Defending Knight

To the Editor: Coach Bobby Knight once said the greatest travesty in college basketball was referee Teddy Valentine's officiating. However, Coach Knight was mistaken because the greatest travesty is really his removal as coach of the Indiana University basketball team. This decision completely disregards Coach Knight's legacy and is solely based on the athletic director's bias and the exaggerated story of a biased freshman. How quickly we forget Coach Knight's generous contributions to the school. Yet regardless of these incredulous claims, Coach Knight's legacy is one of a 98 percent graduation rate; his legacy is that of three NCAA championships and 21 Big Ten championships. Moreover, it is his relationship with his players that have stayed four years. It is these players that defend their beloved coach as though he were a family member, and it is the current players -- who continue to support their coach -- that truly show the man, Bobby Knight. Bobby Knight has won games and has helped many of these graduates win in the game of life, and it is unfortunate that many of these incidents -- of which we don't know the whole story -- will define his career. Because Coach Knight is more than the man the media portrays -- he is a coach, a mentor, a teacher and a legend who will never be given credit for the remarkable job he has done as Indiana's coach.

Robby Sikka College '04

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