Three-Point Basket Won’t Help Colleges, Says Indiana’s Knight

Indiana Coach Bobby Knight doesn’t think adding the three-point shot will add much to college basketball.

“The thing I don’t like about the three-point shot is that if I have good shooters and you don’t, then it affects you negatively and affects me positively,” Knight said in a speech to the monthly luncheon of the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando. “And I don’t think anything should be done that doesn’t affect both teams the same.”

Next season will mark the first time that the three-point rule has been used by all college teams. Until now, various conferences had experimented with it. The Big Ten Conference had the three-point shot two seasons ago, and Indiana guard Steve Alford was one of the league’s best outside shooters.

Knight, who frequently has spoken out against recruiting abuses, said he has continued to recruit within the rules despite the transgressions of others.

“I think that you just have to decide what you are going to do a with what we have done.” he said. “I am just going to stay with what we have done.”

Knight also said the new academic rule Proposition 48 should help college sports.

“My thought has always been a very simple one--college is not for everyone. College isn’t for you if you aren’t a pretty good reader and a pretty good writer. In athletics, we really haven’t understood that over the years.

“We have tried to take people who really are not bonafide college students and make college students out of them. They never become bonafide college students. Finally, we are putting together some rules and restrictions that are going to force high schools to pay more attention to academics. We are going to force high schools to do a better job of teaching kids. You can’t believe the number of kids who come to college and can’t put a full sentence together,” he said.

Knight also said college teams are playing too many games.

“You are talking about Duke just having played 40 games. It could be possible for a team . . . to play a minimum of 43 games. I just think that’s too much.”