Thursday, March 13, 2008

Knight-errant

"All of us learn to write in the second grade. Most of us go on to greater things." -Bob Knight

Strap in, ladies and gentlemen. For the next 3 1/2 weeks, we will be exposed to General Bob Knight's analysis and commentary on ESPN's college basketball coverage. The bigwigs in Bristol are lauding their big catch, but early returns indicate that they may get more than they bargained for.

First off, Bob Knight as a member of the media is akin to Idi Amin joining Amnesty International or at the very least Coach K donning Carolina Blue. His rants against the Fourth Estate are legendary, and given his lack of respect for FCC regulations, it is a good thing ESPN is a cable network.

In his debut last night during Big East tournament coverage, there was palpable unease on the set from Rece Davis and Digger Phelps. When Digger playfully diagrammed a zone defense for Coach Knight, whose teams were famous for only playing man-to-man defense, the nervous laughter seems out of place on the usually cool, smooth and hip ESPN set.

Clearly Knight will bring honesty and an encyclopedia's worth of basketball knowledge to the programming. But what if he also brings this.....

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