IU awaits judge's decision on whether to dismiss Knight suit

More than three years have passed since former men's basketball coach Bob Knight was fired, and Knight's attorney Russell Yates is hoping new IU President Adam Herbert will help both sides come to an agreement. \n"I am hoping that the case is discussed with some cool-headed individuals," he said. "I am hoping we can come to a settlement."\nBut Dave Mattingly, an attorney for Ice-Miller in Indianapolis who has been hired by the University for the Knight lawsuit, said IU "will not settle under any circumstance."\nMattingly asked Monroe Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Todd for an order that would effectively dismiss Knight's lawsuit without a trial. Yates said on Thursday that Todd still has not set a deadline for his ruling.\nMattingly said Knight's contract allowed the University to end his employment, for any reason, as long as the school continued paying him through the rest of the contract period. If the University had fired Knight "for cause," he said, the compensation would have stopped immediately and the former coach would have been allowed a hearing to refute the charges.\n"We paid Knight and that's all the University was entitled to do," Mattingly said.\nYates said Knight should have been entitled to a hearing before being fired.\n"The University's position is completely bogus," he said. "Our position is that he was fired for cause. Myles Brand, the (former) president of the University goes on TV and said he fired Knight because of all these reasons, which proves he was fired for cause."\nMattingly said Yates is confused about the meaning of "fired for cause." He said the athletic director would be the one who would fire any coach for cause. He said if Knight were fired for cause, he would not be entitled to the rest of his salary, which IU paid.\nMattingly said Brand fired Knight for no cause. He said Yates thinks when Brand explained why he fired Knight, that means he fired him for cause.\n"Everybody has a reason to do something," Mattingly said. "Brand was just explaining his rationale. That doesn't mean he fired him for cause."\nStill, Yates said IU should have given Knight a hearing.\n"My client just wanted the opportunity to refute any allegations," he said. "It is a breach of his contract to not afford him that opportunity."\nMattingly said the University has the right to do what they did -- even if Yates disagrees with why Knight was fired. \n"What I said in my oral arguments is that the contract was like a marriage," he said. "Either party has a right to end that agreement for whatever reason. It was a good arrangement for a while that benefitted both parties, but the relationship went sour."\n-- Contact Campus editor Adam Aasen at aaasen@indiana.edu.