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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

Knight taught lessons on, off basketball court

I had the opportunity to work under coach Knight as a manager from 1996 to 2000. I am currently an administrative assistant for the Stanford Men's basketball program under coach Mike Montgomery.\nThroughout my four years at Indiana under coach Knight, there was not a day that went by on either the practice floor or in the locker room where I didn't learn something about the game of basketball or the game of life.\nCoach Knight taught me as well as everyone that went through the Indiana program what it means to be loyal, honest and respectful.\nHe always said to the players, "You are not playing for yourselves, you are playing for your University. That is why your names are not on the back and why your University's name is on the front. You are playing for all of the sick people in America that get the true excitement for two hours to watch us play. Give them something to be proud of!" \nI learned a lot from coach Knight, more that was ever expressed on a basketball floor. There is not one class that I took at IU that was more important than the one I took every day on the Assembly Hall floor Monday through Friday from 2:15 to 7:30 p.m.\nCoach always said, "The mental is to the physical, as four is to one," meaning mentally you have to be prepared for anything in life four more times than physically. \nCoach Knight never broke an NCAA rule, in a coaching society where it seems inevitable not to. \nCoach Knight has graduated managers that have gone on to schools currently at Duke, Michigan State, California, USC, UTEP, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Detroit Pistons. The reason why we are where we are today is because of the respect that coach Knight has around America as a college basketball coach. \nI am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work under Coach Knight as a manager. I am sad that the future Indiana basketball players will not experience the life-long lessons that I did as a manager under coach Knight. Coach Knight will be deeply missed not only from IU, but also from the game of college basketball.

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