Write On Sports LLC - "Let Bobby Knight Do His Job – He Does It Better Than Most" by Troy Somero

Let Bobby Knight Do His Job – He Does It Better Than Most

2006-11-15 10:59:10 | By: Troy Somero

Intercollegiate athletics in America is a unique experience, linked both by tradition and value to higher education. Today, more than 360,000 student-athletes participate in college sports at NCAA member institutions. The overwhelming majority of them are students first and then athletes, and they participate for the love of the game.

--Former Indiana University President and Current NCAA President Myles Brand

When my time on earth is gone
and my activities are passed,
I want them to bury me upside down
so my critics can kiss my ass.

--Bobby Knight

On September 13, 2000 then-Indiana-University-President Myles Brand fired Bobby Knight from his position as the school's head basketball coach for a number of supposed transgressions against students and media personalities. Brand surely felt vindicated by the media yet again when Knight made the news Monday night as television cameras caught him making contact with the face of Texas Tech forward Michael Price in the second half of the Red Raiders' 86-74 victory over Gardner-Webb.

Academics like Brand and the greater sports media in general want everything both ways: they want an athlete who is humble yet successful, a coach who is tough yet personable, and a donor that is charitable but lawful.

However, this is not how the real world works. Often, decisions must be made as to what is the best for the individual, the team and the school. In college sports, the decision must be made about what is best for the “student-athlete”. Brand said himself in a CBS interview in 2002 that he wanted to "continue the momentum of the reform movement in order to fully integrate college athletics into the academic mission of universities and colleges."

Unfortunately for Bobby Knight throughout the latter-half of his 41 years of coaching, more attention has been made to Bobby Knight the social role model instead of Bobby Knight the coach. It is Bobby Knight the coach that has put himself in a class above most other college coaches for what he has done for players according to the mission of the NCAA as stated above by Myles Brand, yet it is Bobby Knight the social role model that has garnered all the attention.

The following is the stated core purpose of the NCAA according to the organization's website:

“Our purpose is to govern competition in a fair, safe, equitable and sportsmanlike manner, and to integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education so that the educational experience of the student-athlete is paramount.”

No college basketball coach in the national limelight has exhibited these qualities better than Bobby Knight. No college basketball coach in the national limelight has lived up to the ideal of educating the "student-athletes" better than Bobby Knight.

However, the goal of the NCAA is overshadowed in the media by the two greater goals: idealism and double-standards. A coach has to set a good example on television in order for him to set a good example in general. In a media driven by "good examples" that include being cordial and respectful to others, coaches that do their job under their own terms are crucified. Bobby Knight eschews conventional coaching strategies, and that is the major reason his players achieve the core purpose of the NCAA – success in life as both a student and an athlete. The coaches that are cordial and respectful have not been too successful at graduating their players from their institutions; Bobby Knight has had no problem achieving this primary goal.

According to the recently released NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) Report from 1996-1999, Indiana University (where Knight coached until 2000) posted a GSR score of 82. This means that 82% of the players he coached during this period graduated from Indiana. While the number may seem low, the NCAA Division-I average GSR Score was 59. During this time period, the Duke has a score of 67. North Carolina had a score of 70. Georgetown scored a 64. Michigan scored a 75. Cal-Berkley scored a 38.

All of these schools sans Indiana are credited as being both prestigious academic and basketball institutions. However, it is Bobby Knight's Indiana program that performed on par with these programs on the court and excelled over them in the classroom. The stated purpose of the NCAA is to make athletics an integral part of educating the student-athlete. Bobby Knight achieves this to a greater degree than any other coach in college basketball.

In addition, Knight's players have contributed to their schools' social integrity. The media never releases reports about one of Knight's players missing a child-support payment, or carrying a gun on campus, or beating a woman. This is because Knight does not tolerate this type of behavior and therefore it does not occur. He may be a harsh disciplinarian, but this discipline ensures that the school and the player benefit from Knight's methods.

Also, Knight's actions have garnered the support of the only opinions that truly matter: the parents. When Knight briefly removed All-American candidate Jarrius Jackson from the Texas Tech team at the end of October because of academic reasons, Jackson's parents agreed with the decision because they said he needed to focus on academics first. Would men like Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams or Jim Calhoun have done the same thing with a player who was technically still academically eligible? It is highly doubtful.

Knight's recent action that garnered so much hoopla in the press – his slap/tap/hit of Michael Price's chin in the Gardner-Webb game – was supported by both of Price's parents as well as Texas Tech Athletic Director Gerald Myers. Every person that is critical of Knight for what he says or does on the court should look at his record both on the court and in the classroom.

Knight may be curmudgeonly, profane and aggressive, but most student-athletes in Division-I basketball need this type of stern influence to shake their foundations. The majority of college basketball players come from poor, urban neighborhoods where their only advantage over their peers that are not in college is the fact that they have a 40-inch vertical leap and can shoot a jump-shot from 25 feet. These individuals come into Knight's basketball programs as boys and leave as men. His players demonstrate the integrity and success the NCAA strives for.

It's just a shame that other coaches do not employ similar means to reach the same end as Bobby Knight. Maybe if they did then they also would be breaking Dean Smith's all-time win total like Knight will in January. Maybe they would have graduated a few more student-athletes as well. Myles Brand would have no problem complimenting someone that achieves this rare feat, as long as this person is not Bobby Knight.

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