University back off ultimatum; Knight to coach (lib Chancellor who provoked is under fire)

Yahoo Sports ^ | 2/3/04 | Dan Wetzel

[hispanarepublicana]

University back off ultimatum; Knight to coach

Yahoo! Sports Dan Wetzel
February 3, 2004

Bob Knight will not be suspended as head coach of Texas Tech for his public argument with chancellor David Smith. The Hall of Fame coach will take the bench Tuesday when his 19th ranked Red Raiders host Baylor at 8 pm. ET.

"He's going to coach, we just found out there is no suspension," said assistant coach Pat Knight three hours before tip-off.

Knight had been issued an ultimatum Monday night by Smith: Take a five-day suspension – causing Knight to miss games against Baylor and at Kansas – or be fired as the Red Raiders' head coach. But he had never accepted the suspension as it had been widely reported.

Instead Smith was hit with a wave of negative reaction from trustees, alums and students concerning the suspension and the ultimatum was lifted Tuesday afternoon. Knight will serve no suspension at all.

The incident occured Monday at local supermarket. Smith approached Knight at the salad bar and told him he thought he had been doing a good job this year, particularly in controlling his temper. Knight said he thought he had done a good job for the past three years and walked to the other side of the salad bar. Smith then followed him around and asked what issues the two were having.

One thing led to another and both men wound up shouting at each other. There was no physical contact and it ended fairly quickly. The two men are not close friends.

The Red Raiders, who averaged just less than 12 wins per season in the four years before Knight arrived, are 16-4 this season. While at Indiana in March 2000, Knight was investigated by the university after former player Neil Reed said the coach choked him at a practice in 1997. Two months later, Knight was fined $30,000, suspended for three games and placed under a "zero-tolerance behavior policy." In September 2000, Knight was accused of grabbing a student by the arm, cursing and lecturing him about manners after the coach was addressed, "Hey, Knight, what's up?"

That month, Knight was fired from Indiana for violating the behavior policy. Indiana president Myles Brand, now president of the NCAA, fired him for what Brand called a ``pattern of unacceptable behavior.'' This past December, Knight went into a profanity-filled tirade after an ESPN reporter asked about his relationship with former player Steve Alford, who was also participating in the interview. Knight later apologized.

Knight had brought Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to Lubbock to speak to the Law School and was entertaining him this week while preparing for the game

[WestTexasWend]

"Mr. Knight is vulgar and has the temper of an out-of-control child."

Touche. And Smith is a pompous, egotistical creep. A classic standoff...and Smith blinked.

[mgstarr]

Sliding? Huh, looks like it's off the ground to me.

And as far as the choking incident, it's on tape.

The guy has a temper problem

[mgstarr]

Classy guy really.

[Loyal Buckeye]

And John Wooten, although a very good coach, also had a sugar daddy paying the players to go to UCLA.

[Kirkwood]

I was there in the stands for photo # 1. Bob picked up the chair and waited until the lane was clear, then tossed the chair onto the floor a few feet from where he was standing and it slide across the free throw line. Look at the tape.

In photo # 2 Bob steps in front of the player and puts his hand up on him but doesn't choke him at all. Did you see the player react as if being choked? Back away? Fight back?Anyone step in to break up the "fight?" Nope. It was a non-incident that got blown totally out of proportion because some player's feeling were hurt.

[Kirkwood]

For every picture of Bob you post of him yelling, I can show you pictures of 20 other coaches doing the exact same thing. Means nothing. Bob is definitely crude and coarse, but about half the faculty and 90% of the students at IU use the exact same crude and coarse language. It is something about the culture there.

[sinkspur]

Bob is definitely crude and coarse, but about half the faculty and 90% of the students at IU use the exact same crude and coarse language. It is something about the culture there.

Is that why Knight uses coarse language at Texas Tech? Is the culture at Tech crude and coarse?

You can make excuses for this bum all you want, but he's a hothead.

[mgstarr]

Your statements seem to be in conflict:

"like the chair sliding incident - it was never tossed"

"Bob picked up the chair and waited until the lane was clear, then tossed the chair onto the floor "

So he's a fine conservative and a bunch of liberals just have it in for him?

Personally I prefer a slightly classier conservative as a coach:

Take your pick though.

[Lancey Howard]

BUMP

[Lancey Howard]

Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser.

[VaBthang4]

Good to hear.

[crude77]

I was always so proud of The Dallas Cowboys when Coach Landry was on the sidelines. Just has'nt been the same without him.

[ntrulock]

Sorry, I can't resist joining in on this one. Full disclosure: I am an IU grad, although Knight came after I graduated. Sure Knight is a complex man; he wants things done his way and believes that if basketball is played his way, wins will inevitably follow. He also has standards that make him difficult to play for...takes a special kid to want to play for Knight. Neil Reed was a jerk, whose dad was a bitter Knight opponent - so fireworks were inevitable. Reed had no friends on that team and his team mates were glad to see him go. Typical of the media, what doesn't get covered is all the good Knight does for his former players and the University. He was a major driver in fund raising for IU's library and he personally funded a chair in IU's history department. At IU, Brand was the bad guy -- look at how he played that into big job as NCAA president. Knight is just one of those characters who is "out of time." Thirty or forty years ago, he would have been revered; but he's just too tough and uncompromising for our PC world.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Good point...

[fightin kentuckian]

Mr.Smith,..Ms Bacchi,,excuse me,,ahem, Doctor??? What gives? Sounds like a ball less, henpecked lib who can't be, or isn't allowed, the man of the house so he has to try to flex his nuts elsewhere in order to get off.

Dr Bacchi probably keeps smiths knads in a jar on the bathroom shelf.

Kinda reminds you of that poor ref. on the Super Bowl commercial.

[AFreeBird]

And I'm sure he would give the finger to a crowd of PC liberal commie bastards. I like him!

LOL

And like he said to the crowd at Assembly Hall one day; 'When I die, I want them to bury me face down so all my critics can kiss my @$$'

Yea, Knight's definately "out of time", but I give him credit for sticking to his guns in the face of constant onslaughts. And I'm sure he would go to the mat, and has done so, for anyone he respected.

[NYCVirago]

It's always somebody's fault, isn't it? Bobby's just misunderstood.

[Teacher317]

Great article supporting Knight in very clear terms here.

Excerpt:

Technically, Smith had the right to do all of this. But in doing so he exhibited some horrendous management skills and showed absolutely no common sense.
A restaurant is no place to provide a performance evaluation or to discuss issues between a boss and an employee.
How would you like to be having lunch (with others around) and have your boss come by and basically say, "Hey, thanks for not screwing up lately"?
Not congratulations on having a top 15 team, a roster full of good kids and a sold-out arena.
I'd be angry, too.
And I'm not Bob Knight.