Preseason trash talk.

The IU blogosphere has been all abuzz about Bruce Weber's recent comments about IU. At some sort of Illini circle-jerk a few days ago, Weber said:

The league should be wide open and we can be right in the middle of it. I do know one thing, though. I think Indiana will suck. Don’t put that on the Internet.

I have made clear on many occasions that I don't like Bruce Weber. He was right to be miffed about losing a recruit as talented as Eric Gordon, but as I have said many times before, Weber's inability to shrug it off has done real damage to the Illinois program. After IU's double overtime win at Champaign last year, in that toxic atmosphere created and abetted by Weber and the Illinois administration, I said this about Bruce:

For a college head coach, Weber just doesn't seem to relish competition.

That line, perhaps more than any other, led some Illinois fan to write a Unanbomber-style manifesto about how wrong I was about everything. Certainly, Weber can say whatever he wants to say. And of course, IU coaches have been known to take shots at opponents, albeit with a bit more creativity.

I thought Weber's approval of Chester Frazier's tech-worthy chest bump of Eric Gordon said something about Weber's character and supported my contention. I think his current willingness to talk trash about a team that doesn't return a single recruited scholarship player is exhibit B. Wow, Bruce. Takes a big man to say that you'll have IU's number this year. Weber took over a program that had NCAA championship-caliber talent on hand and drove the program into the crapper. Hopefully the trajectory of Crean, who was Illinois's first choice in 2003, will be the opposite.

Knight roundup.

I'm not going to cover the Knight story to death (my goodness, between the Knight retirement and Eric Gordon's trip to Champaign, Musberger and Lavin probably won't even notice the basketball game transpiring in front of them), but did want to provide some links:

• the Texas Tech blog Double-T Nation has lots of thoughtful coverage of the issue. For those of you who haven't followed Knight career at TT closely (that includes me), DTN's Monday night post provides some background about Knight's recruiting and the like.
• In Big Ten circles, Black Heart Gold Pants (Iowa) weighs in favorably and the Buckeye Blog (OSU, obviously), less favorably. Just a reminder to our Ohio brethren: Knight was a Buckeye before he was a Hoosier. How were we to teach him any manners after four years in Columbus. He did throw a chair, but at least it wasn't on fire.
• The Louisville Courier-Journal has an article quoting former players and current IU officials about the possibility of IU honoring Knight. All seem to agree that it would be appropriate, but both IU AD Greenspan and assistant AD Kit Klingelhoffer (who has been at IU for nearly 40 years) seem pessimistic about it happening anytime soon.

Bob Knight resigns.

Numerous media sources report that former IU coach Bob Knight, the winningest coach in NCAA Division I and Big Ten history, has resigned as Texas Tech's basketball coach. Pursuant to his contract, former Hoosier player Pat Knight will become the head coach at Texas Tech. As yet, there is nothing on the official TT site, but check here for updates if you are so inclined. If this is the end for Knight, he finishes his career with an all-time Division I record of 902 wins. He won 661 games in 29 seasons at IU, plus three NCAA titles, one NIT title, a title in the short-lived College Coaches Association postseason tournament, and eleven Big Ten titles.

Knight currently has a complicated relationship with the school where he enjoyed his greatest success. Knight was fired in September 2000 by former IU president Myles Brand. Brand, instead of helping the IU community heal after a painful episode, elected to use his new-found fame resulting from the Knight firing to his professional and financial advantage. Brand gave a number of self-congratulatory speeches and interviews in the aftermath of the Knight firing and ultimately parlayed his status as a hero to university presidents by becoming the president of the NCAA. Brand resigned as IU president on October 10, 2002 to become president of the NCAA, effective January 1, 2003. Brand gave IU less than three months notice of his resignation, an incredibly short notice period for a university president, and forced IU into a lengthy interim presidency. Reasonable people can disagree about whether Knight should have been fired. That Myles Brand placed his career ahead of the interests of the IU community is beyond debate in my mind.

Unfortunately, Knight has been embroiled in litigation against IU in the seven years since his firing. Knight isn't in the IU Athletics Hall of Fame, and it seems fairly clear that he would decline the honor if offered. Despite significant turnover in the president's office, the Board of Trustees, and in the athletic department administration since September 2000, Knight has shown no inclination toward mending fences. When he broke Dean Smith's Division I wins record, he pointedly avoided any public mention of IU. His resentment toward the IU leadership is understandable, but "IU" is more than its administration, of course, and includes the fans who so staunchly defended him after various misunderstandings and worse. Knight doesn't much like Kelvin Sampson, so any reconciliation in the near future seems unlikely.

For years, Dick Vitale blathered on about how IU should name the Assembly Hall court after Knight before someone informed Vitale that the court already is named after Branch McCracken. As sick as I am of Vitale's well-worn material, I certainly do hope that Coach Knight will someday come back to be honored as he deserves, that he will allow IU fans to give him the proper sendoff that he never received. If I had to bet I would predict that it will never happen, but I hope I'm wrong. Nevertheless, IU fans owe much to Knight, who whatever troubles his temper caused him, led IU's basketball program admirably and ethically for three decades and provided the school's greatest period of basketball success. For that, he deserves our thanks for the memories and best wishes in retirement.

UPDATE: A word on the midseason timing, which doesn't shock me. I can't find a link, but I recall Knight speaking with some admiration about the decision of former North Carolina coach Dean Smith to resign in September, immediately before the start of the basketball season. If I recall correctly, Knight said that he usually dreaded the recruiting and schmoozing associated with the offseason, so resigning immediately after the season might not be the best option, but that when he was tired of the basketball, he would know it was time. This sort of timing isn't unprecedented for coaching legends: John Thompson resigned on January 8, 1999. Also, Dick Bennett resigned at Wisconsin early in the 2000-01 season, although he ultimately returned to coaching at Washington State.

John Thompson III.

Really, I'm going to talk about the baseball team any day now. But I had a thought as I watched the waning minutes of Georgetown's overtime win over North Carolina in the East Regional final. JTIII became the first son of a Final Four coach to reach the Final Four as a head coach. This has some tenuous IU connection because of Pat Knight's position on the IU staff during his father's last few years at IU. As you may know, Pat has a contract with Texas Tech that provides that he will succeed his father as Tech's head coach. It seems to me that it was always going to end badly for Knight at IU, even if he had retired of his own volition, because he would have tried to install Pat as the successor and many IU fans would have resisted. For Texas Tech, which has never been as prominent as in the last few years, it's probably a small price to pay.

This arrangement seems to have become more popular in recent years. Sean Sutton succeeded Eddie Sutton at Oklahoma State. Keno Davis will take over for his father, Tom Davis, at Drake next season. Tony Bennett had an outstanding season in his first season after taking over for his father, Dick Bennett, at Washington State. Murry Bartow unsuccessfully followed his father at UAB and Joey Meyer did the same at DePaul.

What seems to separate JTIII from those above is that unlike most of the current batch of successor, JTIII didn't develop under his father's wing. He attended college and coached at Princeton, both as an assistant and as a head coach. Certainly, being named "John Thompson" probably has opened some doors for the current Georgetown coach, and certainly a confidante like the elder John Thompson would be a nice resource for any young coach. And it may all be a coincidence. Perhaps Tony Benett, Sean Sutton, and Pat Knight will all become elite coaches. Still, I think it is interesting that the first second generation Final Four coach did not follow the typical "favorite son" path.