It'll never happen

Former Hoosiers wish Knight would support former team

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) -- Two former Indiana basketball players say they wonder why it's been difficult for Bob Knight to support this year's team.

Todd Leary and Pat Graham both played for Indiana in 1992, the last time the Hoosiers made it to the NCAA Final Four. They say they still respect their former coach, but wonder why it's so difficult for Knight to support Indiana coach Mike Davis.

The Hoosiers play Saturday against Oklahoma in the national semifinals. Leary, the IU radio network's color commentator, wished Knight, now the coach at Texas Tech, would reach out to the team.

"If Bob Knight would just send a telegram to Indiana University and congratulate all those kids for what they've accomplished, he would be loved by 99 percent of the people in the state of Indiana," Leary told The Indianapolis Star for a story published Thursday.

"But we all know that will never happen. I don't know why I keep thinking that coach Knight will take the high road because he never does. That's what is most disappointing to me," Leary said.

Also disappointing to Leary were remarks by Knight in the Lubbock (Texas) Avalanche-Journal that he always thought this IU team had a chance to win a national title.

"If coach Knight was still coaching his style at IU, these guys would be sitting at home this weekend watching basketball just like the guys at Texas Tech are doing," Leary said. "Tom Coverdale would never have played his role under coach Knight, and Jared Jeffries wouldn't still be here. And everything else under the sun would be different.

"I guess I just don't get where he's coming from on this one."

Graham said he believed Indiana's success is simply because of a contrast in styles from Knight to Davis.

"This is not to knock coach Knight at all, but coach Davis has a style of play that these kids really identify with," Graham said. "Coach Davis believes in letting his kids play. If you make a mistake, he may take you out, but you're going right back in the game. And I think his players have fed off that and they love playing for him because of it."

Leary also took exception to remarks by Pat Knight, who continues to claim that Davis, a former Knight assistant, was disloyal to his father by taking the IU head coaching job.

"What was Mike Davis supposed to do?" Leary said. "They think he was disloyal because he didn't pack his bags, take a year off and head for Lubbock? I think that's crazy. I think if Pat had been offered that job, even as mad as he was that they had fired his dad, he would have had a difficult time turning it down."

Leary also claimed that Knight, through other former players, has asked those who played for him at Indiana to give financial support at Texas Tech.

"The one thing he used to say to us over and over was that we didn't have names on the back of our jerseys because we were playing for Indiana University," Leary said.

"He must have said that two million times. He said we should always be loyal to Indiana. So now I think he should be proud of us that most of us are contributing to be loyal to IU."

Graham said he's happy that Indiana basketball appears to have survived September 2000, when Knight was dismissed after 29 years as coach.

"These kids are rebuilding a new generation of Indiana basketball, and it's the start of the Mike Davis era at IU," he said. "That's what these kids will be remembered for. They're the ones that started it all for Mike Davis, and as a former player, I couldn't be happier."

 

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