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Bob Knight

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Submitted By matand01
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As the referee blew his whistle, Knight flung the chair across the court. The crowd could not believe their own eyes. No one had ever seen a coach react in such a rude and temperamental manner. Many people say Bobby Knight is one of the most controversial coaches in the NCAA history. Some people say that his coaching methods are cruel; some might even say abusive. However, no one can argue that he was not a successful coach and coached his teams to national titles. Bobby Knight is one of the most talented college basketball coaches to have coached in the NCAA and has led his teams to numerous championships. Before one may look at his achievements, they first must know a certain amount of background information. Bobby Knight was born on October 25, 1940 in Massillon, Ohio. He wanted to be a basketball player his entire life, which was considered odd at this time period because most boys back then wanted to be professional baseball players (Hammel 36). But Knight always had his sites on being a basketball player. High School Basketball actually started for him in eighth grade. His High School coaches name was Jack Graham. He was a very talented basketball player in high school. As soon as he started high school he was put on varsity. He was also talented in football and baseball during high school. He had been inducted to the Orrville High School Hall of Fame by the end of his high school career for basketball (Hammel 51-52). He attended college at Ohio State University. He was coached under Basketball Hall of Fame coach, Fred Taylor. He was a reserve player for Ohio State in the 1960 NCAA National Championship (Bobby Knight 2). Bobby Knight graduated in 1962 and became the junior varsity coach at Cuyahoga Falls High School in Ohio (Bobby Knight 1). After coaching at Cuyahoga, he was hired as assistant coach at the United States Military Academy in 1963 at West Point in New York (Bob Knight 2). He was assistant coach for two years and in 1965 he became head coach. He left the United States Military Academy 1971 to take the head coaching job at Indiana University (Bobby Knight 1). He unfortunately did not win any post-season ranks while head coach for the Army. Bobby Knight gained most of his fame during his years at Indiana University. He coached there for 29 years (Hammel 87). In those years, he won numerous championships and tournaments. These are what are known as his glory days. He captured his first NCAA championship in 1976 (Bobby Knight 2). Having the education that Knight had in military history earned him the nickname “the general”. Dick Vitale, a broadcaster for NCAA basketball, gave this nickname to him. Of his 29 years at Indiana he won 3 national championships. The first NCAA tournament that Knight won, they created the perfect season, a record of 32-0 (Bob Knight 4-5). He also won national titles in 1981 and 1987. Unfortunately, throughout his stay at Indiana there were a number of complaints that had been mentioned. Because of these complaints, in May of 2000, IU had to enforce the “zero tolerance”. This meant that Knight could not make one more mistake. If he did, it would mean his termination from Indiana University. Let’s take a closer look at the complaints and controversies mentioned earlier. In 1979, Knight was arrested for assaulting a police officer during the Pan American Games in Puerto Rico. He was angry because there was not a practice gym available for the teams use. He was later convicted in a Puerto Rican Court, but the charges were fortunately dropped (Bob Knight 6). Then in 1985, Knight threw a chair across the court when protesting a referee’s call during a game against their rivals, Purdue. Knight received a one game suspension and a 2-year probation from the Big Ten Conference. Three years later, in April 1988, Knight commented, “I think that if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.” Of course this upset women’s groups nationwide, but he said he was referring to an Indiana game in which the referees were making poor calls against the Hoosiers (Bob Knight 6). In September 2000, a freshman at Indiana University, Kent Harvey, said “Hey, Knight, what’s up?” as he passed by him. Knight grabbed him by the arm and angrily yelled at him for not showing the proper respect. According to Knight, Harvey was exaggerating the incident and he only pulled him aside and lectured him about manners. Unfortunately, these and many other complaints led to Knights termination from Indiana. He took the next season off to look for coaching vacancies at other colleges. After that season, he decided to accept the head coaching position at Texas Tech. After accepting the coaching job, he quickly improved the schools basketball program. Texas Tech had not been to an NCAA tournament since 1996 (Bob Knight 4). Knight led the Red Raider to post-season appearances in his first four seasons on the job; three of which, were NCAA Championship Tournament games. After suffering through a rough season in 2006, finishing with a record of 15-17, Knight picked his team back up the next season and finished with a record of 21-13 (Hammel 156). However, the most successful season that Bobby Knight had with Texas Tech would be back in 2005. The Red Raiders made it as far as the sweet sixteen (Bob Knight 5). He has led great teams to victory at every college he has coached. Bob knight had many offensive and defensive philosophies when it came to coaching basketball. One of these is his motion offense that stresses post players setting screens and perimeter players passing the ball until a teammate becomes open for an easy shot (Bob Knight 5). This means that players have to be unselfish and able to set effective screens. He also had a certain way of playing defense. On defense, Knight’s players are supposed to guard man-to-man and also help teammates when needed. Although he usually used a man-to-man defense he also, once in a while, incorporated a zone defense (Bob Knight 5). These are that strategies he used to coach game winning teams. Knight was also known for using powerful mind games with opposing teams. When the three point line was introduced to NCAA basketball in 1986, Knight made the commented “There are only three players in the Big Ten who can hit it, and I have two of them.” This made other players from other teams try to shoot the three more often to prove they were the third player Knight mentioned. So it resulted in a much higher percentage of missed shots for other teams (Bobby Knight 6). Bobby knight retired in the middle of the 2008 season after his 900th win over Minnesota (Bob Knight 9). This made him the coach who led his teams to the most win’s in NCAA history. He had an amazing and successful coaching career that ended with him being inducted into the NCAA Hall of Fame. Fortunately, the Knight, basketball family tradition will live on through Bobby Knight’s son, Patrick Knight. Although some may question Knights coaching methods, none can argue with the results. Bobby Knight is one of the most talented college basketball coaches to have coached in the NCAA and has led his teams to numerous championships.

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