Sustained greatness? He made one Sweet 16 his last 13 years.
In '75, he said that was the best team he ever had and lost after losing just one player from it. Cheney's team was loaded with talent and never won a title.
"Greatness" is FAR more than just wining some games. It's being an actual human too. The same people who cry about our "snowflake millennials" are the same ones who say it's ok for Knight to say he wishes people were dead because his widdle feewuns got hurt.
If you don't consider winning 3 national titles, 11 Big Ten titles, and 900 games "greatness" then the good news is, I can be relieved to know that you don't think another Big Ten basketball coach has achieved it.
The 75 team was 31-1 and lost one game by 2 points because Scott May broke his arm. It was the most talented IU team. Steve Green was the leading scorer on that team and was not on the 76 team. In terms of "great", the following year they went undefeated, and that is indeed "greater" than losing one game. But yes, losing a player of May's caliber late is enough to have trouble against UK. Maybe ask Bob Huggins if losing a player like Kenyon Martin late in the tourney run clouded their chances when they were #1.
Cheaney's team was ranked #1 in the country at a point in the '93 season when they had just 8 players available to play, and one of those was Pat Knight. Henderson and Pat Graham were out with injury and what would probably today be a "4-star" freshman, Malcolm Sims had transferred by mid-term. To put this in perspective, Nover was barely 6'8" and was the center, and they only had Cheaney (who was listed at 6'6" until his senior season) and a redshirt freshman Brian Evans (who was listed at 6'7" until his senior season) as the "size". Take De'ron Davis and Thomas Bryant away and see how Crean does against Purdue. That team was 17-1 in conference and that 1 loss was a nail biter too. Damn Jamie Skelton. Name for me the number of non-Bob Knight coached 17-1 or greater Big Ten teams. (hears crickets). IU struggled against Kansas' pressure. There is no denying it. They jumped all over IU in that game. But make no mistake, when asked at the end of the year after winning the title who he thought was actually the best team in the country regardless of tourney outcome, he said "Indiana". And he was right. IU beat Michigan twice that year and would have beaten UNC too. Kansas- great D that game.
Knight did all sorts of philanthropy. It was almost like he knew he was two people and he had to try to do as much good with one of them to try to overcome what the other one might do. But when you think of some of the individuals he helped, and certainly how he helped set up his pupils for success in life, there is no doubt that he created tremendous positivity in his time at Indiana. Let the record not change now in any way.
But getting right to the comment of greatness, I can say that I witnessed greatness on the basketball court the night that IU beat Penn State in 2OT in 1993 in Happy Valley. The way he set up Reynolds for a charge away from the ball was shear genius. It was never a question then, and apparently I should remind some, that it should never be a question now, that Knight could coach a game like few can even come close to. I can remember a play he ran for Guyton to help IU score to beat Purdue that was a bit of a curl play, but it was run through several screens to allow him the freedom to get to the middle of the floor. It was a remarkable play and a great win. That must have been the 99-00 season- a season, mind you, in which IU was ranked most of the year. In fact, IU was ranked in the top 25 in most of the last "6 years" that everyone refers to.
Roy Williams went 35-4 in 1998 and lost to Rhode Island before making the Sweet 16. He had all-time great Paul Pierce on that team. He didn't make the Sweet 16. And yet, somehow, with Luke Recker and Jason Collier and Neil Reed all top-rated guys, all transferring in consecutive seasons, Knight's teams still averaged more than 20 wins and finished well in the conference. No 1st rounders except Kirk Haston- who may very well have stayed had Knight not been fired a year earlier. Knight had the players to get back to the Final Four for the very year they did, but without him at the helm. He brought in the very players who took IU to the final game, and with Andre Owens, who later became an All American at Houston after transferring, and guys like Sean May, who later won a title at UNC sure to be a part of IU, Knight truly missed out on what was clearly a resurgence.
But yes, sustained excellence- things like going to the NCAA tourney without 5 first round draft picks. You know- winning with actual coaching and team play. That is what I am talking about.
In comparison it is an absolute joke that Crean cannot even get to the top 68 teams with this kind of talent. Ridiculous.
