Purely from a coaching standpoint, Knightwas the most brilliant coach of all time. From a personal standpoint, some of his behavior was enigmatic. IU should be ashame of not naming the floor the Bob Knight Court.

Coach Knight was probably as good as any when it came to X's and O's and how to play the game properly. I always felt the advent of the shot clock and the 3-pt. line neutered some of his ability to really coach as it did with other fine coaches although he was successful in both eras. Recruiting has become the byline of today's game and as a great high school coach once said, “Give me the best talent and I'll show you one of the best coaches.”
Coach Knight did/could not recruit well in his later years as a coach and he experienced a level of mediocrity he was not accustomed to that probably turned him off as much as anything. Mediocrity was something he had a terrible time dealing with, be it players, referees, administrators, or just people in general. His son said it best in that he was tired and it was time. But OOOOOOOHHHHHHH what a time he gave us as fans. Most of it was great, some not so great. If you were to talk about the man in positives and negatives, only the foolish would spend more time on the negatives.
Thanks for the memories, Coach.

Bob Knight spent many years building up the IU program to a National Championship caliber team. Unfortunately, I was too young to have many memories of those early years. In the same way that he built up this team, he also brought it down – whether it was his anger, his childish behavior, or something else he did/didn't do. For all the talk about how great a basketball coach was, he was routinely getting out-coached in the postseason towards the end of his career at IU and even times before the exit (Pepperdine, Colorado – Chauncey Billups destroyed IU).

Maybe he stayed too long, maybe he lost his coaching touch. I don't know. For all the good that Knight has done at IU (and he has done a lot), for me, it will never overshadow the public image that Knight routinely trotted out for the rest of the nation to witness.

The angry, angst-filled, sometimes-violent Knight that we saw far too often in his later years, unfortunately is the Knight I will remember.

I think the only douchebag here is you, Timmy!

I think the only douchebag here is you, Timmy!

Timmy, you sound like one of those stupid media types that refuses to acknowledge anything positive about Coach Knight and only focuses on the negative. You should be the poster boy for the pussification of the USA.

If you were really that disturbed by someone making fun of your IU degree because of Coach Knight's actions, you have your own problems. Did you cry when they made fun of your IU degree? As Coach Knight would have said, suck it up and quit being such a pussy.

Timmy, isn't it time for you to break out your Barbies and have a tea party?

I actually don't have an undergrad degree from IU (and no, it's not from Purdue, either). I just feel like the guy was a poor representation of how one should conduct himself in a public setting. I never appreciated being automatically associated with the guy and the way he acted publicly. As a tactician, few, if any, have been better. As a man of integrity on the subject of academics, I applaud Coach Knight. As an example of how treat other individuals, I can think of few people in sports that demonstrate a more pathetic example of how to conduct yourself publicly. Unfortunately, he never realized this fact. As a result, we're reduced to debating his place in basketball history. Continue to take cheap shots as much as you want, but it's not going to change my opinion or make me think that I'm “pussy” for stating an unpopular (at least on this board) opinion.

The Purdue donkey Jack S. clomping onto Knight's weekly TV show set! My gosh that was funny. Can you imagine anyone in the Big Ten doing that now? Neither can I, which is too bad.

I'll say it right here, anyone who thinks negatively of the “Neil Reed” incident is weak, just like Reed. “Neil Reed” was a pussy in every sense of the word. You didn't come to Indiana freakin University not knowing what you are getting yourself in to. You came to play basketball for one of the greatest programs in the nation under the greatest coach in the game. I'm sure Reed wouldn't have been dealt with if he hadn't ran his mouth off to someone who knows more about the game than he ever will. What would happen if you backtalked your 75 year old Kung-Fu master? You would be pulling rice duty for a month as well as daily ass-kickings until you were doing things correctly. When you come to college you are 18 years old, a man, act like it. I have seen high-school football coaches more physical with their players. I would be honored to take a head butt from RMK, just putting that our there.

Bob Knight is Indiana Basketball, as Damon Bailey said when he left Bloomington he took a part of Indiana with him. Many people say love him or hate him, I say the haters never look for anything other than the negatives. I, like many of you have had numerous personal encounters with the man and none have been negative. He also took the time for a photo, to sign something, or to even walk down to court level with my brother and myself to show us the floor. He is the best and always will be! He set the standard in what we expect at Indiana, we write in complaints about what we are lacking these days well look at what we were used to: toughness, pride, tradition. He is very complex but a lot of us are, just not constanting in the public eye.
I heard him once quote Lincoln and pretty much summarizes all of the why leave now stuff: “When it comes time for me to lay down the reigns of this administration and I am left with one friend and that friend lies within myself I will be satisfied.” Hail to the General, Hail to the Dragon. Go Hoosiers

Nope….another IU grad here whose degree has been devalued by Bob.

….and Bob's still a giant douchebag.

you people saying knight hurt your degree are pathetic. that's the lamest thing i've ever heard. i suppose knight is responsible for you ed, too?

really, take responsiblity and stop blaming other people if you can't get a job.

you people saying knight hurt your degree are pathetic. that's the lamest thing i've ever heard. i suppose knight is responsible for you ed, too?

really, take responsiblity and stop blaming other people if you can't get a job.

so how much has your degree gone up in value since knight left???

did your salary increase dramatically after he was fired?

that comment alone tells me what hurts your degree…YOU.

I won't remember Coach Knight to fondly. He was and still is an asshole, and he would tell you so himself, probably using more colorful words and gestures. Coach Knight did a lot of great things for Indiana basketball, wins and championships and respect and tradition. But how you do things also counts, and he went about coaching while he was swimming in a bath of mud which he slung around at anyone who didn't line up behind him.

Coach Knight did things his way, and he made sure you knew it. That is how he'll be remembered, and quite frankly, I think that's how he wants to be remembered. He won't be remembered like Coach Wooden, Coach Smith, or other who are thought of only fondly. He probably won't even be remembered as a winner first and an asshole second. To a lot of people, he'll simply be that old asshole basketball coach. Based on how he lives his life, he deserves to be remembered just that way, too.

The floor is already named for Branch McCracken, otherwise known as the coach who won championships at Indiana without being an asshole.

I wouldn't say he devalued anyone's degree. But as a fellow alumnus who loves Indiana University unconditionally, I have a problem with anyone who brings negative attention to my school. As an important and prominent figure at IU, where the men's basketball coach is arguably the most important and prominent position, Coach Knight brought more than his share of negative attention, disgrace, and ridicule to the University. He obviously brought positive attention, success, and championships as well. But his routinely embarrassing actions as the coach of IU did more damage than he was worth.

I wouldn't say he devalued anyone's degree. But as a fellow alumnus who loves Indiana University unconditionally, I have a problem with anyone who brings negative attention to my school. As an important and prominent figure at IU, where the men's basketball coach is arguably the most important and prominent position, Coach Knight brought more than his share of negative attention, disgrace, and ridicule to the University. He obviously brought positive attention, success, and championships as well. But his routinely embarrassing actions as the coach of IU did more damage than he was worth.

I don't buy the 'You either love him or hate him' argument. He's a polarizing figure.

I love the way that he coached. I hate the way that he treated the media. I love the way that he helped build IU's library and help kids graduate. I hate the way he constantly contradicted himself, holding himself to different standards then his kids. (Pat Forde wrote a great article about this.)

I loved some things about him, but hated other things. Overall, I think there's no question that his good outweighed his bad, but it's not as black and white as “love him or hate him”

“YOU'RE A JOKE”!!!

A great article? In my opinion Forde's words were callous and rang untrue. This read like an article written by someone looking to get some publicity or with an ax to grind. I lost a lot of respect for Forde with this article. Maybe that's because I grew up loving Knight and IU basketball – I'm certainly biased in that regard. While there is plenty of truth to what he wrote, I don't feel like you can just flat out characterize Knight in that way, ignoring all the good things he has done. People on a blog…go for it, but I just don't think that was a good piece of journalism by a seasoned writer with more ability than that.

Why are you so upset about someone associating you to a man you did not know? Larry Bird is known as the Hick from French Lick, so should I be ashamed if someone wants to call me a hick simply because I was born and raised in Indiana? While I do not condone all of his actions, the view that you see via the media is negatively distorted because it makes for a more interesting story (especially in the ESPN highlight world that we live in today) than all the good behind the scenes actions taken by Coach Knight. If you want a real perspective on how he treats individuals, ask Scott May, Quinn Buckner, Dick Vitale, Roy Williams, Coach K, Digger Phelps, etc. as I bet they have a very different opinion than you because they actually knew him.

What are your feelings about Kelvin Sampson and the negative attention, disgrace and ridicule that he is bringing to the university via his NCAA recruiting violations?