Former IU coach and current ESPN analyst Bob Knight joined “Mike and Mike” Tuesday morning to talk about the NCAA Tournament.
The conversation turned to college basketball’s topic du jour: one-and-dones. Mike Greenberg asked Knight how much pause on a kid’s NBA preparation would he have based on a poor performance in the NCAA tournament.
“If I was involved in the NBA, I wouldn’t want a 19 or 20 year old kid. That’s the last thing I would want to bring with all this traveling and what’s going on in the NBA is a child. … On top of all that, the NBA is doing college basketball a huge disservice. It’s like they’ve raped college basketball.”
Yeah, Bob Knight went there. And not for the first time. Far from there.
Knight sadly told Connie Chung: “I think if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.”
Neither Greenberg nor co-host Mike Golic caught the iconic coach on his commentary, and you probably won’t get an apology from Knight because, well, it’s Bob Knight.
Oden Dunks on his former employer
Greg Oden faced his former team, the Portland Trail Blazers, on Monday night, and started again for the Heat.
The former Lawrence North star played 15 minutes, pulled down three rebounds and scored four points, two of them coming. this dunk on Robin Lopez.
Oden was signed by Miami in hopes of being able to compete with Roy Hibbert in the playoffs.
And hey, lately it hasn’t proven too difficult.
Oden’s last two games combined: 9 points, 5 rebounds
Hibbert’s last two games combined: 7 points, 5 rebounds
Wednesday night will see the two face off, at least for the 10 to 15 minutes that Oden plays. And Pacers fans just hope Roy turns a blind eye and pretends Oden, and every other center for that matter, is Cole Aldrich.
It’s not just Hibbert
The Pacers’ offensive struggles have been well documented and the team’s frustrations have once again been aired. Candace Buckner wrote after last night’s game.
After a game-high 71 points in a loss to Memphis, the Pacers managed just 77 points in the loss at Chicago.
From the Elias Sports Office:
The Pacers have lost each of their last two games despite their opponents scoring fewer than 90 points in each game. The only other teams this season to hold two consecutive opponents to fewer than 90 points and lose both games are the Bulls (December 10-11) and Cavaliers (January 4-5). The last time Indiana had such a streak was February 25-26, 2003.
So in summary, not good.
Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com was in Chicago for the Pacers’ loss to the Bulls and wrote that Indiana was finding life difficult amid the team’s recent struggles.
None of these problems are original; This happens to every team in the league. But with the Pacers, they had lived the charmed existence of overachievement for so long that they had forgotten some of it.
Nothing is broken beyond repair; they still have all their goals ahead of them. They will likely win the Central Division title within a week. If they can beat the Heat at home on Wednesday — and things haven’t changed much at home, where the team is 32-4 — they’ll have a two-game lead for first place in the East against Miami, plus the tiebreaker. with only 10 games to play.
But there is no doubt that things are different now and there are fewer smiles. This is life at this level in the NBA, and the Pacers need to start getting used to it.
Wait for it…
Former Pacers big man Jermaine O’Neal has seen something of a resurgence this season, averaging 7.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg in 19.4 mpg.
Earlier this month, Bob Kravitz questioned whether Jermaine’s jersey should be hung at Bankers Life Fieldhouse rafters. And there’s a very good argument for that.
One thing you can’t argue with is the awesomeness of O’Neal’s deliberate free kick. Seriously, there must be a lane violation every time O’Neal heads into the charity stripe.
The man will test people’s patience. To like. And see how it other O’Neal shot free throws, we’ll let Jermaine take as much time as he needs.
Dario will take the wheel again
Former Indy 500 champion Dario Franchitti will serve as the pace car driver for this year’s race, as first reported yesterday.
Franchitti was forced to abandon racing after a scary accident last season. There was actually only one choice for this year’s pace car driver, but it was a genius decision nonetheless.
To this date
In 1950, The The Indianapolis Olympians defeated the Sheboygan Red Skins 91-84 to win the NBA West Division semi-finals.
The 1950 division title was the only one won by the short-lived Olympians. They were founded in 1949 and closed in 1953.
On this date II
In 1995, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson was released from a prison in Plainfield, Indiana, after serving three years for rape.
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