Bring back Bobby

It sounds fanciful to ask that Bobby Knight return as interim coach at Indiana for just this season. While that may be so, I would like to make the case for why he should be reinstated for just this season. And even though I am not a student at IU, I hope that my perspective as an outsider shows that the rest of the academic world would not look down on an excellent scholarly institution like IU if they were to rehire Coach Knight. First, despite his highly competitive spirit, Coach Knight always put ethics and academics above basketball success. He has never violated recruiting standards and his 90-plus percent graduation rate of student-athletes is comparable to Ivy League school graduations of non-athlete students.\nSecond, he can coach Indiana to a championship. Indiana has a talented team this year that has the possibility of going all the way. In the past, Coach Knight led three IU teams to NCAA championships, and one team to an undefeated season, a feat that has not been repeated since. Indiana should not let its season go down the drain; it should hire Coach Knight back.\nThird, it will be a great way to apologize to Coach Knight for the dishonorable way he was fired. It is true, Coach Knight had a temper that he should have kept under wraps. But look at his behavior at Texas Tech. He coached there for nearly a decade and has not been under the spotlight of the press for bad behavior on the job. I suspect that if he was given another opportunity at Indiana, he would not embarrass the University. In fact, regardless of how the season would end, he would give Indiana one more shining moment.