On This Knight, We’re Having Some Leftovers

A recap of events while reviewing my NCAA bracket--the pods must be crazy!--and thinking how nice it is a guy can cobble together almost an entire column using only Bob Knight leftovers.

News item: Southern Illinois turns Texas Tech’s first-round NCAA game into “Long Day’s Journey into Knight.”

Second thought: You don’t think God has a sense of humor? At the same time Knight’s team was getting bounced out of the NCAA tournament on Friday night in Chicago, actor Brian Dennehy was on stage a few blocks away at the Goodman Theater starring in Eugene O’Neill’s classic “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning play about one torturous day in the life of a dysfunctional family. Dennehy’s stellar career has taken on a familiar theme. He won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s “Death of A Salesman,” then starred as the controversial Knight in the low-brow ESPN movie, “A Season on the Brink,” and transitioned smoothly into the O’Neill role of James Tyrone, patriarch of a dysfunctional family. (Make your own comparisons as this relates to Knight and the Indiana basketball family.)

And while Knight’s act closed after one night in Chicago, Dennehy’s “Journey” is sold out through April 6.

Interestingly, in both “A Season on the Brink” and O’Neill’s classic tale of despair, Digger Phelps plays the part of himself.

News item: Southern Illinois player says playing against Bob Knight’s team was not what he expected.

Second thought: Don’t get Saluki forward Jermaine Dearman wrong. He enjoyed beating Texas Tech in Friday night’s first-round game and said he admired the hall-of-fame coach. “He is the General,” Dearman said, “one of the best coaches out there. But I was kind of waiting to see if he would kick a chair, that would have been great to see in person, but I guess he’s gotten older and wiser.”

News item: Knight is a perfect gentleman during his short tournament stay.

Second thought: He didn’t rant, rave, throw a chair or a tantrum. Knight seemed to go out of his way to be normal. This was in contrast to 1997, after his Indiana Hoosiers suffered a first-round defeat to Colorado in Winston Salem, N.C. Knight was so ticked off after the defeat he refused to board the team bus and instead walked several miles back to the hotel in a driving rainstorm. How do I know? I got wind of the story from a security guard and hopped in my rental car in pursuit.

Sure enough, I caught Knight in my headlights. He was walking briskly down the middle of the road, in a bad part of town, with his cap pulled down tightly on his head. I considered offering Knight a ride--”Hey, what’s up, Knight?--but opted to trail him from a distance until he made it safely to town.

That’s the fascinating thing about Knight: you can’t take your eyes off him.

News item: Knight admits he has really grown as a coach this year.

Second thought: What Knight actually said was, “I gained about seven pounds.”

News item: Melanie Davis becomes first woman to officiate an NCAA tournament game.

Second thought: Davis worked Saturday’s Illinois-San Diego State game and did a fine job. “That’s the first game I’ve had with a lady referee,” Illinois Coach Bill Self said. “She demanded as much respect as anybody we’ve had all year. I didn’t think twice about it.”

Gee, you think it was coincidence that the NCAA did not assign Davis to the later game in Chicago, Texas Tech vs. Southern Illinois?

News item: Fresno State basketball Coach Jerry Tarkanian announces his retirement.

Second thought: In a related cost-cutting move, the NCAA announced that 10 investigators will take early retirement.

News item: Gonzaga loses first-round tournament game.

Second thought: See? This proves the selection committee was right in giving the Zags a No. 6 seeding instead of a No. 3

Dumb argument. Had Gonzaga received the seeding it deserved, it might have won its first-round game and still be playing. That’s the whole idea of seeding, right?

News item: New York Yankees release Ruben Rivera after he steals teammate Derek Jeter’s glove.

Second thought: Rivera said what he did was a “rookie” mistake. Wrong. Missing a bunt sign is a rookie mistake. Not advancing a runner to second, making the first or third out at third base, letting tobacco juice drip on your jersey--those are rookie mistakes. Last time I checked, heisting valuables from a someone was a crime.

News item: Southeastern Conference Commissioner Roy Kramer announces his retirement.

Second thought: In his 12 years at the helm, Kramer turned the SEC into a money-making machine, presided over the most sanctioned conference in the country and was the godfather and creator of college football’s dreaded bowl championship series.

The question now is whether the BCS will survive without Kramer’s support. The BCS has produced nothing but outrage the last two seasons. In 2000, Oklahoma and Miami were No. 1 and No. 2 in both the writers’ and coaches’ polls but Florida State edged Miami in the complicated BCS standings and got to play for the national title. Same story this year, when Miami and Oregon were No. 1 and No. 2 in both polls but Nebraska advanced to the national title based on its No. 2 BCS ranking.

Kramer’s retirement could push college football toward a playoff. There is already talk the BCS bosses are going to dump the computer component in next year’s formula, which would be a blow for nerds across America.

No word yet on Kramer’s successor. I say load the credentials of the top 10 candidates into the BCS computer and see what it spits out.

News item: Denver Nugget guard Tim Hardaway suspended two games and fined $10,000 for tossing a television monitor.

Second thought: Funny, I did the same thing after watching Tonya Harding-Paula Jones and was only assessed a living-room technical.