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Bob Knight


rico

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I see a discussion broke out in the Romeo recruiting thread.  So I thought I would start one to specifically to talk about the "General".  As I disdain convoluted threads.  But any how this my take on what happened to RMK.  He simply lost sight of how the landscape was changing, throw in some bad recruiting choices and tactics, and his coaching skills were deteriorating.  IU quickly and abruptly fell off the map.  In the end, his arrogance got the best of him.

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One of the major problems i believe is he takinga back seat to recruiting and thinking national recruiting was the key.  There was still a lot of great pkayers in state that would loved to gave had the opportunity to play here.  The Charlie Miller'sand Andre Pattersons changed our dynamic not for the better.  I think he lost sight of how in state kids viewed IU

in doing so the outsideschools thrived on getting our talent

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I think he grew unhappy at Indiana,the people who he had to deal with on a daily basis got the best of him.His unwilling to compromise lead to what we were seeing on the floor for a few years,however I do think if he could have stuck around after 2000 we would have had a 6th Banner with the team he had assembled.

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Can we talk about Romeo here ?   Just kidding.   LOL

Two things. One.  Was very close to taking the New Mexico job, like 4 or 5 years before he got canned.  Even alluded to how he should have moved on, when he got canned.

And two.  He epitomized what  happens and what is wrong when a coach becomes bigger than the program he is coaching. 

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21 minutes ago, milehiiu said:

Can we talk about Romeo here ?   Just kidding.   LOL

Two things. One.  Was very close to taking the New Mexico job, like 4 or 5 years before he got canned.  Even alluded to how he should have moved on, when he got canned.

And two.  He epitomized what  happens and what is wrong when a coach becomes bigger than the program he is coaching. 

Actually I thought it was after the 86 season he almost left for New Mexico.

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20 minutes ago, milehiiu said:

Can we talk about Romeo here ?   Just kidding.   LOL

Two things. One.  Was very close to taking the New Mexico job, like 4 or 5 years before he got canned.  Even alluded to how he should have moved on, when he got canned.

And two.  He epitomized what  happens and what is wrong when a coach becomes bigger than the program he is coaching. 

I agree completely.  Several years after Knight left I went back and reread an except in the Dick Vitale book Knight Court.   In 96 he was saying Knight needed a change and the administration was not in line with how Bob wanted to operate.

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2 minutes ago, rico said:

Rico.  Ya beat me to it.  I had that article locked and loaded.  And this one too.

BOBBY KNIGHT'S IN NEW MEXICO, BUT DOES HE WANT TO COACH THE LOBOS? | Deseret News

So, I missed it by a decade.  You get to be my age..... what's a decade ?   LOL 

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21 minutes ago, milehiiu said:

Rico.  Ya beat me to it.  I had that article locked and loaded.  And this one too.

BOBBY KNIGHT'S IN NEW MEXICO, BUT DOES HE WANT TO COACH THE LOBOS? | Deseret News

So, I missed it by a decade.  You get to be my age..... what's a decade ?   LOL 

I tried to find one that I read at the time from one of the Fort Wayne papers.  But couldn't.  As I recall it said Knight was there to plug Dave Bliss for the opening with the Lobos.  Bliss was under fire at SMU.  

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4 minutes ago, HoosierJax said:

If you will recall the Connie Chung interview kinda got Knight looking after everyone got pissed over his comments during the interview,things quickly calmed down when rumor swirled about his interest in New Mexico.

And you are correct again, same time frame.

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In addition to what others have said, I think the generational changes in the top rated players had something to do with his declining success. Top players at one time would want to play for a coach like Knight because I've always believed that Knight made better men out of his kids than (NBA) basketball players. Over time, top players were elevated to a status where many of them wouldn't want to play for a coach like Knight that would yell and scream at them. They wanted to play for someone who would praise them like they were accustomed to. So you have players like that who committed to IU/Knight and transferred out because they didn't like/couldn't handle it, and other who wouldn't consider IU/Knight. This snowballed into less talented players at IU.

As great of a coach as Knight was, eventually talent is the deciding factor in the end. For those that disagree, swap the coach you think is the best with the coach of Mississippi Valley State (last in Kenpom rankings at #351) and tell me you think they'd make the FF or win the NC?

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7 minutes ago, cybergates said:

In addition to what others have said, I think the generational changes in the top rated players had something to do with his declining success. Top players at one time would want to play for a coach like Knight because I've always believed that Knight made better men out of his kids than (NBA) basketball players. Over time, top players were elevated to a status where many of them wouldn't want to play for a coach like Knight that would yell and scream at them. They wanted to play for someone who would praise them like they were accustomed to. So you have players like that who committed to IU/Knight and transferred out because they didn't like/couldn't handle it, and other who wouldn't consider IU/Knight. This snowballed into less talented players at IU.

 

The caveat with what you said is that Knight always had players transferring and he was still successful.  Bob Bender and Delray Brooks come to mind immediately.  And Funderburke as well.  

IMO coaching, as well as recruiting, just passed him by.  The only reason that I feel he took the Texas Tech job was to set up his son to be a HC.  

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From what was told to me by another assistant coach Felling who had a great high school coaching career in Illinois was in charge of recruiting Brian Cardinal. Apparently Felling made some phone calls and his buddies told him cardinal was not capable of playing at IU.   So Felling hit the bars instead of seeing him play live and reported to Knight that Cardinal was not our caliber.

When Cardinal committed to Purdue Knight told Felling that little SOB Is gonna cost you your job.

If u ever noticed after every IU Purdue game while Cardinal played Knight went out of his wayto talk to him

 

 

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21 minutes ago, Billingsley99 said:

From what was told to me by another assistant coach Felling who had a great high school coaching career in Illinois was in charge of recruiting Brian Cardinal. Apparently Felling made some phone calls and his buddies told him cardinal was not capable of playing at IU.   So Felling hit the bars instead of seeing him play live and reported to Knight that Cardinal was not our caliber.

When Cardinal committed to Purdue Knight told Felling that little SOB Is gonna cost you your job.

If u ever noticed after every IU Purdue game while Cardinal played Knight went out of his wayto talk to him

 

 

Interesting.

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37 minutes ago, cybergates said:

Never caught this when it happened, but interesting read now...

https://www.wthr.com/article/ron-felling-vs-bob-knight-0

I can't recall her name. But Knight had a personal secretary for years, and years.  She actually stayed on after Knight got canned.   Knight was verbally abusive to her. And I am sure he has a ton of stories that she could tell.  However, she has remained quiet, all these years.

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