Let the Record Not Show Knight Has Lost It

Those who wait for Bob Knight to fade or to fail will have to wait a while longer.

The prospect of Indiana’s first 0-3 start in Big Ten play since Knight’s first season in 1972 was pushed aside Tuesday when the Hoosiers handed No. 17 Michigan an 80-62 loss in Bloomington, Ind.--defeating a team that has beaten Duke and was riding a six-game winning streak.

Never mind that there was another familiar sideline scene. This time guard Michael Lewis argued vociferously with Knight, who grabbed him by the arm when Lewis started to walk away as Knight criticized him for a defensive play.

The two later talked calmly on the bench, but crisis never seems more than a step away these days, on the heels of sophomore center Jason Collier’s transfer to Georgia Tech.

The memory of Neil Reed’s controversial transfer last spring after Indiana’s third first-round NCAA tournament loss in a row is still fresh--as is the bizarre image of Knight walking back to the team hotel in the rain after the NCAA loss to Colorado.

There are rumblings among Indiana fans when a Hoosier team is 10-5--even though the victory over Michigan was a strong one and was accomplished with only one senior starter--forward Andrae Patterson. Of the other key players, guards A.J. Guyton and Lewis are sophomores, swingman Luke Recker is a savvy freshman and emerging forward William Gladness is a junior.

Among the early-season losses was a respectable 75-72 loss to No. 6 Kentucky, along with those to Temple, Hawaii, Iowa and Illinois.

Besides, what’s 0-2 in conference when the Big Ten champion will be decided in a tournament for the first time this season?

All that aside, you can’t help but wonder if Knight’s basketball boot camp has much appeal for the NBA-focused high school players of today.

Indiana’s last trip to the Final Four was only six years ago, in 1992, but the Hoosiers haven’t won more than 22 games in any of the last four seasons and haven’t won a Big Ten title since 1993--the longest dry spell in Knight’s 26 years.

While fans muse about how former Indiana star Steve Alford, now the coach at Southwest Missouri State, would look on the Hoosier bench, Knight’s fiercest defenders are never far away.

“All I know is the guy has won 700-plus games, three national championships, 11 Big Ten championships, given millions to the university and they started 9-5 and 0-2 in the Big Ten,” said Dan Dakich, in his first year as Bowling Green’s coach after spending the last 16 years at Indiana, four as a player, 12 as an assistant coach.

“The truth of the matter is, I don’t know why their record is what it is, but people are going to write the articles they always seem to do on Coach Knight. They’re going to take the easy way out, and I’ll read about the kids who left Indiana. Nobody wants to write that a lot left because Coach Knight very honestly described what their playing time would be.”

Western Michigan Coach Bob Donewald, another former assistant, was even more emphatic after his team’s loss to Indiana in the Hoosier Classic in late December.

“I [hear] that Knight needs to leave, that the game has passed him by. That’s an interesting comment that I hear,” Donewald said. “I interact with basketball coaches at all levels . . . and wherever I go, whenever I’m around basketball coaches at any level, I end up getting grilled on what he does, how he does it, how he teaches it and when he does it.

“There’s one other thing, probably the thing that has made me the angriest. Now [people say] it’s time for him to step down and we’re going to talk about who’s replacing him.

“But you know what? The man has no equal. When he steps down at Indiana, feel sorry for the man that replaces him. He may look nice, he may say the right things, he may be a pretty boy, but his life is going to be miserable as soon as all of those critics realize he can’t measure up.”

NOT GONE FISHING YET

At 57, Knight is getting questions about retirement, particularly after Dean Smith’s resignation at North Carolina since the two are considered contemporaries even though Smith is nearly 10 years older.

“Dean Smith is a very close friend, and a guy I enjoyed a great relationship with for 32, 33 years,” Knight said after a recent game. “I think he just felt, as I’ve talked to him the past two or three years about it, he wanted to go play golf. I play all the golf I want to play. Someday I’m going to decide I’m going fishing, but I’m not ready to.

“I like the kids we’re bringing in. For the first time in several years, we’ve got some kids in Indiana that I think can play basketball and we haven’t had that. The good teams that we’ve always had have been made up of Indiana kids. Now we’ve got some kids who are beginning to come. I’d kind of like to enjoy that.

“At some point in time, I’d hope we’d have the chance to play for another national championship. . . . My main concern is to develop a team that can really play. That’s what I’d like to do now, put together a team that can really play, that’s enjoyable to watch, enjoyable for me to watch, one that exhibits the facets of the game that I think are really important and should be a part of the game. That is my soul objective in coaching right now.

“OK? I’ve got to go hunting in the morning.”

WHAT WERE YOU DOING NEW YEAR’S?

Name Arizona’s leading scorer.

It isn’t Miles Simon, who was spectacular in the Wildcats’ sweep of UCLA and USC--averaging 26.5 points while making 60% of his shots and 16 of 17 free throws.

It’s swingman Michael Dickerson, who spends a lot of time alone on the McKale Center court.

“I was in here New Years’ Eve at 11 or 12, shooting,” Dickerson said. “This is the best place I felt I could be.”

Dickerson is averaging 18.6 points to Simon’s 17.8--and over the last six games has made nearly 70% of his shots (55 of 80).

That’s not all layups, either. Dickerson leads the team in three-point percentage at 47% and has made 26 this season.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” Arizona Coach Lute Olson said. “He’s been unbelievable since the start of the year. It’s just a matter of him continuing to build confidence. Michael Dickerson has never played better for us. Then the fact that he’s doing it on the defensive end too. . . . He’s been the best offensive player on this team since practice started.

“You can’t expect him to continue making 10 of 12. You’re not going to expect that, but he’s been consistent.”

TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF

Washington State pretty much understood it was going to have to part with quarterback Ryan Leaf after the Rose Bowl.

Then Rodrigo de la Fuente, the leading scorer on the Cougars’ basketball team, turned pro.

Very early--as in less than halfway through the season.

Washington State was 7-4 before losing De la Fuente, a native of Spain, to a professional team in Barcelona last week. Under the Spanish league’s rules, De la Fuente had to join the Barcelona team by Jan. 5 or the Madrid team would hold his rights. Sources told the Seattle Times that a huge amount of money was at stake, and that De la Fuente signed a three-year guaranteed contract with Barcelona for close to $1 million.

“As a coach, I’m really disappointed,” Washington State’s Kevin Eastman said. “But as Rod’s friend, advisor and father away from home, it’s a no-brainer.”

Eastman’s team lost its first game without De la Fuente on Monday to Washington, 82-76. Next up: Arizona.

Washington Coach Bob Bender could only shake his head at his rival’s sudden change of fortune.

“A guy gets injured, blows a knee, you just go on,” Bender told the Seattle Times. “But to lose a guy like that, man, that is difficult.”

QUICK SHOTS

Duke’s 32-point victory over Maryland shortly after losing leading scorer and rebounder Elton Brand for the season sent shivers through the Atlantic Coast Conference. So will this quote from Coach Mike Krzyzewski: “We’re still very much a developing team and are trying to establish a little different identity without Elton.” . . . With forward Mark Madsen out for at least four weeks because of a stress fracture in his right foot, Stanford got a spectacular performance from guard Kris Weems against Oregon--a 34-point game on 13-of-18 shooting in a victory Monday. With a victory over Cal on Saturday, Stanford will tie the best start in school history--a 14-0 mark by the 1936-37 team. . . . Count two Florida teams--Florida State and Miami--among the surprises of the season. Florida State lags only North Carolina and Duke in the ACC--largely because of the arrival of Coach Steve Robinson, a former assistant to Roy Williams at Kansas who was the coach at Tulsa the last two seasons, and guard Terrell Baker, a junior college transfer. Miami, long the poor relation of the Hurricanes’ football team, is finally getting a little attention of its own--drawing 8,247--the sixth-largest crowd in school history--for its upset of No. 8 Connecticut on Tuesday.