Bob Knight dead at 83
November 2nd, 2023 at 11:43 AM ^
Yeah Bob Knight sucked as a person. Winning a few basketball games doesn’t change that.
November 1st, 2023 at 6:59 PM ^
When I was teaching in grad school (EECS), the undergrad director compared my teaching to Knight, Hayes and Schembechler.
old school to the max. RIP Bobby!
November 1st, 2023 at 7:12 PM ^
Growing up, I assumed that that style of coaching was timeless: the true and correct way to educate. It turns out it was true and correct for that particular generation of kids. But it isn't timeless, and its efficacy for other generations is ... limited.
November 1st, 2023 at 7:35 PM ^
When the prof emailed that to a student, I was already moving to a Lloyd Car style of teaching. The student in question was stubborn and not very quick, but very demanding.
He never showed up after the email, which was the directors goal. 😎
November 1st, 2023 at 7:40 PM ^
It was a different era.
I worked with a guy that played for Bo at Miami of Ohio. He said that Bo was the meanest son of a bitch that he ever met in his life. Bo would grab players by the facemask and scream at them while kicking them.
I had a football coach that did this kind of thing in middle school. We had a one-on-one contact drill once where a facemask broke and the kid was bleeding. He yelled "GOOD! That's what I want to see. BLOOD!" In middle school. We were not allowed to have any water throughout the entire practice. The coaches thought it would slow us down.
There was nothing unique about this at that time. If we went home and complained to our parents, they would have said: "Well, you went out for football, what did you expect?"
November 1st, 2023 at 7:56 PM ^
Bo and Bobby were bestest buds and great mutual admiration. They had a lot in common in terms of coaching style. There's lots of great BK quotes, but one that epitomizes both of them, an all great coaches is (I'll paraphrase) Lots of people have the will to win, but only a few have the will to prepare to win.
November 1st, 2023 at 8:03 PM ^
I remember Bo was always closer to Bobby than he was his own basketball coach. Way before the events of '89, Frieder was not his kind of guy.
November 1st, 2023 at 11:05 PM ^
Wow MiSooner sorry but the only way I can read that is your director was hinting at you that you are an asshole as a teacher.
Not an old school teacher.
What did your students earn academic conference titles without going pro?
A barking out-sized asshole who some enjoyed and others felt terrorized by seems more like it..
There's more than one way to skin a cat. There's also more than one way to get results without being an asshole.
Old school is often a euphemism.
November 1st, 2023 at 7:10 PM ^
Too damn bad. Complicated guy, but a hell of a coach and had some of the funniest coach pressers of all time.
November 1st, 2023 at 7:12 PM ^
Mixed feelings on Knight. Great basketball mind, packaged in a generally terrible persona that simply doesn't fly today and never should.
You can't argue with his on court success. Man what a dick.
November 2nd, 2023 at 11:50 AM ^
"Man what a dick" said your Mom last night. BOOM!
Phrasing.. anyone?
November 1st, 2023 at 7:16 PM ^
Somewhere, he is disappointed in the f*cking progress....
In all seriousness though, while you cannot erase his basketball success, he was....not a kind or arguably well person.
November 1st, 2023 at 7:17 PM ^
Jack S Purdue was a Knight classic.
November 1st, 2023 at 7:18 PM ^
he just couldn't live in a world where the chair from the Montgomery brawl was more famous than his
November 2nd, 2023 at 6:42 AM ^
Underrated comment.
November 1st, 2023 at 7:21 PM ^
I'm guessing an cerebral aneurism blew out. Guy spent a lot of time getting pissed off. RIP, Bobby. I should note that when Bo and Bobby both had Wisconsin offers to coach their team.
(Sorry to include an ESPN link...)
November 1st, 2023 at 7:27 PM ^
Great coach, not so great human being.
The drill sergeant approach to coaching has largely dissipated and thankfully so. There were no better practitioners of it than Knight, Bo, Bear, and Woody. All beloved by many and all leave complicated legacies to others.
John Wooden, Coach K, Dean Smith, Roy Williams…all achieved similar or even better results without being an abusive martinet.
November 1st, 2023 at 7:47 PM ^
Man, I've got some news for you about Coach K
November 1st, 2023 at 8:00 PM ^
Mostly agree with SQ's post, but Coach K is a two-faced sociopath.
November 1st, 2023 at 7:35 PM ^
Absolute Legend
Only manager better Classy Freddie Blassie
November 1st, 2023 at 8:03 PM ^
I don’t speak ill of the dead but f*ck that guy. He coached through terror.
November 1st, 2023 at 9:42 PM ^
I'm conflicted about the upvotes on the OP. Upvotes on the post or the death?
I'm reminded of the saying "Don't say anything about the dead but good. He's dead. Good." Variously attributed to Moms Mabley, Joan Crawford, and others. I'm inclined to credit Mom's Mabley.
November 1st, 2023 at 8:04 PM ^
I will always remember the 75-76 season, my first year at UM Law. The game at Crisler started out with Ricky Green racing past the Hoosiers. After we lost, Bobby said something to the effect of, "It's basketball not a track meet." And, after I was convinced we were going to win the tournament, they had the most brutally efficient second half that I have ever seen in any sport at any level. Like Woody, I can hate him as a rival but appreciate what a great coach he was.
November 1st, 2023 at 8:05 PM ^
my favorite Bob Knight video.
November 1st, 2023 at 8:05 PM ^
For those younger fans unaware, Bo tried to pull Bobby way from Indiana, and coach here.
November 1st, 2023 at 8:09 PM ^
Sometimes shitty people die and that’s okay.
November 1st, 2023 at 8:49 PM ^
RIP to an absolute legend
November 1st, 2023 at 9:18 PM ^
The guy was definitely a hothead but it has been reported that his players and the fans of Indiana loved him. He was super big into education and donated a ton of money to the schools he worked at. On top of that he is the 5th winningest coach in NCAA history and won 3 national championships. He was a disciplinarian and set high expectations for all those that played for him. People can say what they want about him but it was a much different era.
November 1st, 2023 at 9:45 PM ^
Wait, 80+ posts in and I'm the first to post the Bob Knight crystal ball interview?
November 1st, 2023 at 10:12 PM ^
Sometimes shitty people die and that’s ok. We don’t have to pretend they weren’t shitty just because they’re good at their jobs.
November 1st, 2023 at 10:24 PM ^
There'll never be another one like him. And that's a probably for the best.
November 1st, 2023 at 10:47 PM ^
If you have nothing nice to say about a person .......
November 2nd, 2023 at 6:06 AM ^
i never realized that you could use the word “complicated” in place of “one of biggest asshole bullies that ever lived,” or “a self-righteous prick who was way less virtuous than he liked to pretend,” but here we are,
November 2nd, 2023 at 6:39 AM ^
Guy epitomized male violence and bad behavior in a period when it was increasingly suspect. Not, in the end, defensible. But he was a basketball genius, and really evolved the game.
November 2nd, 2023 at 8:01 AM ^
As much as I disliked his arrogance and nastiness, no way do we lose to the Russians in 72 (clockgate, before the 2001 MSU clockgate) or 88.
He coached the best group of amateurs in 84 to a gold medal but still had that team playing with incredible dominance.
November 2nd, 2023 at 9:09 AM ^
Great coach, crappy human being.
November 2nd, 2023 at 10:47 AM ^
Hopefully he finds more serenity in his repose than he seemed to in life.
My impressions of him skewed pretty negative, and I could never root for him or his teams. My coach on the 7th grade basketball team was a huge fan of Bob Knight and his approach to the game, and that experience turned me off of being on a school team for years afterward until my skin had sufficiently thickened.
As a grad student at IU in the late 80s I was aghast at the cult of personality that had built up around him in Bloomington. I remember an exhibition game that IU played against a touring Soviet national team, when Knight refused to bring the team back on the floor after halftime because he was mad about the officiating. After the game got called off a reporter found the IU president in the stands and asked him what he thought. The president said something to the effect that the incident didn't reflect well on the university. That night a pretty large crowd carrying torches (not sure about pitchforks) surrounded the president's house.
In retrospect, I think that the guy was indeed probably a basketball genius. And that his teams actually didn't come close to reaching their full potential simply because he was such a colossal asshole.
November 4th, 2023 at 5:19 PM ^
R.I.P. Coach Knight
Is he stll wanted in Puerto Rico for punching the security guard?
I thought shaking the hand of seniors on the opposing teams during their last encounter to be a class act.