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When Indiana hired Knight....

BayernFan

BayernFan

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Sep 4, 2001
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newspaper (daily news, sports and weather articles...kinda like Yahoo on paper) pieces mentioned that the front runner was Norm Sloan. Joe Hall and Ralph Miller were also considered. Three of those four won NCs, so Orwig knew what he was doing.

I had forgotten that in 1968, Knight was publicly named as Wisconsin's head coach, but he backed out.
 
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BayernFan said:
newspaper (daily news, sports and weather articles...kinda like Yahoo on paper) pieces mentioned that the front runner was Norm Sloan. Joe Hall and Ralph Miller were also considered. Three of those four won NCs, so Orwig knew what he was doing.

I had forgotten that in 1968, Knight was publicly named as Wisconsin's head coach, but he backed out.
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Ralph Miller was no joke either. He had some great teams at Oregon St when Lester Connor was there. I think they named the court after him in Corvallis.
 
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Paterfamilias said:
Ralph Miller was no joke either. He had some great teams at Oregon St when Lester Connor was there. I think they named the court after him in Corvallis.
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Lester the molester, that was his nickname for playing defense, Steve Johnson a 7 footer they were #1 at least one yr heading into the tournament. Then Gary Payton, the glove at the end of his coaching career.

Knight still ended up to be in a class all by himself but that was some good competition for the job
 
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13thman said:
Schembechler talked him out of it.
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I found one of the more interesting nuggets from that book, was when described a letter he received from Bear Bryant. He said in the return address corner of the envelope, all he wrote was BRYANT. That's when you know you're big time.
 
Crayfish57 said:
Lester the molester, that was his nickname for playing defense, Steve Johnson a 7 footer they were #1 at least one yr heading into the tournament. Then Gary Payton, the glove at the end of his coaching career.

Knight still ended up to be in a class all by himself but that was some good competition for the job
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That Miller team that was #1 is part of my favorite NCAA Tournament day ever. Within just a few minutes (I think) Rolando Blackman led K-State to the upset of #1 seeded Oregon St., Brian Warrick led St. Joes to the upset of #1 seeded Depaul and US Reed hit the half court shot for Arkansas to knock off Louisville... who I hated!! After all of that I felt the way had been cleared for IU to maybe win the whole dang thing... and they did:)
 
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Paterfamilias said:
That Miller team that was #1 is part of my favorite NCAA Tournament day ever. Within just a few minutes (I think) Rolando Blackman led K-State to the upset of #1 seeded Oregon St., Brian Warrick led St. Joes to the upset of #1 seeded Depaul and US Reed hit the half court shot for Arkansas to knock off Louisville... who I hated!! After all of that I felt the way had been cleared for IU to maybe win the whole dang thing... and they did:)
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And, Danny Ainge's full court dribble layup at the buzzer to beat Notre Dame.
 
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BayernFan said:
not true. they had guys taller with waivers. I'd ;post a screenshot of the newspaper articles if this site allowed it.
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I just looked at a couple of Knight's rosters at Army from late 1970's. Nobody over 6'6" althought they did change the height requirements in the early 1960's.
 
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When Knight was in Indianapolis in mid March 1971 to appear at a coaches clinic , the Indpls Star (3/24/71) quoted him:

Knight shut down the impression Army teams suffer because the military has a height limitation. "There is no size limitation," he stressed. "Any boy that is over 6'6" can apply for a medical waiver and we've had athletes at West Point taller than that."

Maybe he was talking about athletes other than basketball.
 
The Terre haute newspaper listed these names as being "bandied about" for the IU job:

Bob Boyd USC
Al McGuire Marquette
Tates Locke, Clemson
Bob Knight Army (who had backed out of the Wisconsin Job)
Don Donoher, Dayton
Walt Bellamy NBA player

a paper in Raleigh NC on March 19th or so quoted sloan as not interested in the IU job and mentioned Bob Leonard as a candidate. It also spelled IU's AD last name as Orwid.
 
In a Steve Green video I watched, they stated Slick got offered the job first and turned it down.
 
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