Indiana Victory Is a Daddybrook
Indiana Coach Bob Knight ranted several times during Saturday’s Big Ten game against Northwestern at Evanston, Ill., his face nearly turning the color of his familiar red sweater as he came off the bench to question an official or scream at one of his players.
No upset there--that has been going on for decades.
But after his No. 17-ranked Hoosiers shut out the Wildcats in overtime to win, 69-62, the volatile Knight went over to Northwestern Coach Kevin O’Neill for more than the customary postgame handshake.
Knight angrily let O’Neill know he didn’t appreciate some of the chants from Northwestern fans in the bleachers at the end of the floor.
O’Neill, volatile in his own right, didn’t appreciate Knight’s comments and the two soon grabbed each other and had to be separated. Less than an hour after the game, the coaches met on a side practice court, sat together under a basket and talked.
“I’m going to fight Knight at noon tomorrow over in Bloomington,” O’Neill joked.
Said Knight: “I just told him that when a crowd starts chanting ‘Who’s your [as in Hoosiers’] daddy? Who’s your daddy? Who’s your daddy?’ I don’t think we have to put up with that. Kevin said, ‘I have no control over it,’ and I said, ‘I know that.’ I started to walk away and I don’t think he felt I heard him or understood him. And he grabbed me. Well, I thought he was irritated and I said,, ‘Hey, don’t grab me, Kevin.’ ”
Moments after Indiana had beaten Northwestern for the 21st consecutive time, Knight had turned to the crowd and said: “Who’s your daddy now?”
“Coach [Knight] was upset about our crowd and I don’t control the crowd,” O’Neill said. “He may control the crowd at his place. I don’t. It [the confrontation with Knight] was nothing really, kind of a heat-of-battle thing.”
Indiana, 19-8 overall and 6-6 in the Big Ten, used collapsing zone defense to hold Northwestern’s 6-foot-11 center Evan Eschmeyer to two points and two shots in the second half. Eschmeyer, averaging 20.5 points, fouled out in overtime with 12 points--15 less than his previous game against the Hoosiers.
Seldom-used Lynn Washington’s only basket of the game gave Indiana the lead at 64-62 in overtime. A.J. Guyton, who had 22 points, sealed the victory with four free throws.
David Newman led Northwestern (14-8, 6-6) with 18 points.
No. 1 Duke 102, Wake Forest 71--The Blue Devils (25-1, 13-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference--on Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s 52nd birthday--won their 20th game in a row overall and increased their winning streak at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C., to 35.
Duke clinched at least a tie for its third consecutive ACC regular-season championship, with North Carolina (1976-78) being the last school to accomplish the feat. The Blue Devils are bidding to become to first team to go through the ACC’s 16-game schedule undefeated.
Duke had six players score in double figures for the fourth time in five games, led by Trajan Langdon with 20 points. Robert O’Kelley led Wake Forest (13-11, 4-8) with 19 points.
The game was delayed about 30 minutes when Wake Forest reserve Ed Kargbookorogie, who also plays football, broke one of the glass backboards in warmups. The mishap forced both teams to use the arena’s backup portable basketball standards.
During the game, the Duke mascot carried a sign that read, “You break it, you buy it.”
No. 2 Connecticut 53, Seton Hall 48--The Huskies (22-1, 13-1 in the Big East) beat the Pirates (12-12, 6-9) at East Rutherford, N.J., despite making only two field goals the first 15 minutes of the second half and two of eight free throws in the final 32 seconds.
Connecticut shot 33% and missed all 14 of its three-point attempts. Kevin Freeman had 13 points for the Huskies.
No. 3 Auburn 102, Alabama 61--The Tigers (24-1, 11-1), under the impression Crimson Tride center Jeremy Hays had guaranteed that his team would win, took a 41-12 lead at Auburn, Ala., in winning their first Southeastern Conference divisional championship since the format started in 1991.
Hays, who was taunted throughout the game by fans waving printed sheets of his alleged guarantee, said he was misquoted.
“I would never make a quote like that, I just want to clear my name on that,” Hays said. “What I said was that Auburn was beatable. I am not the type of player who would guarantee a win.”
Hays led Alabama (14-12, 4-9) with 18 points and seven rebounds.
Auburn point guard Doc Robinson scored a career-high 25 points and had seven assists and only two turnovers in 28 minutes.
No. 5 Michigan State 84, No. 22 Minnesota 82--Mateen Cleaves scored on a driving layup with 1.2 seconds left as the Spartans (22-4, 11-1) won a school-record 11th consecutive Big Ten game at Minneapolis.
Cleaves had 23 points and Morris Peterson scored eight of his 20 points in the final 5:16 to help Michigan State overcome a 10-point deficit.
Big Ten scoring leader Quincy Lewis had 29 points for Minnesota (14-8, 5-7).
No. 7 Maryland 81, No. 12 North Carolina 64--The Terrapins (22-4, 10-3) solidified their hold on second place in the ACC at College Park, Md., as they completed their first regular-season sweep of the Tar Heels (19-7, 9-5) in nine years.
Steve Francis scored 22 points and Terence Morris, in his third strong effort since replacing injured starting center Obinna Ekezie, had 14 points and nine rebounds.
North Carolina had a season-high 25 turnovers and never led in the game’s final 24 minutes.
No. 8 Kentucky 74, South Carolina 40--The Wildcats (20-6, 9-3 in the SEC), who had 36 turnovers in back-to-back losses last week, had only 10 at Lexington, Ky.
South Carolina (7-17, 2-10) shot 25% and had 20 turnovers, which Kentucky converted into 23 points. .
Kentucky had five players score in double figures, led by Scott Padgett’s 13.
No. 11 St. John’s 82, Villanova 75--Tyrone Grant, sidelined eight games with a broken wrist, returned to get 14 points and 17 rebounds for the Red Storm (20-6, 11-3 in the Big East) at New York.
St. John’s was 5-3 without Grant, who is averaging 11.5 points and a team-leading 8.9 rebounds. The losses were to No. 1 Duke, No. 2 Connecticut and No. 16 Miami at Madison Square Garden, where the Red Storm is now 4-5.
Villanova (18-7, 9-6) made only 11 of 31 three-point shots.
No. 13 Ohio State 73, No. 19 Iowa 69--Scoonie Penn scored 27 points and Michael Redd had 22 as the Buckeyes (19-6, 9-3 in the Big Ten) overcame 12-of-30 free throw shooting to win for the first time in 11 years at Iowa City, Iowa.
Iowa (16-7, 7-6) made only four of 19 three-point shots and 21 of 39 free throws. Jacob Jaacks had 14 points and 15 rebounds for the Hawkeyes.
No. 14 Utah 82, Hawaii 55--Hanno Mottola scored 10 of his 23 points in less than two minutes during a decisive 20-5 run in second half at Salt Lake City as the Utes (20-4, 10-0 in the Western Athletic Conference) won their 15th in a row. Utah also has won 33 consecutive games at home.
Hawaii (5-18, 2-9) was outrebounded, 38-22, in losing to Utah for the ninth consecutive time.
No. 15 Wisconsin 73, Penn State 63--Charlie Wills scored 10 of his 14 points in the final three minutes as the Badgers (21-5, 9-4 in the Big Ten) set a school-record for victories and improved their home record to 11-1 at Madison, Wis.
Wisconsin has won 20 games only two other times in 101 years, 1915-16 and 1940-41, when it won the NCAA championship. Penn State (10-12, 2-10) lost its fifth in a row.
No. 16 Miami (Fla.) 69, Providence 65--The Hurricanes (17-5, 11-3) improved their Big East road record to 7-1 with the victory over the Friars (14-10, 7-6) at Providence, R.I.
Tim James, who had 22 points and 11 rebounds, made a 15-foot jumper with 6:45 left to give Miami the lead for good at 58-57.
No. 20 College of Charleston 58, Chattanooga 53--Jermel President, the Southern Conference’s top free-throw shooter at 88.2%, made two with 21 seconds to provide the decisive points for the Cougars (23-2, 14-0) at Chattanooga, Tenn.
Chattanooga (14-10, 8-6) twice tied the score but never led.
No. 21 Purdue 63, Illinois 56--Jaraan Cornell had a career-high 30 points to lead the Boilermakers (18-7, 6-5 in the Big Ten) at Champaign, Ill.
Illinois (10-15, 2-11) had runs of 10-0 and 17-0, but Purdue made eight consecutive free throws in the final three minutes. Freshman Cory Bradford had 23 points for the Illini.
No. 23 Florida 75, Georgia 64--The Gators (17-6, 8-5) made their first six three-point shots and finished 15 for 29 from behind the arc at Athens, Ga.
Kenyan Weaks made six of seven three-point shots and had 22 points to lead Florida. Jumaine Jones had 24 points and 12 rebounds for Georgia (14-10. 5-7).
Texas Tech 90, No. 24 Kansas 84--Junior guard Rayford Young scored a career-high 41 points, making five of seven three-point shots and all 18 of his free throws to give the Red Raiders (12-13, 4-8) their first victory in 11 games over the Jayhawks (16-8, 8-4) at Lubbock, Texas.
Young scored 35 in the second half, helping Texas Tech come back from a 62-48 deficit with 10:08 remaining. Young gave the Red Raiders their first lead of the second half at 70-69 with a three-point basket with four minutes left, then made 10 free throws in the final 58 seconds. Texas Tech made 27 of 29 free throws in its 60-point second half.
Jeff Boschee, Ryan Robertson and Nick Bradford each scored 16 points for Kansas.
No. 25 New Mexico 83, Fresno State 81--Kevin Henry had a career-high 28 points, including three free throws with the final 3.6 seconds for the Lobos (20-6, 7-4 in the WAC) at Albuquerque. Fresno State (17-9, 6-4) got a career-high 28 points from Terrance Roberson.
OTHER GAMES
Wally Szczerbiak had 35 points and 16 rebounds as Miami of Ohio (19-4, 14-1) clinched at least a tie for its 20th regular-season Mid-American Conference or divisional championship with a 78-56 victory over Eastern Michigan (3-19, 3-12) at Oxford, Ohio. . . . Sophomore Brian Wardle made a school-record 16 of 16 free throws and had 36 points for Marquette (13-12, 5-8) in Conference USA) om a 69-59 victory over North Carolina Charlotte (15-9, 7-5) at Milwaukee. Former Laker Tony Smith made 15 free throws without miss in a game in 1990. . . . Freshman Quentin Richardson had 20 points and 11 rebounds--his fifth consecutive double-double--as DePaul (14-9, 8-5) won for the fifth time in six games with an 81-75 victory over Memphis (11-12, 4-8) at Chicago. . . . Princeton (17-5, 8-1 in the Ivy League), which overcame a 27-point deficit in the second half against Penn in Philadelphia on Tuesday, led all the way in a 67-45 victory over Brown (4-18, 2-8) at Providence, R.I. . . . Murray State (23-4, 15-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference) extended with nation’s longest current home winning streak to 42 games at Murray, Ky., with a 94-89 victory in double overtime over Eastern Illinois (13-14, 8-9). . . . Venson Hamilton reached a Big 12 milestone with 20 points and 13 rebounds for Nebraska (17-8, 9-3) in a 59-57 winner over Iowa State (13-12, 4-8) at Lincoln, Neb. Hamilton became the fourth player in the Big 12 and former Big Eight to get 1,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 200 blocked shots, joining Danny Manning of Kansas, Wayman Tisdale of Oklahoma and Byron Houston of Oklahoma State.