In this week's edition of He Said/She Said, Bluegrass Lady and I argue whether we would send our kids to play basketball under Bobby Knight.  As always, your comments and opinions are welcome.

Bobby Knight’s coaching legacy is undeniable.  Last year, he became the winningest coach in college basketball history.  He has led three University of Indiana teams to national titles.  In 1975-76, he coached the last team to go undefeated for an entire season, an effort that seems more and more unattainable with time.  Dating back to his first years coaching at Army in the 1960s, Knight has won an astonishing 71% of the games he has coached.  In his over forty years of coaching at the highly competitive college level, the man known as ‘The General’ has won nearly 900 contests and his graduation rate is as high as anyone’s in the NCAA.  He is a three-time national coach of the year and at a six-time Big Ten coach of the year.  Needless to say, his resume speaks for itself.

Despite these accomplishments, in 2000, Bobby Knight was released from duty at the University of Indiana for his lengthy record of insubordination and physical altercation.  The controversy surrounding Knight’s career is as noteworthy as his on-court success.  Dating back nearly forty years, Knight has repeatedly been involved in acts of physical violence with police officers, students, players and fans.  His tirades are as legendary as his coaching record.

He is probably most famous for his 1985 outburst where he tossed a chair clear across the court during a conference game against in-state rival Purdue.  That incident, however, was only the tip of the iceberg.  There was his famous 1988 interview with Connie Chung where he stated on-air that if rape were inevitable, why not lay back and enjoy it.  In 1993, Knight kicked his son who played on the team.  Later that season, he head butted another player during a timeout.  In 1999, he was investigated for allegedly choking a man outside a local restaurant.  In 2000, the University investigated Knight for choking a former player, Neil Reed.  The list of Knight’s indiscretions presents a colorful rap sheet.  After former I.U. President Myles Brand imposed a ‘zero tolerance’ policy against Knight, he was ultimately fired for grabbing a student that failed to “show him respect” by addressing him simply as “Knight.”

Knight’s disciplinarian mindset failed to attract local Indiana high school phenoms such as Shawn Kemp and Zach Randolph in a state where playing in Assembly Hall is a childhood dream.  Top athletes simply refused to play for a madman and submit themselves to four years of brutality.

In the modern basketball landscape, players do not have to put up with that sort of physical or psychological abuse.  Despite his coaching legacy, there are countless other coaches these days that can teach today’s youth the game without leaving strangle marks around their necks.  Although Knight has more career victories than any other coach, Tubby Smith, Lute Olson, Bob Huggins, Jim Beoheim, John Calipari, Rick Pitino, Mark Few, Bruce Pearl, Mike Krzyzewski and Thad Matta are all active coaches with higher winning percentages.  Billy Donovan and Roy Williams have successfully taught discipline and respect while winning the last three national championships without putting their hands on players or wearing them down mentally.  Knight is unquestionably a basketball genius, but he doesn’t hold a monopoly on the wisdom required to reach the sport.

Despite not having coached there for seven years, Bob Knight is still a hero in Indiana.  His name is legendary and synonymous with success.  It is also, however, synonymous with rage.  With the wide range of excellence in the coaching ranks today, it would be awfully hard to justify sending a child to play for a loose cannon like Knight.  While the General has preached discipline over his forty years of coaching, it is actually his own lack of restraint that has tarnished his coaching legacy.

This way to..... She Said:  On Bobby Knight

Click here for archived He Said She Said debate topics.  And don't forget to support your fellow blogger by visiting the Fox Funhouse

and listening to Frank Irizzary's Foxblogger Call-In Show.

Museums exhibit priceless works of art.  The world boasts countless objects of near perfection.  Last night, fans were witness to one more: the Team USA’s first quarter against the Mexican national team.

Already boasting a 4-0 record in this year’s FIBA Americas Tournament, Team USA has been slowly reestablishing its international dominance…. and doing so with style and force.

For those unfamiliar with FIBA tournament rules, teams play four ten minute quarters (as opposed to twelve in the NBA) with fewer stoppages in play than the average NBA game as well.  Monday night, Team USA scored 45 points in ten minutes.

Briefly watching the sparse SportsCenter highlights does not do this team justice, for there’s no way to effectively capture the vertical dunk-fest that has become Team USA’s dominance of this year’s FIBA tournament.  So here’s an attempt to recap a near perfect first quarter, showcasing the world’s greatest basketball players playing an unbeatable level.

• Starting for Jason Kidd, Chauncey Billups set the tone early scoring five points in the game’s first thirty seconds, first by launching a three-pointer and then, by converting a fastbreak lay-up off a LeBron James steal.
• Off a missed Mexican lay-up, Amare Stoudemire kicked the rebound out to Billups on the wing.  Billups took one dribble, fed the ball up-court to LeBron, who drove, drew a double team and one-handed it out to Kobe on the left wing.  Kobe spotted Carmelo Anthony (who’s been making a living in the paint this tournament) under the basket for the bucket and the foul.  All five players touched the ball in a possession that took only eight seconds, longer than it took to read that paragraph.
• At the 6:41 mark, Carmelo nailed a three-pointer, giving him eight of Team USA’s fifteen points.
• After turning the ball over the previous possession, Kobe Bryant rattled home a shot from about five feet behind the three-point line.
• At the 5:20 mark, Jason Kidd entered the game.  Cue the highlight reel.
• LeBron pulled down a strong, one-handed rebound from above the rim, found Kidd running up the floor, who then got it back to LeBron on the right wing.  LeBron then took THREE Mexican players to the hole and drew the foul.  That possession took another brief, eight seconds.  In response to LeBron’s dunk, Bill Walton muttered “We’re used to that very much.  The Mexican players… I’m not sure that they’ve EVER seen anything quite like LeBron James."
•  In the first five minutes of the quarter, Team USA missed one shot attempt.
• Quadruple-teamed in the lane, LeBron spotted an open Mike Miller, who, rather than opting for the three, immediately whipped the ball to an open Amare Stoudamire for a signature two-handed dunk.
• Mike Miller drove the lane, attracting double-team coverage, but found a cutting Jason Kidd, who threw a two-handed touch pass to Carmelo behind the arc.  Carmelo drained it.
•  Dwight Howard, after being fouled, missed his second free throw attempt, which was then rebounded by Carmelo Anthony, who out-hustled three Mexican big men for the ball.
• Then, perhaps the most obscene play of the half… Carmelo grabbed a rebound from an errant Mexican three-point attempt and kicked the outlet pass to Jason Kidd running up the right side of the floor.  Kidd took one dribble and from BEHIND THE HALF-COURT LINE, threw a strike to Dwight Howard who snuck behind two Mexican defenders, then seemingly jumped over them for the alley-oop.
• After consecutive dunks by Carmelo and Dwight Howard, Bill Walton appropriately proclaimed “this is getting out of hand quickly.”
• Michael Redd launched a three-pointer… and hit.  So far, Team USA has only missed two shots in the quarter.
• On a commercial break that could not come soon enough for Team Mexico, Better Basketball offers a video, giving viewers the opportunity to “learn shooting from perhaps the best shooter in basketball history.”  I’m excited about the possibilities until I learn they’re talking about J.J. Reddick.
• Deron Williams played the two-man game to perfection with ‘Melo in the post, who then proceeded to dunk over the man covering him.
• After another dunk, Carmelo finished the quarter with sixteen points on 6-6 shooting.
• Fittingly, as the clock wound down, Deron Williams threw another alley-oop to Dwight Howard, who flushed it emphatically at the buzzer.

Team USA finished the quarter up 45-23.  Ten minutes, forty-five points.  To my recollection, Dream Team Jr. missed a total of four shots.

Critics will say not to get excited, that Team USA has only played Venezuela, the Virgin Islands, Brazil and Mexico, and that Argentina still remains on the docket.  But after years of recent disappointment and underachieving, the Americans are playing as expected.  Coach Krzyzewski is effectively managing his players’ minutes, while simultaneously keeping their eyes on the prize.  Kobe Bryant is shutting down opponents.  The American players have all checked their egos at the door and are feeding off each other’s talent. 

Yes, the United States is turning the ball over, but that’s to be expected with their up-tempo style of play.  At this pace, Team USA is looking invincible and is one more blowout victory closer to their ultimate goal:  an Olympic gold medal.