|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Following Knight Coaches, players not sure they'll stay in Bloomington
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) -- The post-Bob Knight era at Indiana began Monday in a style one might expect from the Hall of Fame coach himself: an ultimatum. Players demanded that assistant coaches Mike Davis and John Treloar be retained and that one of them be hired as interim coach. Otherwise, center Kirk Haston said, there would be "serious repercussions." "I'd say we'd have several guys leave. I couldn't put a specific number, but several would leave," Haston said. "If they want to keep this team together, they'll give us some support, and that means they'll keep coach Treloar and coach Davis here." Athletic director Clarence Doninger said he has asked Davis and Treloar to stay, although not necessarily as the interim coach. Doninger also said he already has received calls from "a number of People" -- whom he would not identify -- interested in the head coaching job.
One player, junior guard Dane Fife, said he has decided to transfer -- at Knight's urging - "because there's no reason for me to be here with what's going on and how we've been treated." Another, freshman swingman A.J. Moye, said he likely would leave, too, and lashed out at university president Myles Brand, who fired Knight a day earlier. "I just feel like the whole administration, this whole school is screwed up, basically," Moye said "We were lied to, we were deceived and now it's over, all because people wanted coach out. They got their way. I hope they're happy. ... I hope they're just dancing somewhere happy. Twelve players' lives are never going to be the same because of them." Other players said they would wait to see what Doninger decides about a new coach. "If things work out the way we want it, we'll stay," sophomore forward George Leach said. "We are ready to go if they don't meet our demands. Indiana will not have a team." Haston said he would like to talk again with Knight, who met with the players Sunday night. "This is still his team, and I'll do anything he says he wants me to do," Haston said. Knight's son, Pat, an assistant coach, said his father likely will coach somewhere else, and he would go with him. "I'm out of here. I wouldn't stay in this place after the way they treated my father," Pat Knight said. "There's no way. "He's excited and wants to go someplace," the younger Knight said of his father. "He's got a good five or six years left in him to coach. A Hall of Fame coach that's available is a pretty hot commodity in my book. Everybody's thinking it ends here. It doesn't end here. This is a new beginning for us." Davis said he has not decided what he will do, although he likely would not remain as an assistant. "The players would really have to convince me to stay here as an assistant coach," Davis said. He said he spoke to the players and told them to be patient and not make a decision based on what happens to the assistants. Doninger understands why the players are upset. "You've got some quality people and they are stunned by all of this. They are hurt by all of this," he said. "There's no question they came to Indiana University to play for coach Bob Knight. We'd like to think they came to Indiana University because of Indiana University too, but I know the facts of life here, and they came to play for coach Knight." He said the search for an interim coach would begin right away and a permanent coach not too long after that. "My best guess is you start thinking about the process even
after you get the current coaching staff intact," Doninger said.
"It's something you need to address very early on. It gets awkward
as the season goes on, but everybody knows that's going to be the
situation."
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
