Re: Question

[jwt2@lehigh.edu (jwt2@lehigh.edu)]

>I think he's getting at the fact that Bobby Knight screams at his players,
>throws tantrums (not to mention chairs) on and off the court, etc. He's not
>going to make your kid "feel good," but your kid could get a shot at
>playing in the NBA if that's what he wants. If he has no hope of nor talent
>to play in the NBA, then he probably should not play for Knight. The abuse
>is not worth what you would learn in the process. Otherwise, you go to Ohio
>State for the program and the exposure, not to bond with Bobby!
>
>TJL

I'm not sure that I agree 100% with this.  Yes, it's well known that Knight
has a tendancy to get angry, but that alone isn't enough of a reason not to
play for him.  I would say that certain kids wouldn't do well in his program
(for example Neil Reed), however many more kids have passed through the
program with positive feelings about Knight and themselves.

As for the so called "abuse" that you are talking about, I think that people
tend to look at one or two icolated incidents and blow them out of proportion.
If it was really that bad, then people just wouldn't play for him.  There are
306 other Division one schools, and most of them would gladly take any kid
that had the talent to play at Indiana.  If Knight were really an "abuser"
then he wouldn't have been in coaching long enough to grab the 700th win that
he just got.

And many of the players over the years at Indiana didn't have the talent to
play in the NBA.  I don't know the exact number, but I would guess that if
you look at the number of NBA players that have come out of Indiana, the
number is much less than schools like UNC, Kentucky, Duke, Georgia Tech, etc.
that are known for producing NBA players.  I also don't know what Knight's
graduation rate is, but I think that it's quite high compared to most of the
other major programs in the country.

Jeff