BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Even before the start of both events during the past two days to celebrate the seven inductees into this year's Indiana University Athletics Hall of Fame, everybody hoped. Everybody prayed. In fact, everybody who bleeds Hoosier red meant no harm, but they wanted Bob Knight to do the wrong thing.
Instead, Knight did the right thing.
He stayed away. And, yes, I know these aren't the same folks who used that myth nine years ago to get rid of the greatest college basketball coach ever.
It really shouldn't come as a surprise that Bob Knight would opt not to attend his own induction into the Indiana University Athletics Hall of Fame. His departure from Indiana was ugly, well-documented and Knight has never been one to easily forgive and forget.
Or maybe he is mellowing just a bit. Rather than not even respond to the invitation, Knight actually let Indiana know that he would not attend.Not just passing word along through an intermediary or via press release. He called Indiana's athletic director Fred Glass directly. A former sportswriter that is a longtime friend of Knight, will represent Knight at the ceremony.
The reason claimed is that Knight would not attend because he didn't want a media crunch that would ensue were he to attend, to overshadow the induction of many of his former players. That almost seems reasonable except for one thing. Considering Bob Knight is being inducted, regardless of his physical presence, he will overshadow the event.
After a nearly year-long battle with pancreatic cancer, NCAA president Myles Branddied today. He was 67.
In 2003, Brand was named as the first-ever university president to take over the NCAA's top job. Among his many ventures, he made a significant push to get collegiate athletics more academically focused. He believed the NCAA sports -- namely football and basketball -- were too much like professional sports and he wanted to change the culture, using the phrase, "turn down the volume."
Brand is most famous, though, for being the administrator who helped take down Bob Knight at Indiana University.
A little over a week ago, Indiana University announced it would be inducting Bob Knight into its Hall of Fame. In the nine days since then, there has been no shortage of discussion around the state of Indiana, message boards, newspapers and local talk radio. Normally, the induction of someone with Knight's accolades wouldn't cause such a stir. He won three national championships, 12 Big Ten titles and went to the Final Four fives times in 29 seasons at Indiana. He's currently the winningest coach in Division-I history.
Unless you live under the last rock that didn't come with Tweetdeck pre-installed, you've certainly heard about Jordan Crawford's alleged dunk over LeBron James, which ended up with Nike confiscating the tapes in the shoe giant's corporate version of Witness Protection.
Fortunately, Crawford's midnight madness dunk at Indiana (where he played for a season before transferring to Xavier last year), is available on YouTube. Watch Crawford soar over a rack of balls plainly trained to play defense by ex-Duke point guard Greg Paulus.
Now if Crawford would only be so kind as to dunk over LeBron in everything starring Kevin James.
I have no proof that the people in the NCAA that evaluate appeals were laughing and giggling their way through Kelvin Sampson's appeal of his sanctions. I like to think they were. Most people had a good laugh when they found out Sampson was appealing. Not surprisingly, Sampson had his appeal officially rejected today.
Essentially the appeal by Sampson came down to two arguments. The first was that the committee misinterpreted the evidence that was the basis of the penalties. That is, all those excessive phone calls at Indiana, the three-way calls, the "mistakes" that were made. The committee just looked at them the wrong way. The 100 plus phone calls were simply individual mistakes and not reflective of a pattern.
The other claim was that the enforcement staff that investigated and brought the charges before the committee were biased against him. Of course those past violations from Oklahoma that were almost the same as what happened at Indiana should be ignored. To say nothing of how they factored into the harsher penalties on Sampson
The NCAA upheld the penalties handed down by the infractions committee that effectively banned him from coaching in the NCAA for five years. Hopefully Sampson will finally let it go.
He may be done in college basketball, but he still has a coaching future.He is an assistant in the NBA, and has always been a players' coach. His basketball acumen has never been questioned. Just his ethics.
In case you haven't been paying attention to the goings on of college basketball in the last few weeks, USC's 2009-10 basketball season has been already been summarily decimated. Tim Floyd resigned in the face of allegations against the program. In the wake, three incoming recruits have been granted their release from letters of intent to play for the Trojans. Plus, three players from last year's Sweet 16 squad have entered the NBA Draft early and now cannot change their minds. Factor in two graduations, and the team is left with only two players who logged regular, meaningful minutes in 2009, with no recruits of consequence.
In 2008, the Big Ten sent only four teams to the NCAA tournament. None reached the Elite Eight The Big Ten toiled down with mid-majors in conference RPI and were nationally maligned as the "Average 11." This past season, however, the league enjoyed a resurgence. It ranked only behind the ACC in conference RPI. Seven schools earned a berth into the NCAA tournament, and Penn State won the NIT. Michigan State toppled the defending national champions and two number one seeds en route to a national runner-up finish.
Duke and North Carolina were separated by a single game in the ACC standings heading into Sunday; little did Duke know it, but they nearly had a chance to tie the Tar Heels again. However, games against Boston College and Miami, respectively, ended the wrong way for the Devils.
Boston College 80, Duke 74: The same problems that have plagued the Blue Devils all season -- point guard play as well as lack of an inside presence -- came into play again Sunday afternoon.
A few weeks ago I did a halfway point roundup for the Big Ten, in which I buried Wisconsin and hailed Penn State to no end. Boy, do I look like an idiot now. Since then, Penn State crumbled, while Wisconsin has done a 180.
The Nittany Lions were embarrassed by Michigan, lost at home to Wisconsin, and handily lost at Purdue. They now sit just 6-6 in conference play, and their RPI has plunged into the 80s. With road trips to Illinois and Ohio State -- not to mention hosting Illinois and Minnesota -- it would appear they are fading back into obscurity.
NCAA Basketball 
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Even before the start of both events during the past two days to celebrate the seven inductees into this year's Indiana University Athletics Hall of Fame, everybody hoped. Everybody prayed. In fact, everybody who bleeds Hoosier red meant no harm, but they wanted Bob Knight to do the wrong thing.
It really shouldn't come as a surprise that 
After a nearly year-long battle with pancreatic cancer, NCAA president 
A little over a week ago, 
I have no proof that the people in the NCAA that evaluate appeals were laughing and giggling their way through 
In 2008, the 
A few weeks ago I did a 
