Iowa, his father was interviewed by the Evansville or Terre
Haute newspaper and told the reporter that his boy, Brody, and
the family had some "concerns" about playing for Coach
Knight. This was during a time of heightened publicity about certain
of Coach's unseemly behavior. Knight, so the story goes, saw the
article, blew up, and in an angry telephone conversation with
the Boyds told them to forget about Brody ever playing for
Indiana. So Brody did, and later signed with Iowa, and showed
Sunday with his phenomenal performance (a career-high 22 points)
why he never could have made Indiana's roster in the first place.
It was absolutely beautiful watching Boyd make his statement.
(March 12, 2001)
- And wasn't Sunday
just a miserable day for the Grape Kool-Aid Crowd? We had Mike
Davis coaching IU for a Big Ten tourney championship having
already won twice as many league tournament games as Knight won
in four or five years. Opposite Davis and coaching Iowa was Steve
Alford, native Hoosier, former IU star and the state's favorite
son, who many would prefer as the heir-apparent to the job Davis
holds so tenuously. What a beautiful tournament it must have been--the
first ever without Knight's pestilential presence hovering
over all, depressing and degrading the event with his relentless
ugliness. All concerned, from press to coaches, players, and fans,
must have been thrilled to have Coach finally gone from the scene.
Oh, Man, Is Coach
Ever Pissed Department
- Coach has trotted
out his lawyer to announce that Coach is all ready to sue
Indiana University for libel and slander--something most fair-minded
people would say represents a contradiction in terms, where Coach
is concerned--for various alleged crimes connected to Coach's
firing last September. Coach wants millions in damages.
The lawyer, the redoubtable Russell Yates, told breathless reporters--including
one from USA Today, which trumpeted the news in its March
9 edition--that "If the University doesn't negotiate with
us, we have no choice but to sue." This is thundering
bullshit, of course. Russell and Coach have ample choices. One
would be to drop this attempt at legal extortion and get on with
their miserable lives. We all of us always have choices. We just
prefer to justify our depredations by saying we don't. (March
15, 2001)
- To keep this in perspective
and stay calm, it is only necessary to remember one immutable
truth: Bob Knight is an asshole. World class.
- Louisville Courier-Journal
sports writer Pat Forde got it refreshingly right in a
March column describing Pat Knight (Coach's oldest son) as a "loudmouth"
and a "walking monument to nepotism." He's that, and
more.
- Forde's twit followed
several recent outbursts by the pathetic Pat in which
he called Mike Davis and others "traitors who stabbed my
father in the back" last fall when The Mentor was fired by
Indiana University.
- Texas Tech made it
official March 23 with an announcement it had hired Bob Knight
as its new head basketball coach. Coach met with his team the
next day and within a week came word that four players, including
one starter, had been kicked off the team. School officials furiously
backed and filled and issued only a brief three-paragraph statement
on this Most Recent Unpleasantness.
- Coach continued his
Healing Tour of America March 26 with an appearance on
Larry King Live TV show. Coach told His audience of millions
that he had never been "out of control," and said He
didn't remember a 1997 Unpleasantness Said To Have Involved
Coach Choking A Player In Practice (this despite a nationally
circulated videotape showing Coach's hands around the player's
throat during practice with 11 teammates and assistant coaches
all watching). Coach did tell King that the videotape circulating
around America was Coach's personal copy. Larry, according
to reports, was his usual fawning, obsequious self. (March
27, 2001)
- Meantime, Texas Tech
officials confirmed how eager they'd been to avoid encountering
unpleasant facts during their two-week romancing of Coach.
An Associated Press report quoted Tech president David
Schmidley (whose name Coach carefully mispronounced at the press
conference announcing His hiring) saying school officials never
asked to see the Videotape Said To Show Coach Choking A Player
before deciding whether to hire Knight. Schmidley said there was
no reason to look at the tape. "I accepted his (Coach's)
explanation," he added.
All Hail Breaks Loose
In West Texas
- Evidence was immediately
abundant that the Grape Kool-Aid Crowd, like Coach Himself,
Is Global. Banners hailing Coach erupted all over Lubbock
when Texas Tech announced Knight had been hired. Almost 8,000
people attended a campus rally hailing Coach. The Associated
Press reported books, T-shirts, photographs, any icon associated
with Knight "were flying off store shelves" and
season basketball ticket sales were roaring ahead at a record
pace. Critics of Knight's hiring were quickly ridiculed and
attacked. The group of 71 Tech faculty members who signed
a petition opposing bringing Knight aboard were rebuked by a member
of Tech's athletic council, Robert Baker, who chided them as
negativists who "meet almost any action with a negative
attitude" and said they were "not representative of
the more than 900 faculty members." One of the few locals
expressing doubts was Ginny Felstehausen, a Tech faculty member,
who said somewhat timidly, "I'm supportive of athletics and
aware that we need to draw crowds, but at what price?" She
and the rest of the Texas Tech family will find out soon enough
what the price is.
Self-Certification
Of Ron Larsen Department
- Back in Indiana,
Ron Larsen, a self-certified Kool-Aider from Ferndale, Washington,
wrote a letter to the Indianapolis Star March 25 claiming
that the infamous videotape showed "the kid in the video
walked into Knight's hands" (presumably neck-first),
not being choked by the Mentor, as so many negativist destroyers
claim.
No More Tim, Either
- What are we going
to do with our empty lives now that Tim Knight will no longer
be putting together spring Coca Cola all-star games across Indiana
featuring Coach's finest recruits?
- Have you stopped by
The General's Store on Indianapolis's tony south side to pay homage
yet?
- Has the van loaded
up at Coach's Bloomington home? I wanna be there to cheer when
it pulls out and heads west to Lubbock. Will somebody let me know?
- If Terry Clapacs
and his search committee friends spent even five minutes dreaming
of hiring the best basketball coach they could find on this planet,
I'd feel better today.
- But I don't believe
for even one minute that the thought ever seriously occurred to
them.
- Can't somebody do
something to get some more basketball players to quit the IU team
and transfer?
Was Steve In Town,
or Wasn't He?
- Can't somebody establish
once and for all whether Steve Alford was in Bloomington actually
interviewing for the job, as reported in the Perry County News
and the Hammond Times and denied by everyone else? Just
for the historical record.
- Former Indiana University
assistant basketball coach Ron Felling has finally filed his
lawsuit. Felling's lawyers dropped by U.S. District Court
in Indianapolis April 27 and left a small package for Coach and
the University. Various unpleasantnesses are alleged and all are
denied. Felling, who abruptly departed the basketball program
in December, 1999, with no explanation, accuses Coach of assault
and charges the University--gasp!--failed to supervise Coach.
One thing is certain: neither Coach nor the University will
ever want this to become a public trial and part of the historical
record. They'll pay Felling to drop his suit and go away, no matter
what the price. Meantime, where do I send my contribution to the
Ron Felling Legal Aid Fund? (April 27, 2001)
- New Indiana basketball
coach Mike Davis has been quoted in the Indianapolis Star
assuring the faithful he has no plans to end Indiana's centuries-old
policy of not having player names on uniforms. The Star reports
the school has been barraged with protests from fans who'd heard
rumors Davis planned to join most other college programs and add
the names. Davis obviously didn't reckon with the still awesome
power of the Grape Kool-Aid Crowd and the seething hatred it
still nurses over the firing last fall of its icon god, Bob
Knight. Coach, as he is universally known, was resolutely opposed
to the no-names policy and had sanctified and made it part of
the mantra during His reign. Davis has since been criticized for
what some see as his weak-kneed position on this issue, and the
related matter of whether to abandon the team's use of red-and-white
"candy-stripe" warmup pants, also a holdover from
the Knight era. Davis needs our understanding. He is a painfully
inexperienced coach, and one with little standing or self-assurance
in what is still a significantly hostile situation. It helps to
remember the Kool-Aid Crowd mentality, which sees Davis as
just one of many traitors. Although Davis loyally lied to
defend Coach and vigorously trashed Coach's attackers and critics,
none of that has ever counted in his behalf among the Grapesters.
They regard Davis's acceptance of the Fallen Mentor's job as a
betrayal of Coach and the Holy Cause. Davis will never be forgiven
for this. I wish Davis had the strength to stand up to the
Kool-Aiders, but he does not and may never. Coach's faithful legions
are hugely numerous around the state and his loyalists no doubt
still infest Bloomington, the university's athletic department
and support groups. The university should have done a scorched-earth
cleansing and erradication of Knight loyalists immediately
after Knight was deposed, but it did not and will not. Thus Davis
is in a tenuous, dangerous situation, surrounded by weak administrators
in the athletic department and the university, and facing a sizable
hostile constituency of Knight loyalists who will be there for
a long, long time. Davis is stuck, and so are the rest of us.
And we can bet the Coach will be working assiduously behind the
scenes from his Lubbock aerie to nurture the anger and grievances,
keep the resentment and ugliness alive. Davis deserves our sympathy
and undertanding. (May 3, 2001)
- Confidential reports
place Indiana University football coach Cam Cameron out west visiting
the University of Oregon and Oregon State. But why would anyone
be offering The Camster a job? I instantly queried my source.
No, no, it's not that, my informant replied--Cam's checking out
their facilities for ideas to improve Indiana's own. But, I rejoined,
what Indiana needs are better players. . . Oh well, perhaps better
facilities will make us feel better about ourselves.
- Sources deep within
the bowels of Bloomington, Indiana, report that retired local
sports editor, Bob Hammel, has a contract worth a cool million
to write a long-rumored book on Bob Knight and the first batch
of words is due on a June 1 deadline. Since Coach's career is
still active, my guess is this is an "Indiana Years"
book which will advance Coach's case that He is a victim of Myles
and Clarabelle and other insidious forces and traitors. Details
as they become available. (May 18, 2001)
Coach Is Global!
- USA Today reported
in a mid-May bulletin that Coach's hiring at Texas Tech has had
a colossal impact on the school and the city of Lubbock--drastic
surges in money contributions--including the inevitable trainload
of checks bearing Indiana return addresses--titanic increases
in season ticket sales, avalanches of calls to local talk shows
and letters to local editors, overwhelming tides of excitement
surging through the streets of Lubbock--you know, that sort of
thing. We'd be wise to never, ever forget that Coach is global!
- This morning's Indianapolis
Star offered this hopeful note in its Sports Briefs department:
two former Rutgers basketball players and a team manager
have been given a green light by a New Jersey appellate court
to proceed with their lawsuit against (it appears) their coach
and the university for a Certain 1999 Unpleasantness. The lads
claim they were forced to run naked during practice and this
episode was so "sexually offensive" that they were "forced
to leave Rutgers." A lower court had thrown out their original
suit and they'd appealed. Bob Knight's tenure at Indiana University
was rich with memorable stories of a similar nature, and former
IU players have a real opportunity to cash in here. I doubt
any of them will step up and do so. Even though Coach is gone,
He can still ruin lives. (July 5, 2001)
- Coach's summer camps
at Texas Tech are jam-packed with eager acolytes and son Pat
is setting them up and running them, according to an Indianapolis
Star dispatch from Lubbock. Coach is said to have already
raised $55,000 for the UT library fund and from the sound of it
even the skeptics are falling in line to anoint Coach's feet
with grape Kool-Aid. Signups for Coach's camps already exceed
600, Pat says, compared to only 400 in the last year of the former
coach's reign. Pat told Star reporters the number would
have been far higher had they had the normal lead time to publicize
the camps. The Star noted that Coach speaks to the youngsters
twice each day!
Another Traitor To
Hate
- The Grape Kool-Aid
Crowd has another traitor to hate. Thomas Mikunda of Exeland,
Wisconsin, described in an Associated Press report as a
"hunting buddy" of Bob Knight, has filed a damage suit
claiming the former Indiana University basketball coach lied to
authorities and pressured him into falsifying details of a 1999
shooting accident on a hunting excursion. Mikunda was hit
in the back by shotgun pellets but the wounds were not life-threatening.
Once he feels the wrath of the Kool-Aid legions, he'll likely
regret ever betraying The Mentor. (August 7, 2001)
- The Star's
Indiana football beat writer noted August 30 that Levron Williams
came to IU as a wide receiver from Evansville Bosse and was converted
to a running back at IU. The facts are that Williams was a top-rated
running back in high school and the IU coaching staff briefly
tried to switch him to a wide receiver position, then gave up
on it.
- Last night's horrific
embarrassment on ESPN (North Carolina State 35, Indiana 14) again
stirs the cry that the first step toward improving the Indiana
University football program should be a ban on television appearances.
IU is bad enough on an ordinary game-day, but seems to have a
special talent for seeking and finding new depths of ineptitude
whenever the camera is on. I have no statistics but if one of
the big foundations would research this I believe it could be
proven that IU is coyote ugly on TV. (September 7, 2001)
- I say the countdown
began by halftime of last night's debacle: how many more hours
will The Camster be able to stick with his Tommy Jones-at-quarterback
and Randle El-everywhere-else plan? ESPN broadcaster (and former
Indiana coach) Lee Corso pronounced his verdict in the
first quarter. Lee said this ain't gonna work--and repeated it
endlessly through the rest of the game, to the point of irritating
his broadcast boothmates. This was amusing, because Corso, when
he coached at IU, was a master at providing trick plays, comedy,
and assorted circuses in an effort to distract fan attention from
what was occurring on the playing field.
- The Star this morning offered more tired pablum--a hard-hitting
investigative journalism piece about how things have changed down
in Bloomington now that Coach has been gone a year. What they
discovered--big shocker!!--is that The Grape Kool-Aid Crowd Hasn't
Let Go of It. Deeply concerned about how everyone feeeeeels, the Star gave an overly generous portion of column inches to
the redundancy of interviewing Kool-Aiders who are still bitter. So even the headline was misleading--the Star labeled this
a story about how things have changed, but they haven't changed
at all. (September 10, 2001)
- Indiana University
football fans are accustomed to a sort of suffering provided
by only a select few sports franchises. The Chicago Cubs
come first to mind. Perhaps The Boston Red Sox. These fans have
been so brutalized over the years that nothing surprises them.
Their capacity for suffering is limitless; indeed they
take perverse pleasure in searching for, and usually finding,
some tiny new nugget of irony in the smoldering ruins of each
game. Saturday's typically heartbreaking IU loss to Utah (28-26)
provided one of those twists of the knife. After--what else?--
a missed extra point set the stage, Indiana was forced to try
for a potential game-tying two-point conversion as the game wound
down. Over a century of history told seasoned Indiana-watchers
this was futile. First, such heroic efforts almost never succeed
at Indiana; second, on the rare occasions they do, our lads figure
out other ways to lose. So on this beautiful southern Indiana
afternoon before 26,591 hopeless fools in attendance, Indiana
lined up, threw a two-point pass into the end zone that was caught,
and thought it had a 28-28 tie. But no--a flag was down! An Indiana
player failed to get to the line of scrimmage and a penalty flag
nullified the play and another bitter, galling defeat went
into the record books.
- The most encouraging
thing about Saturday's home opener against Utah was the attendance.
It was recorded at a pathetic 26,591, the lowest since 24,027
misguided fools showed up for a November, 1995, game against Michigan
State. Lousy attendance offers a faint hope that fans are voting
with their wallets and their message is that the terrible product
the University is offering in the marketplace is not worth
any price. Empty seats and the millions in lost revenue they represent
may be the only thing that will ever get the attention of Indiana's
athletic officials. Still, it's best not to hope for too much.
(September 25, 2001)
- One positive thing
about the IU football schedule disruption (postponing the Kentucky
game and re-setting it for December 1, after the Old Oaken Bucket
defeat) is that now IU doesn't have to end its season with a loss
to Purdue. (September 25, 2001)
- "I don't intend
to be mean, or anything, but what is he (Randle El) doing at Indiana?"
--One of Ohio State's starting linebackers, quoted in the press
following the Buckeyes' easy 27-14 win over Indiana Sept. 30.
The player was commenting on Indiana's star quarterback, Antwaan
Randle El, and implying Randle El's decision to attend Indiana
was, well, mystifying. (October 1, 2001)
- A huge contingent
of Ohio State fans--estimated at 15,000 to 20,000--bought up tickets
to Saturday's Indiana game and made the short trip over from Columbus.
The result was a crowd of 48,577 and a big day at the cash register
for IU. Crowds over 32,000 are increasily rare in Bloomington
so IU's media flacks had hoped to arrange for an aerial
photograph of the near-sellout to use on next year's media guide.
But alas, among the fallout from the September 11 terrorist attacks
was a ban on airplane flights over college stadiums on game days.
- Long-suffering Indiana
University football fans may return to their bunkers. They have
just witnessed the IU football equivalent of Halley's Comet
in the October 6 victory over Wisconsin by the amazing score of
63-32. No IU fan alive today will ever see our beloved boys play
better than they did in this one. The silly and inattentive among
us will believe this signals that long-awaited turnaround in the
program's fortunes. Far more likely it's just a once-in-a-lifetime
treat and our boys will quickly get back to the heartbreaking
ineptitude which characterizes the 110-year history of Indiana
football. Return to your medication and call again in a century
is my advice. (October 8, 2001)
A Candid Moment From
Buck Suhr
- IU football did indeed
get right back to normal October 13 with a 35-14 Homecoming debacle
against Illinois before a Bloomington crowd of 31,000 and change.
Of all the many mishaps, I most enjoyed IU's two illegal procedure
penalties which occurrred before our lads had taken their positions
at the line of scrimmage. Even broadcaster Buck Suhr, normally
the soul of restraint and propriety, briefly expressed chagrin
when Indiana launched an astounding 43-yard punt (almost double
the team's punting average going into the game) which was returned
48 yards. Suhr noted that there was "absolutely no return
coverage" by Indiana and surmised that it was because our
lads were used to only having to run 20 or so yards upfield
to defend on punt returns and this punt caught them w-a-a-a-a-a-y
short. A much-appreciated moment of candor from broadcasters who
often aren't. (October 13, 2001)
- Indiana suprised nearly
everyone Saturday (November 3) with a 56-21 win over Northwestern.
On a perfect fall day in bright sunshine and 65-degree temperatures,
26,213 people attended. (November 3, 2001)
- IU football Coach
Cam Cameron was fired today. Five years, 18 games won,
37 lost. A Big Ten record of 12-28. No bowl games. No winning
seasons. The decision was somewhat a surprise. IU actually finished
2001 on a strong note, winning four of its last five games, including
a 13-7 win over Purdue. New athletic director Michael McNeely
decided it wasn't enough. I agree. Five years is long enough.
There was no reason to believe that next year would be as good
as this. The two players almost singlehandedly responsible for
most of the team's success this year--Antwaan Randle El and Levron
Williams--both graduate. No one of comparable talent is in sight.
Next year looks awful, barring a miracle. This is McNeely's chance
to put his stamp on the program and try to break over a century-long
tradition of football desolation in Bloomington. The last coach
to leave town with a winning record at IU was Bo McMillan. He
left in 1947. McNeely should start by hiring an outsider--no one
with connections to IU should be considered. He should hire an
experienced head coach. His choice will tell a lot about how serious
he is about changing things. We should all light a candle for
McNeely. (December 5, 2001)
He's B-a-a-a-a-a-a-c-k!
- Out of Houston this
morning comes an unjust allegation that Bob Knight cursed the
general manager of the Compaq Center when the man approached Coach
about criticisms Coach had made about the size of the Center's
locker rooms. Coach, the story goes, began swearing and offered
to "step outside and settle it" as soon as he (Knight)
stopped cursing. Coach's team was in town for a basektball doubleheader
played at the arena, home of the Houston Rockets.Texas Tech officials
were backing and filling furiously once the story broke. American
Predator drone spy planes reportedly filmed unusual excavation
activity in West Texas in a network of sandstone and shale
caves. TT administrators, athletic officials, and boosters were
reported burrowing into reinforced bunkers over a 70-square mile
area near the university. Former Indiana University presidents
Thomas Ehrlich and John Ryan were said to be enroute by helicopter
to the Lubbock area to serve as consultants. Knight's Texas Tech
team played and won a basketball game at the Center Saturday.
In a postgame press conference, Knight complained the locker rooms
were too small. Jerry MacDonald, the arena manager, approached
Knight after the game at a loading dock area near the team bus.
MacDonald told the Associated Press that, "I could
not believe what I was hearing. I said 'Step outside and settle
the size of our locker room? Are you nuts?' " MacDonald added
that, "I've been in this business 26 years at two NBA arenas
and I've never come across an individual like this." He said Knight was "the most arrogant, disrespectful, and
spoiled person" he'd ever met. A Texas Tech team spokesman,
Terry Farley, initially denied MacDonald's account and
said that "At no time did Coach raise his voice or respond
unprofessionally to a situation that was foisted upon him."
Later Farley admitted he'd been too far away from the incident
to actually hear what was said, but that he (Fareley ) did not
consider the episode to have been "confrontational." Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers, who prior to hiring
Knight declined to watch videotapes of Coach holding one
of his players, Neil Reid, by the throat, blamed the fracas on
MacDonald for approaching Coach to talk about Coach's complaints.
Myers said MacDonald was at the press conference and should have "defended his building right there. He (MacDonald) provoked
the whole situation by following Bob out to the bus." Myers
told reporters that Coach was "asserting his First Amendment
rights" after MacDonald approached him. Later, MacDonald
apologized for approaching Coach, but did not change a single
detail of his account of what happened This is another illustration
of the Rasputinlike talent Coach has for inducing otherwise
grown adults to behave in utterly bizarre ways to defend and
explain away Coach and his tantrums and abusive behavior. My guess
is this is Chapter 1 for the Texas Tech community, which will
soon enough learn what it's signed on for by embracing Bob Knight,
for whom it is never a question of if, only when. (December
17, 2001)
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