Hoopla Minnesota Daily, February 4, 1985
	Only God and Bob Knight know exactly what is happening to the Indiana Hoosier basketball team. But Knight isn't talking and last week he told God to keep quiet. And so it goes in Indiana where basketball is nothing short of a secular religion. Where security men do not shoo young children from the Assembly Hall floor after games but rather allow them to play to their heart's content, developing new Hoosier talent and new Hoosier loyalties. Indiana, where newspapers devote the front three pages of their sports sections to basketball. You want hockey, look at the agate. Indiana, the crossroads of America, where America's true original sport is the one and only attraction. That the Hoosiers—picked first or second along with Illinois to win the Big Ten championship—now stand at 4-5 is of major concern to a great many of hoops' most avid advocates. Indiana, which dropped from 3-1 to 3-5 after Thursday’s loss to Iowa, hadn't lost four games in a row since the 1971-72 season, Knight's first in Bloomington. In the loss before that, a 52-41 decision against Illinois last Sunday, the irascible Knight benched all his starters except center Uwe Blab. The following day, he cut forward Mike Giomi, the team's leading rebounder for "academic" reasons. Giomi lost his scholarship after last season, but was playing as a walk-on and earned a 2.41 grade point average last term. That's good enough for the NCAA and the Big Ten, but not for Bob Knight. Knight, in his 14th year at Indiana, has a 307-100 record. He owns an Olympic gold medal, seven Big Ten championships, an NIT crown and two NCAA titles. He is widely acknowledged as the nation's best amateur basketball coach and an excellent teacher and molder of young men. If that sounds like an ad for the Marines, Knight doesn't mind. He is a serious student of military history, and his first coaching job was at West Point. And while Knight is one of the most outspoken opponents of recruiting violations and other forms of cheating, he runs his team, if not his university and his state, in a most Machiavellian manner. His practices are always closed. He frequently avoids talking to the media, and when he does it is on his terms. He is accused of being boorish, humorless, downright rude, and these are accusations straight from the mouths of the people who love him most—the religious fanatics that pass as basketball spectators in Indiana. That love stems from Knight's indisputable success. But when the Hoosiers are losing and Knight goes radically against the grain of common sense as the fans see it, well, that may be pushing things a bit too far. Still, at the Iowa game, there were just as many backers as foes. For every sign that read "Why not start the cheerleaders?" there appeared at least one reading "We love you Bobby." With Indiana back on track after crushing the Gophers Saturday, Hoosier fans are much more at ease. The only sign of dissent Saturday occurred when Knight yelled across the court to the Indiana cheerleaders to "Cut that out!" while Steve Alford shot a free throw. On the next free throw attempt, one Indiana cheerleader turned to the crowd and yelled through his megaphone, somewhat sarcastically, to "Be quiet!" Knight shouted thanks to the cheerleader and the moment passed. What remains elusive, perhaps attractive, about Knight, what gives him his mystique, is the fact that with one gesture he can raise 17,000 voices to a hoarse roar and with a second gesture can render them silent. Larry Price, a Bloomington resident and longtime Indiana fan, may have found an adequate explanation. "They took a poll of the most influential people in Bloomington," Price recalled in his Hoosier twang. "The mayor come in fourth. Bob Knight come in first. He could burn down the administration building and they wouldn't care. He could burn down Assembly Hall. "I think he overstepped his bounds with Giomi, but he told Giomi how things were gonna be at the beginning of the season. That’s why he done what he done. If there's one thing about Bob Knight, he's a man of his word. "But his own mother…he calls his mother in Orrsville, Ohio every Sunday. He called her after the Illinois game and Ruth Knight said, 'Robert, why didn't you play Alford?' It was in big letters in the newspaper." Imagine that. Big letters in the newspaper about "Robert" Knight's call home. Such is the reverence of the thousands of Indianans who have bowed to Knight and have shared in the glory of his triumphs. Back to Main Content   ©2002-03 info@sponsorwrite.com All rights reserved.