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Knight goes defensive IU coach promotes program during press session
Posted: Thursday March 16, 2000 10:13 PM
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Indiana coach Bob Knight defended his basketball program and the methods he uses Thursday, saying he wasn't sure he had anything "to apologize for." He didn't specifically talk about former player Neil Reed's allegation that he was choked by Knight during a practice three years ago. Instead, Knight spoke about how Indiana has never had an NCAA violation and has maintained the highest winning percentage in the Big Ten for each of the last three decades. He never mentioned Reed by name. "I don't expect everybody to agree with everything I do or say -- hell, my mom didn't," Knight said. "I'll bet that I've done since I've been in coaching about 1,000 things to motivate kids or teams, and I'll guarantee that a lot of them I wouldn't want to talk about at a church social or a PTA meeting or a garden party. "But we're not teaching kids to play canasta. This is a game where kids get bloody noses, they get broken legs, they get hurt and they dive on the floor for a ball, and they're playing like hell to win. I can't say I'm proud of everything that I've done to motivate a kid, but if I think I've been wrong or somebody's told me I'm wrong, then I tried to find something else to motivate. "If my kids left and weren't successful, if they were on the bread line or selling drugs or in jail for one thing or another, then I would have a lot of questions about what my methods were leading to. But when I have kids come back and talk about their experience here, what it's meant to them and I see what they're doing, then I'm just not sure what there is that I'm supposed to apologize for." There were more members of the media at Knight's 20-minute news conference than there were combined for the seven other coaches at the Buffalo sub-regional of the NCAA tournament. No one was there to ask about his sixth-seeded Hoosiers' matchup with 11th-seeded Pepperdine on Friday night. School officials, who said they were unaware of the details of Reed's accusation, will investigate the matter again, Indiana athletic director Clarence Doninger said. On Wednesday, Knight said he might have grabbed Reed around the neck, but didn't recall choking him. "You can go to any school in America and find kids who are bitter, that were unhappy, that were malcontents," Knight said. "The kid [Reed] was voted off the team by an 8-0 vote." Knight also disputed Reed's charge that he once threw the president of the school out of practice for talking. "You're not ever going to look upon me as the smartest guy you've ever dealt with or the most diplomatic," Knight said. "But I'm smart enough not to throw the president out of practice. ... That is so ridiculous that without thinking about anything else this casts a shadow over this whole thing." Knight talked about everything from monies raised for local youth groups and the university library to graduation rates. "I think athletics, to be more than athletics, has to be a contributor to the university, has to be a contributor to the community. A team that just plays without being involved with people isn't what I really think of when I think of what's best for intercollegiate athletics." He listed a number of former players who, he said, never have been contacted to talk about their Indiana experience. Instead, he said, players like Reed, who left the program after the 1997 season and transferred to Southern Mississippi, speak out. Indiana officials handed out a two-page release during the press conference. One page included a report from associate athletic director Steve Downing detailing an investigation three years ago into Reed's charge of being choked. The second page was a letter from a woman who said her son was subjected to verbal abuse by Reed at a basketball camp. Knight concluded by mentioning that former Indiana star Isiah Thomas worked out with the team in November. Before he left, Thomas told Knight: "Don't you ever change. I needed you and kids need you. Don't change." "I don't think I will," Knight said.
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