NCAA TOURNAMENT / DAILY REPORT : EAST REGIONAL : Knight’s Back Hurts; Players Back Him

Indiana Coach Bob Knight says his ailing back will be of little consequence when the Hoosiers plays Ohio University tonight in the first round at Landover, Md.

“My back doesn’t make any difference,” he said. “I haven’t had anything happen to my voice.”

Knight stood during the final half of his news conference Thursday and never raised his voice in perhaps as sedate a session with the press as he has ever had.

Wearing a truss to ease the pain in his lower back, Knight was almost cordial in discussing his team’s chances against Ohio.

It has been a wild season for Knight, who in separate games appeared to head-butt freshman Sherron Wilkerson and appeared to kick his own son, Pat.

“I don’t see what the problem is,” said star guard Damon Bailey. “I don’t see why you guys worry about it when we don’t worry about it.

“Sherron is the one who’s getting head-butted. Pat’s the one who happened to get kicked. If we understand what he’s doing, if we understand that he’s trying to make us better. . . . That’s just coach’s way of doing things. Different coaches have different styles.”

Knight, asked if he was concerned he might one day step too far over the line, said: “I think we all have areas that we could eventually step over. But are any of us ever able to say that it will never happen? We all want things to flow as smoothly as possible, but I think we can’t in any way guarantee that that will always be the case.”

After the Hoosiers’ last home game this season, Knight recited a poem to the crowd in which he asked to be buried face down so his critics would find it easier to kiss his rump.

“I’m sure he just found it in a book of great poems somewhere,” forward Alan Henderson said.