NCAA WEST REGIONAL : Indiana Goes Down, and Knight Blows Up

Indiana Coach Bobby Knight, irate because reporters were erroneously informed that he had refused to attend a news conference after the Hoosiers’ 65-60 loss to Missouri in the opening round of the West Regional Friday night, blasted an NCAA tournament official in the media interview room at Boise State Pavilion.

Knight shouted obscenities while admonishing moderator Rance Pugmire, who only moments before had announced that Knight had declined to be interviewed. The NCAA requires tournament participants to make coaches and players available for interviews after games.

“We only got two people that are going to tell you I’m not going to be here, one is our (sports information director) and the other is me,” Knight said as he stared angrily at Pugmire as they sat next to each other during the tense interview session.

“Who the hell told you I wasn’t going to be here? I’d like to know. Do you have any idea who it was?”

Pugmire, regional development director for the University of Idaho, tried several times to defuse Knight while the coach questioned his competence as a moderator. He apologized often during Knight’s tirade.

“This was not Coach Knight’s fault,” a shaken Pugmire said. “I can understand (his anger). How can you blame the guy? It was our foul-up, not his.”

Max Corbet, media coordinator for the West Regional and the sports information director at Boise State, said Pugmire was not at fault. Corbet said a person assigned to escort coaches and players from the locker rooms to the interview room had told Pugmire that Knight was not coming.

“It just sounds like a miscommunication to me,” Corbet said. “One of the escorts spoke out of turn.”

Pugmire later joked about the situation, saying: “I’ve been an Indiana basketball fan for a long time. If you have to have someone rip your talent, who better than Bobby Knight?”

Lost momentarily in Knight’s outburst was that the career of standout senior forward Alan Henderson came to a close. Henderson scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for ninth-seeded Indiana (19-12).

Forward Brian Evans led the Hoosiers with 24 points but scored only five after halftime. Guard Paul O’Liney scored a team-high 22 points for the eighth-seeded Tigers (20-8), who play UCLA in the next round.

Mississippi State 75, Santa Clara 67--Santa Clara’s outstanding guard, Steve Nash, couldn’t overcome the Bulldogs’ balanced attack.

Nash, the West Coast Conference player of the year, scored a game-high 22 points and grabbed seven rebounds. But Mississippi State guards Darryl Wilson and T.J. Honore scored 19 and 16 points and controlled the tempo.

Twelfth-seeded Santa Clara (21-7) won the WCC regular-season title.

Center Eric Dampier scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds for Mississippi State (21-7), which will play in the second round for the first time in school history. The fifth-seeded Bulldogs meet fourth-seeded Utah.