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Y E S
By Dan Shanoff,CNN/SI
For those who have joined us late, or have Bloomington
blinders on, let's review:
1998 NCAA Tournament
Second round: UConn 78, Indiana68
1997 NCAA Tournament
First round: Colorado 80, Indiana 62
1996 NCAA Tournament
First round: Boston College 64, Indiana 51
1995 NCAA Tournament
First round: Missouri 65, Indiana 60
The same reason Knight became a legendary
coach—he got results—should prompt his retirement now.
Is it talent? In former Hoosiers
Andrae Patterson and
Neil Reed, plus current players
A.J. Guyton and
Luke Recker, Knight's teams have had the talent to certainly get to the Sweet 16.
Is it his motion offense? Other coaches, like Stanford's
Mike Montgomery, run similar systems with better
results.
Is it his personality? Charitably described, the
58-year-old Knight is still intense. No one minded the
screaming when he was winning big, but as the team's play
has declined, the yelling and ref-baiting have become
tiresome.
Whatever the reasons, the Hoosiers aren't winning like they
used to. Four
consecutive poor postseason showings are symptomatic of
something bigger. A fifth in '99 will signal
an epidemic.
Something is not working, and the only constant during the
past half-decade has been Knight. In former Indiana
All-American and current Southwest Missouri State coach
Steve
Alford, a successor awaits.
Before things get worse, Knight should fire up the team for
one last run, collect tributes from admirers and critics
alike during a Big Ten farewell tour and save his
fans—and himself—from future
humiliation. |
N O
By Albert Lin,CNN/SI
O.K., we grant you, the last quadrennium has been a fiasco.
When Indiana's Class of '98 hit campus four years ago,
Andrae Patterson, Charlie Miller, Neil Reed
and Rob Hodgson were supposed to maintain a Tradition that dates all the
way back to Everett Dean and Branch McCracken. That didn't happen.
But you only have to go back five years for Knight's last
great team, led by Calbert Cheaney, which won the school's
19th Big Ten championship. The same team reached the Final Four
a year earlier, losing to eventual champion Duke. So, basically,
an overreliance on one bad recruiting class has everyone up in
arms?
Knight has 720 wins, three
NCAA titles and coached a team—his undefeated 1975-76
squad—many consider the best of all time. His methods
have been called into question any number of times, but
those strong enough to survive Knight all point to him as a
friend and one of their greatest
influences.
For those who say he can't recruit anymore:
Isiah Thomas is the only bona fide NBA star Knight has coached. He's
always managed to find a way to win with predominantly
complementary players. There are still plenty of kids who
grow up wanting to don the red-and-white uniform and play
for Bob
Knight.
Knight is at his best when his team is given up for
dead—as it was entering the 1986-87 season. This year
the Hoosiers have a talented perimeter game but seemingly
nothing inside. This is not to suggest that Indiana will go
6-0 in the tournament, but a
year from now many will be wondering what all the hubbub was
about. |
