hoosierbgh

And TV Ted Valentine in 1992.  I don’t think a lot of people realize what a truly great team that was.

The highest IU player?
I would say either Troy Williams, Jamarcus Ellis, Tommy Baker, or Hanner Perea. 

RIP Coach Knight.
I was at IU when he was fired and was fortunate enough to attend his last game in Assembly Hall. It was my first game in person and fittingly enough, a solid win over Purdue. 
 

One more quick story about how Coach Knight changed my wife's family. My FIL came to IU as an athletic trainer for the football team and also the track team a couple of years before Coach Knight was hired. When Coach Knight was hired IU athletics held a small ceremony welcoming Coach to the University. Coach Knight was from Orrville, OH and my FIL was from Canton, OH. Both towns are about 30 minutes apart so they both hit it off right away. Fast forward to 1982, Coach Corso is fired, and Sam Wyche is hired to be the new coach. On his first day at IU Wyche brings everyone who has anything to do with the football program into a big room. Stands up on a chair and says you all have been relieved of your duties, you may go home now.
My FIL walks back to his office in AH in disbelief, he sees Coach Knight, and Knight says what happened. My FIL says Wyche just fired everyone. He says Coach I have a 6 and 4-year-old at home, I don't know what I'm going to do. Coach Knight said go home wait by the phone and maybe someone will call. Soon after Bill Cook calls my FIL and offers him a job without ever meeting, seeing a resume, or anything. All on the word of Coach Knight. It turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to my FIL. Better hours, and more money, and he stayed with that job for the next 40 years. 
If Coach Knight liked you, he would do anything for you. 

When I was 16 we had a guy come to our high school who wanted a couple of football players to work for his furniture company. That is when I met Fred Bimrose who owned Bimrose Furniture Company. Bob Knight was the spokesman for Bimrose. He would do a couple of commercials a year for them, and Fred would give him free furniture. Coach Knight would come into our showroom which was by IGA in Ellettsville to look around. He always had his fishing cap on, he would walk around looking at couches. We were told to never bother coach. If he found a couch he liked, he would sit on it and sometimes even lay down to take a small nap. It would be funny to walk into the showroom and see this large 6'6 man lying down with a fishing cap over his face. Even though we weren't allowed to talk to him, he would come down to the warehouse to talk to us delivery boys. He always asked how we were doing in school, what sports we played, and things like that. When we delivered furniture to his house, Karen would always make us drop it off in the garage and tell us Coach would make players come over to move things around. 

This isn't the best story, but it's mine. I like to tell the very short, no context story that "Bob Knight was at my kid's 1st birthday party".
The story with context: on my kid's 1st birthday, I had a really long day at work. Rushed to get home before bedtime so I could see him and we, for some reason, decided to run to Cheddar's for a late dinner on a cold rainy evening, sleepy 1 year-old tantrums be damned. We walk in the door, I look to my right and see Bob Hammel. Kind of laughed to myself knowing that my wife wouldn't care if I tried explaining who that was. As the hostess starts walking us to our table, I get farther in and see that Hammel is with the Knights and I about pooped. Turns out college basketball's most complicated man had the simplest palate. Didn't dare go say hi or anything, that's not my thing (wish others felt the same, but...well...) but I did let my wife and anyone else that would listen know that Bob Knight was at our son's 1st birthday party.

My first real one-on-one interaction with Coach Knight was when I was probably around 10 years old. My dad was a plumber for IU for almost 40 years. He usually got called out for jobs around Assembly Hall & Memorial Stadium for some reason. I remember being at home with him & receiving a call on a Saturday or Sunday that they needed him for a job at AH. My mom and brother were gone so my dad had to take me with him. My dad and 3 other guys are there working on a water line when Coach Knight walks up. He starts chewing their butts off about why is it taking so long, when will it be done, and using words I wasn't used to or should be hearing at my age. I remember asking my dad why he sit there and take that? He said Coach isn't mad at us, he's mad that it didn't get turned in earlier, he might be mad at some players, or something else. he's just letting off some steam, it;'s no big deal. About an hour later Chuck Crabb came walking up with two large pizzas and said Coach Knight wants to make sure you guys get a good meal today. I always remember that my dad as a plumber still felt like he was part of the team. Coach Knight made everyone feel like they were a part of Indiana basketball. 

Going to his basketball camp from the ages of 8-12 was always so fun. We mostly dealt with the assistant coaches waking us up in the morning at Wright quad and making us run to the Hyper after breakfast for camp all day. We only got to see Coach Knight for about 10 minutes on the first day when our parents dropped us off and on the last day when they picked us up. He gave the same speech every year on the last day. I still remember to this day. If anyone ever tries to sell you drugs, you walk right up to them and punch them in the face and say that's from Bob Knight. 

Respectfully, we have no clue where and what this kid will become. There is no ceiling to these kids just because a few recruiting analysts stated an opinion of where THEY think this kid should be "ranked". 
Glue type player--- sure he could be. He could be a bench warmer, he could an all american. 
Is he one of the youngest in his grades? Has he worked with a SC program before? Is he done growing? Just tons of factors. Regardless of his "ranking", that has no bearing on where and what he could end up. 

Guilty of forgetting about it. I've seen this suggested before, but my solution would be something like:
-Branch McCracken Court in RMK Arena at SSAH
or
-Knight-McCracken Court

I was born in September of 1970 so RMK was the only coach at IU I knew. I don't think some of the younger fans realize what IU basketball was like in the 70's and 80's. I am not saying this as a bad thing but IU basketball was like a cult for the fans. Most people I knew scheduled their  day around IU basketball on game day. We as a family would sit together and watch every game. It was a different time where there were less things to occupy your time. We only had 1 TV in the house early on so it was a family thing to do. There were no cable or streaming outlets so you only had 4 channels to choose from. I also watched every pre game show to watch coach RMK break down the game plan. Every Sunday morning I would watch the Bob Knight show on channel 4

This was handed down to me when my great grandfather when he passed. I have it in my closet and look at it every day. As a great memory of my grandfather, now it will have an added meaning to it. 

I had a feeling this was coming with the way Woodson asked for prayers for him at Hoosier Hysteria.  
 
So happy he was invited back and honored by his players AT Assembly Hall.  A beloved man and coach by many.  

Man…. I’m getting old…I’ve been googling for twenty mins for a Feinstein article he wrote some time after Knight was fired from IU. Can’t find it; if anyone has it please post.  
 
I’ll just give a plug for Season on the Brink. If you haven’t read it, do so. In the aforementioned article Feinstein expounds on a anecdote he relays in Season on the Brink.  Feinstein was kind of a mercurial guy himself and went through phases where he seemed resentful of Knight and at other times he was rather enamored with him.  
 
In any event, in the article he relays how late one night in a diner Knight and colleagues are approached by a young boy asking for an autograph flanked by his older brother and father. Knight is curious as to why the kid is sent to ask for autographs and the kid explains that his father and brother are deaf-mutes. Knight is kind of taken with the kid and gets the family autographs, gear, etc… and then invites them to a game. He has the kid and his father and brother come to the locker room pre game to meet the team with the boy interpreting. It ends after the family leaves with Knight telling the players, “ I don’t want to hear you guys talk about how hard you have it again.”  
 
Feinstein does a nice job capturing Knight in that article. If anyone can find it, please post it…i don’t do it justice . Good read. 
 
 

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/38489269/jay-bilas-liked-bob-knight-knew-died-age-83
Don't know if this has been posted yet, definitely think it's worth the quick read.

Thanks so much, Coach. I fell in love with basketball because of you. 

So, like a Purdue sorority party?

"When St. Peter's plays Fairleigh Dickinson, who loses?"
"Purdue."
 

People, it's two teenagers talking. YAWN. 

I’M ALL IN WITH YOU SAMFORD BEAT THEIR AS$ES!! ELBOW HIM IN THE NUTS DALLAS GRAZIANI … AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
https://x.com/samfordmbb/status/1719492660275380417?s=46&t=vLaOWQi5Bk3mC3D0VYGA7w

Walker, a fifth year new addition, was also the first guy up off the bench cheering when a teammate made a good play, and had his arm around Ware talking to him going into the halftime locker room.
In the post game presser he looked truly glad that Woody let them have it at halftime, and made a special point of giving props to Cupps.
He clearly is, as advertised, a fantastic culture addition.

#DonnyMarshall

I like Cupps too but he picked up his dribble at least 3 times when he shouldn't have. Probably freshman mistakes and it didn't hurt as others came to him to help. I expect him to improve as the season progresses.

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Sounds like a "dawg" (on record for hating that term) or ultra competitive if you want to not sound cheesey. Give me some of that for a guy that'll stick around for 4 years. Yogi was small and hated losing. I liked Yogi a huge amount.

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Some people on this board just want to be miserable.   He's the 89th ranked player by 247 sports.  
#90: Committed to Houston
#91: Committed to UNC
#92: Committed to Villanova
#93: Committed to Virginia
All 4 of those programs have been much better than Indiana for the last 10+ years. Let's stop acting like Indiana is scraping the bottom of the barrel going after 4 star guys.