Word: knights
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Knight's conduct off court and his team's performance on court ran true to form for the gifted but flawed coach. An acknowledged genius in the gym, Knight has a record among the finest of his generation: in six years at West Point and ten seasons with Indiana, Knight has won 333 games and lost just 118. In 1976, Indiana notched a perfect 32-0 record and won the N.C.A.A. championship. At 40, he is the youngest coach ever to win 300 games. Knight's Indiana teams are noted for their overpowering defense, which disdains...
...Knight's approach produces wonderful basketball. With Thomas, the tournament M.V.P., leading the way, Indiana hounded its opponents ruthlessly, putting on second-half spurts that sent first L.S.U., then North Carolina reeling. The effect on the Tar Heels, normally composed and efficient, was devastating: trailing by a single point at the start of the second half, they found themselves down by eleven in less than five minutes, as the Hoosiers stole the ball twice and crashed the boards to wrest rebounds from North Carolina's fearsome front line. The Tar Heels never recovered, finally losing...
...court, Knight likewise favors nose-to-nose confrontation. During the 1979 Pan American Games in Puerto Rico, Knight got into a fight with a policeman, then compounded his legal woes and embarrassed the U.S. team by saying: "The only thing they know how to do is grow bananas." Subsequently he attempted to justify an attack on a sportswriter by explaining: "I thought you were Spanish." In his quest to replace Woody Hayes as the raging bull of college athletics, Knight has repeatedly humiliated his team in public and once grabbed an erring player and threw him onto the bench during...
...contretemps with a rival fan at the finals was equally mindless. The L.S.U. follower walked up to Knight in a hotel bar and congratulated the coach on his victory. Knight, evidently taking personally the traditional L.S.U. chant Tiger Bait! Tiger Bait!, responded sharply: "We weren't tiger bait after all, were we?" The fan shouted an obscenity; Knight dared him to repeat it. When he did, the coach slammed him into the wall. Unrepentant, Knight declared proudly the following day that he would do it again...
...controversy over Knight's unsavory behavior in Philadelphia was dimmed by the N.C.A.A.'s decision to play the consolation game between L.S.U. and Virginia (won by the Cavaliers 78-74) while President Reagan was still undergoing surgery and to continue with the championship game later. The decision was criticized, but Knight defended his players' reaction: "The kids certainly felt as we all did about the tragedy, but they knew that they had a ball game to play, and they made the adjustment." Would that Bobby Knight adjusted as well to the stresses of the outside world...