A salute to the greatest General in IU history

How do you measure the impact Bob Knight had on Indiana basketball? \nYou can count the perfect season, the three national championships and the 36 players who made it to the NBA. You can count the 662 wins, the 11 Big Ten regular season championships and the Olympic Gold Medal. But what’s more important for diehard loyalists and critics who followed the career of coach Knight is immeasurable. \nPeople won’t soon forget the temper, the tirades, the technical fouls or the toilet paper story. The press will forever love and hate him at the same time for his quotes, his quips and his quarrelsome relationship with them. Kids like me drew pictures of coach Knight, clad in a red sweater, throwing chairs with a cloud of smoke erupting from his ears.\nNo matter how many people love Knight for what he did for the IU men’s basketball program, just as many resent him for the way he represented himself off the court. Knight is the second most vilified sports figure of all-time, behind Mike Tyson, and people are quick to point out their bitter disgust when he becomes the topic \nof conversation. \nMuch of that sentiment stems from a brutal final six years of his Hoosier career, when IU never advanced past the second round of the NCAA tournament. During those seasons, the Hoosiers lost three times in the first round as the higher-seeded team, including a 77-57 drubbing at the hands of Pepperdine in 2000, which was Knight’s last game at IU before taking over at Texas Tech two seasons later.\nBut while the divorce was ugly, the marriage was a beautiful thing. \nKnight defined college basketball for a good portion of three decades. With his unmatched knowledge and unique intensity, he created a juggernaut comparable to the great John Wooden UCLA teams. Knight’s stingy man-to-man defense and fluid motion offense are not used today as much as they should be. Under Knight, IU rarely had games with double-digit turnovers and subconsciously worked the ball until the team found a good shot – a far cry from the one-on-one game the Hoosiers beat to death now. IU’s lack of results in the later years of Knight’s tenure could not in any way be attributed to the coach – today’s player doesn’t want to be coached anymore. They want situations like USC’s O.J. Mayo and Kansas State’s Michael Beasley have. Out of high school, both players were given the keys to the career and have gotten to drive it as fast as they can this season to improve their NBA stock. Knight’s graduation rates are his indicator in a philosophy against players leaving early.\nThe game of basketball did not pass Bob Knight by. In an impatient sports world, the importance of playing effective and non-spectacular team basketball is downplayed by the individual’s desire to see himself on ESPN the next morning. \nCollege basketball will sorely miss the mythical figure that is Bob Knight. For better or for worse, everything Knight accomplished as head coach of the Hoosiers became instant folklore around the state of Indiana. His legend will forever be as tall as the cornstalks painting the sides of our state’s country roads.