Pepperdine Going After a Notable Achievement

BUFFALO, N.Y. —  Bob Knight gave a 20-minute testimonial to himself Thursday night, and everything associated with him--from Indiana University to the NCAA tournament--came out looking a little worse by the time he finished.

Knight is on the offensive this week after CNN/SI aired allegations from former players Neil Reed and Richard Mandeville that Knight choked Reed at practice, kicked the university president out of practice and did other naughty things.

So Knight did interviews with selected Indiana television stations, but excluded the Indianapolis Star. He called ESPN to ask if they wanted an interview, but he wanted former Indiana player Quinn Buckner, a college basketball analyst for the network, to ask the questions.

Thursday he had the undivided attention of the media assembled to cover the East Regional games at Marine Midland Arena.

Before he addressed his team’s first-round matchup with Pepperdine, Knight said he wanted to discuss the topic of Indiana basketball. He talked about the active roles his players take in their community. He talked about how 80 of his 117 scholarship recipients have played four years at Indiana. He added that 77 of those 80 players received their degrees.

He said the Indiana basketball program has raised $5 million for the school library. He reiterated that his program has never been judged to have violated a single entry in the hefty NCAA rule book.

The only thing he didn’t do was apologize. He never apologizes.

“I’m not sure just what the hell it is that I’m supposed to apologize for,” Knight said.

So he keeps dishing out ends, ends and more ends to justify those mean means.

He talks about positive things most of his players exemplify, when in reality if any of them did as much to embarrass the university as he has over the years he would choke them in public.

Typical Knight hypocrisy.

As if there’s no need to ever apologize for the thrown chair, the assaulted cop in Puerto Rico, the insensitive comments about rape, the alleged assault of a patron at a restaurant, etc.

This is the same man who has walked to the middle of Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind., and yelled at the student section to stop chanting an obscenity during a game, then used every profanity imaginable during his postgame news conference.

No one ever denies the good things Knight does. Many of the same points Knight brought up Thursday night were mentioned in the CNN/SI piece.

And no one ever suggested the man can’t coach basketball. His 763 victories, three national championships, 11 Big Ten conference championships and 15 consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament at Indiana all verify that.

Knight is an exceptionally intelligent man, who could probably succeed in whatever field he entered.

But when it comes to explaining himself and his ways, he just doesn’t get it.

He never uses any of the incidents that inevitably come up to take stock and reassess the way he does things.

Turn it around, make it about the world and not Bob Knight. That’s the way he always is. Everyone else better adjust, because he isn’t changing.

Indiana University and the legions of Knight supporters keep defending him and smearing those who challenge him.

Senior guards A.J. Guyton and Michael Lewis began their news conference by saying Reed had been voted off the team (“that alone says what we thought about Neil Reed,” Guyton said) and questioned Mandeville’s work ethic.

After Knight’s news conference the university spokesmen handed out copies of a disparaging letter about Reed written three years ago by parents of an Indiana summer basketball camp attendee, and a news release that described how Mandeville was allowed to return to the team after an “alcohol-related incident” before his senior season.

It wasn’t enough to simply deny the allegations against Knight. Indiana’s smear tactics turned the tournament into a dirty political campaign.

If a reporter got wind of an “alcohol-related incident” involving an Indiana player and called the school for comment, how do you think officials would respond? They’d hastily say that it’s a private matter, that they can’t comment on a student’s individual affairs, and leave it at that.

But because he dared speak out against Knight, his personal business became fair game.

It was classless. Then again, so is Knight in so many instances.

If Reed and Mandeville’s allegations aren’t true, simply say so and move on. The only single accusation Knight made a point of repudiating was that he kicked the university president out of practice.

“I may not be smart,” Knight said. “But I’m damn sure smart enough not to through the president out of practice.”

Knight never flat-out denied grabbing Reed by the neck. He didn’t deny some of his other motivational methods that might be considered to be questionable in taste. “I don’t know that I can say I’m really proud of everything I’ve done to motivate a kid,” Knight said. “But if I think I’ve been wrong or somebody has told me that I’m wrong, then I try to find some other way. I guarantee I’ve been pretty damn inventive over the years.”

The news conference moderator--probably mindful of the time Knight went off on a moderator at an NCAA tournament news conference a few years ago-- let Knight run 10 minutes past his allotted time.

At the end, a reporter asked Knight if he had any regrets about the way he has treated his players.

“Sure,” Knight said. “I mean, I’ve had regrets about the way I’ve treated my wife sometimes. I’m a long way from being perfect.” Because he’s Knight, he couldn’t leave it at that.

“Are you perfect?” he asked the reporter who asked him the question.

Of course not. No one ever asked Knight to be perfect. To simply be receptive to criticism and hold himself accountable would be a start.

The one time you can count on Knight to take the high road is after his team loses. Perhaps it’s because he knows there’s no denying the results on the scoreboard.

Knight and Indiana need to realize they crawled through the sewer in their response to these alleged attacks.

Once they accept that, maybe they can get on with the task of playing basketball in this tournament.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: [email protected].