Bobby Knight will be missed

by BRANDON STEVENS
guest columnist

On a school built around winning traditions in the form of soccer and basketball, not much can be said about the dismissal of Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight.

That is, if your not a passionate follower and a big time fan of the great game of college basketball. Bob Knight was an icon for many to follow in the college ranks. Molding the likes of some of the best coaches in the game such as Steve Alford of Iowa and the great Coach K of Duke.

Two things stand tall when you think of Bob Knight the coach, winning and graduation rate.

With 763 wins, Coach Knight was nearly assured of surpassing former North Carolina coach Dean Smith in the all-time wins column in college basketball. And a player graduation rate of 76 percent, nearly 30 percent above the normal rate, shows he's not all about developing his players for the NBA, but he's preparing them for the rough road ahead of living to be successful individuals outside of the basketball arena.

In 29 years of coaching at Indiana, Bob Knight has never changed his coaching style. He always was, is, and will be the "General." Why make him pay now for what he has built his career and Indiana basketball on?

How many coaches can say that not only they've been at the same university for 29 years, but they've done it without one black mark on their record?

Indiana basketball has never been under one investigation for an NCAA violation in Coach Knight's tenure.

But not only did Coach Knight build a winning tradition, he also built a bad reputation and a resume loaded with critics. And in the end, one of those critics would lead the charge for the dismissal in what Indiana's front office called, "a long time coming." What's ironic is that former Indiana player Neil Reed, who started the whole " fire Bob Knight bandwagon", was voted off the IU basketball team by every team member, whom you'd think would be the ones to stick by him.

Let's not forget to mention that Reed also waited nearly four years to come out with this valuable information of the choking incident.

If he was so traumatized by this incident, why not bring it out when it happened?

Why wait over four years? And when speaking about the recent incident with the freshman student in the hallway, why take the word of a 18 year-old kid instead of the assistant coaches who were present during the altercation. It might also be well noted that this student happened to be the step-son of probably Coach Knight's greatest critic in the whole state of Indiana.

Members of Indiana's Board of Trustees wanted Bob Knight out a long time ago. All they were looking for was ammunition, and what little they found, it happened to be enough for everyone to agree that this firing was a justified decision.

Coach Knight has a bad temper and made mistakes. But he has lived up to them and apologized.

The Board of Trustees said that the players and students had a lot to say about the future of Coach Knight at Indiana. If so, then why would most of players be discussing transferring and provoke junior guard Dane Fife to go as far to say, "Indiana might not have a basketball team next year."

If the students had a say, then why would hundreds of them be rioting in protest at the door of University President Myles Brand. I think Indiana University forgot to listen to the people who would be affected the most by this decision.

I have been an Indiana basketball follower for as long as I can remember, but with this unfair treatment, I myself as well as many other IU followers, may not be able to let something like this go.

I believe Coach Knight summed it up the best by saying, "When I am done at Indiana and it is my time to pass, I hope they bury me upside down, so all my critics can kiss my ass."

I think Coach Knight will eventually get his wish.

I'll be looking forward to the day he decides to coach again and brings another team back to the elite of college basketball.