Knight Tells Paper He’s Staying at Indiana

Bob Knight says he will remain at Indiana and turn down an offer to become the basketball coach at New Mexico, according to a published report.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported in today’s editions that Knight met Sunday with Indiana University president Thomas Ehrlich to tell him of his decision to remain in the job he has held for 17 years.

“The first thing I told Mr. Ehrlich was that I was staying at Indiana,” Knight said during a telephone interview Sunday.

John Koenig, the New Mexico athletic director who interviewed with Knight at Albuquerque last week, expressed surprise at the report when contacted at Anaheim.

“We’re still talking,” Koenig said. “I’ve received messages all day and there wasn’t one from him.” He said he assumes Knight would have contacted him had the coach reached a decision on his coaching future.

Ken Johns, an influential Albuquerque businessman and a member of the university’s board of regents, also said he “hadn’t heard anything at all. That’s news to us.”

Indiana University sports information director Kit Klingelhoffer, asked late Sunday to comment on the Minneapolis report, said: “I don’t know anything about it.” Knight, he added, “hasn’t said anything to me.”

Knight, who has won three NCAA championships at Indiana, said there was no truth to reports of trouble between him and Ehrlich and difficulties in recruiting.

“Any decision that I would have made to leave Indiana or get out of coaching would not be made because of people now at Indiana,” Knight said.

Nevertheless, Knight told the newspaper he has been considering leaving because of personal reasons. He said he had no thought of doing so before the 1988-89 season, however.

He said he became interested in the New Mexico job after being criticized by Ehrlich and several faculty members for his televised comments comparing stress to rape. After the NBC show was aired, Ehrlich was quoted as saying Knight’s comments were in “bad taste,” but he added that he wanted the longtime coach to remain at Indiana.

Though he said he’s turning down the New Mexico offer, Knight described the job as one better ones in the country.

“The New Mexico job is one of five or six jobs in the country I would consider taking,” he said. “I think it offers a good opportunity for somebody.”