Knight Finds a Way to Get Indiana Cracking : West Regional: Coach brandishes a whip as he prepares Hoosiers to play Florida State tonight.

By JERRY CROWE

March 26, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Bob Knight literally cracked a whip Wednesday, enlivening a news conference in advance of Indiana’s game against Florida State tonight in the semifinals of the West Regional.

“Probably no motivation tool I’ve ever come across is as good as this,” said the Indiana coach, snapping the leather in the air.

Knight also toyed with the whip as he watched his Indiana team practice.

The second-seeded Hoosiers might need some extra prodding against a third-seeded Florida State team that is out to avenge a 22-point loss to Indiana in the second round of last year’s NCAA tournament.

“Our kids wanted to play Indiana,” said Florida State Coach Pat Kennedy, who would rather have played Louisiana State, which was eliminated by the Hoosiers, 89-79, in a second-round game last Saturday at Boise, Ida. “It stems from the game last year.

“It was a great game for a half, as far as we were concerned, but in the second half, they dominated us. They really manhandled us. Our kids have a very quiet motivation about this game. Our kids are not looking at anything else. Our kids are focused on this Indiana game.”

Indiana cruised to an 82-60 victory over the Seminoles last March, wiping out a six-point deficit by opening the second half with a 43-11 run.

“We had a funny game with them last year,” Knight said. “They pretty thoroughly outplayed us in the first half, and we were able to turn it around a little bit in the second half. It was kind of an unusual game.”

Both Knight and Kennedy said Florida State is improved after its first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“You have to play every single night in the ACC if you want to win,” said Kennedy, whose team swept a home-and-home series against North Carolina and finished second behind No. 1-ranked Duke in the ACC race. “The competition level in the ACC has raised us to this level.

“When we played Indiana in the second round last year, we were prepared to win, but there was still an awe of Indiana. Although we were focused and intense, we were still in awe.

“This year (in the second round), we went up against Georgetown, which is another great program, and our kids weren’t fazed in the least.”

Florida State (22-9) defeated the Hoyas and Montana in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. Indiana (25-6) beat Eastern Illinois and LSU.