Texas Tech’s Knight Pushes Player
Former Indiana coach, Duquesne’s win and early upset examined
Nov 14, 2006
We’re a full four months from March Madness, but as college basketball gets underway, it’s time for college hoops talk to begin. So, here’s a little November madness to whet your appetite.
Bob Knight’s journey to Dean Smith – The General is rapidly closing in on the Dean’s 879 all-time college basketball coaching wins. Of course, nothing ever comes quietly with Knight, who was unceremoniously discharged from Indiana for multiple incidents of poor behavior with players, secretaries and students.
After five relatively serene seasons at Texas Tech, Knight tapped a player on the chin, while talking to him, during an early-season victory. Not much was initially made of the act, but it’s just a matter of time before the media blows it out of proportion, as it has done with virtually every minor event involving Knight. I saw the video, and this was nothing more than Knight getting the kid’s attention.
Knight is who he is, and every player who ever accepts a scholarship to play for him knows what he is in for.
It’s time for the media to stop dramatizing every Knight incident. Soon, Knight will be the winningest coach in the history of college basketball. He’s won three national titles, Pan-Am gold, Olympic gold and many conference championships. Knight may have a temper, but he’s never hurt a player or threatened someone openly, as other coaches have done. So, let’s get off the guy’s back and revel in the success of arguably the greatest basketball coach who’s ever lived.
Duquesne players win more than a basketball game – Less than two months after surviving a volley of gun shots that wounded five players at a campus party, Duquesne won its 2006-07 season opener. A victory over Youngstown State would not normally be cause for much excitement, but with most of your team watching from the sideline, while overcoming bullet wounds, any win is monumental.
How, we wonder, can anyone not root for the Dukes this season?
Be sure to check out a beautifully-written account of Duquesne’s first game by ESPN’s Andy Katz.
Early-season upset – The Vermont Catamounts, who shocked Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament in 2005 for the team’s first-ever victory over a ranked team, have struck again. With a win over 14th-ranked Boston College, Vermont will certainly make the next edition of our Cinderella Watch List.
Sophomore Mike Trimboli had 17 points, 8 assists and 3 steals for Vermont, which held BC to 30% shooting and just 5 of 23 from 3-point range. The Catamounts, meanwhile, shot nearly 50% from the field. If Vermont had shot well from the free throw line (the Catamounts shot just 14-24 from the stripe), the game would have been more of a blowout than it was.
As noted earlier, March is quite a ways off, but the madness has already begun.
