COLLEGE BASKETBALL : NCAA MEN’S NOTES : Knight Takes Time to Go Into Full-Court Press

Indiana Coach Bob Knight delivered a rambling diatribe, laced with profanity, as he tried to describe his relationship with the media during a news conference on the eve of today’s NCAA semifinal game against Duke.

In so doing, Knight exceeded his 15-minute limit, cutting into the time allotted to Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski and his players.

Knight, who was heavily criticized in the media after pretending to whip Indiana forward Calbert Cheaney, who is black, during a photo session before last week’s NCAA West Regional semifinal game against Florida State, lectured the media.

Knight stopped in mid-thought while answering a routine question about coaching against Krzyzewski, who played for Knight at Army, and began lecturing.

“It takes a hell of a lot more to amaze me than it does, but nonetheless I still become amazed with some things,” Knight said. “I’m amazed at the number of people in (the media) that interpret things that I do or say that have never met me or have never talked to me. Some of you SOBs are brilliant. You’ve been able to write and you’re able to be psychoanalysts and psychologists.

“Dealing with my relationship with the press, some of you get painted with a broad brush. I don’t think I’ve ever really talked about the press. But it always kind of amuses me that when somebody writes, it’s how Knight hates the press. I don’t hate the press. Some of you are really good at what you do. And there are a lot of you I consider to be good friends and people I respect. And I’d hate like hell to see those of you that I think are good painted with this broad brush by your cohorts because I certainly have no ill feeling about the press.

“I think there are a lot of sorry . . . in the press. But there are a lot of damn good people in it too. It’s been amazing to me, the reasons why I’ve done this that or something else during the last couple of weeks. Those of you that have a problem with me, confine it to your problem with me.”

After answering another question, Knight again turned his attention to the media.

“I go back to this thing on the press,” Knight said. “This whole thing about my dislike of the press is blown out of proportion. I don’t read a hell of a lot. I like to know what the golf scores are and I like to follow the (Detroit Tigers) and the (Oakland A’s). But the thing you’ve got to understand about me is that I’m pretty comfortable with what I do.

“(If) some guy rips the hell out of me for this or that and the name attached is Quinn Buckner or Bobby Wilkerson or Kent Benson (he pays attention). But it’s tough for me to equate anything meaningful to people I’ve hardly ever been around or don’t know.

“Anybody else got questions?”

A reporter raised his hand and said, “As one of the dumb SOBs . . . “

Knight: “How do I know?”

Reporter: “You said so in the past.”

Knight: “If I said so in the past then I bet my . . . I was right.”

The Final Four is a homecoming for Michigan assistant Brian Dutcher, whose father, Jim, coached Minnesota’s basketball team for nine seasons.

Doug Christie of Pepperdine won the pregame slam dunk contest and was named most valuable player in the NABC Collegiate All-Star game Friday night.

Christie, the two-time West Coast Conference player of the year, had 16 points, five rebounds and three assists to lead the West past the East, 117-93.