Bob Knight On Jay Leno - Dressed Like a Referee

Last night, Bob Knight was on Jay Leno, dressed as a referee. The Indy Star has all the details:

Wearing a referee’s shirt and blowing a whistle as he walked out on stage, Bobby Knight poked fun at college basketball officials Monday night during an appearance on the “Tonight Show with Jeno Leno.”

“There are fat guys that referee. There are slow guys that referee. I mean, some of them don’t see well. There are a lot of them that don’t even know what the rules are. What better job could you have than to be a referee?” said Knight, who won three national titles as head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers.

It’s dangerous work, Leno pointed out: “You could get hit with a chair or something.”

There's only one Bob Knight. My guess is ends up in a studio somewhere - perhaps with CBS during tourney time this year.

Here's the video:



I just thought of this. Forget Bob Knight being an announcer. Can you imagine Bob Knight actually being a referee?!? If he were mic'd up, that'd be "must-see".

Should we reprimand Officials?

Steve Walentik, writer for the Columbia Tribune Blog, asks an interesting question in his latest post,Should we be reprimanding more than just the coaches and players when it comes to "Awful Officiating"?

Here are a few highlights from Dave's article:

Look, it's a tough job. Things happen quickly and you can't see everything. I just think officiating should be a lot better than it is. That means not anticipating calls when you're out of position. That means calling the same things in the second half that you do in the first. And it means not ignoring contact in the last minute, like when Darryl Butterfield smacked Taylor Griffin's arm to jar the ball loose on Tuesday night.

I also think if the Big 12 is going to issue reprimands for criticizing officiating, as it last week to Texas Tech Coach Bob Knight and Kansas State senior Cartier Martin, it should require more accountability from the referees themselves. In Missouri's season-opening loss to Iowa State, Stefhon Hannah appeared to be calling timeout long before he hit the floor and was whistled for traveling in the final seconds. So why no whistle? And why did Curtis Shaw blow his whistle with 3:26 left in Missouri's loss to Kansas, run across the floor and yell at MU assistant Matt Zimmerman? In Kansas State's loss to Kansas on Monday night, why did the officials T up Bob Huggins for complaining about a missed call the entire ESPN audience saw in real time?

Last week we brought up the Bob Knight situation where he blasted officials after his team lost in Overtime to Oklahoma State. This week he had this to say during the Big 12 coaches' teleconference:

"I've always said, for 40 years, I've said that there's no way officials should work more than three games a week," he said. "They have plenty of other places they can go. They can go to the NBA. They can go to the NAIA. They can go to junior college. They can go to high school. And for years, the NCAA has hid behind individual employment contractors.

"I think that's all bull----. You just say, 'All right, if you're going to work in this league, this is how you're going to work. If you don't want to work in this league, fine. You've got other leagues to work in.' To have some guy 54 or 55 years old referee six times a week is a real disservice to the kids who are playing."

"I've seen it all year long for years and years,"

Does Bob Knight think the individual leagues should hire officials?

"I think that would be fine and they only work that league. But these guys are so greedy that they end up trying to work these six games, and they're not capable of doing that. I mean, just check schedules and you'll rarely see where kids play three games a week. And these kids are 19, 20 and 21 years old."

I actually agree with Bobby Knight and Steve Walentik on this one. I feel like most times the officials have too much control and there's no accountability. Maybe there is, and we're just not seeing it, but to me it seems like they can get away with bad calls, and "it's just part of the game". However, if it wasn't for Awful Officiating, it wouldn't give me something to write about over here.

Bob Knight does not like the NBA's age limit rule

In an article in today's Fort Wayne Sentinel, it was mentioned that Bobby Knight has some issues with the NBA's age limit restrictions.

"Because now you can have a kid come to school for a year and play basketball and he doesn't even have to go to class," Knight said Monday during the Big 12 coaches call. "He certainly doesn't have to go to class the second semester. I'm not exactly positive about the first semester. But he would not have to attend a single class the second semester to play through the whole second semester of basketball.

"That, I think, has a tremendous effect on the integrity of college sports."

Knight's comments come on the eve of when his Texas Tech team will travel to Austin to take on super freshman Kevin Durant and the Texas Longhorns. Now maybe these comments were designed to simply get in the head of Durant and his Longhorn teammates. Or maybe Knight really has a problem with the rule. Thinking outside the box, I tend to agree with Bobby Knight that the new age limit could potentially effect the integrity of college basketball. However, is it hurting or helping the integrity of 'basketball', as a whole? If the NBA is going to be popular, like it was in the Jordan glory days, it needs to put a good solid healthy product on display each and every night. Hiring kids right out of high school puts the NBA at risk of effecting it's very own integrity even more than it already is. Not to mention, there is much more to the NBA than just playing basketball 2 or 3 nights a week. It's all the in between stuff that puts 17-18 year kids at risk. Give them 10 millions dollars and you've multiplied that risk tremendously.

I have gone back and forth on the age restriction rule, but I've come to the conclusion that I agree with David Stern on this rule. However, with every decision you will have exceptions, like Durant & Oden, but I seem to think that the more developed the players are that come into the league, the better off the league is (and Basketball) as a whole. And the more popular the NBA is, the better off the game is the whole way down.

Are there exceptions? Yes. Is it unfair to some kids? Unfortunately. Will the rule effect the integrity of college basketball? In the short term, maybe, in the long term, I think it will help it.

Amazing... Bob Knight isn't too fond of officials

Via FoxSports:

Texas Tech coach Bob Knight was reprimanded by the Big 12 Conference for comments about officiating in a double-overtime loss at Oklahoma State.

After Saturday's 93-91 defeat, Knight said a call on a charge was "horrendous" and "maybe as bad a call as I've ever seen."
Knight's statement violated the Big 12's principle and standards of sportsmanship, which prohibit coaches from commenting critically in public about officials, the conference said. The rule "goes for coaches, players, administrators, everyone," Big 12 spokesman Rob Carolla said Thursday.

So, Bob Knight has been reprimanded. What does that mean? Is that basically a slap on the wrist? "Please Robert, don't criticize our officials. Thank you." Last time I was pulled over and given a warning for driving too fast, that slowed me down for about 2 days. The fact remains, if an official blows a call that upsets a coach, the coach's responsibility to the team should be to at least have the right to say something about it. What's your opinion on the rule that prohibits coaches from commenting critically in public about officials? I understand players shouldn't be able to, but should coaches be allowed to complain publically about officiating? Where do you draw the line?