Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 20, 1994 TAG: 9403200132
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LANDOVER, MD. LENGTH: Long
Just 13 miles from the White House, under a dingy roof, the NCAA is assembling nuclear hoopheads today. This is March Madness!
The tournament bracket says the East Regional's second-round opener at USAir Arena matches Temple against Indiana. The CBS schedule - a national telecast and 12:15 p.m. tip-off - suggests there's something much louder about this game.
It's John Chaney against Bobby Knight, two masters of the game and assassins of their own character. As sideline headbutting goes, it doesn't get any better than this.
Rick Brunson will have to play 40 minutes at point guard for the Owls today, but if he were one of the 18,756 paying customers at USAir Arena, would he watch the game or the coaches?
"Probably the coaches," Brunson said Saturday. "They're both crazy."
You have to give the NCAA bracketeers credit. They've tried. This is the fifth time in 11 years that Temple and Indiana have played in the same region. Knight, 53, and Chaney, 61, finally meet today.
One is black, one is white. One is a product of the streets, the other has roots in the Midwest flatlands. Perhaps never have two coaches so strong, so traditional and so respectful in their approach to the game been so controversial.
They are joined at the lip, and each may be one utterance, one incident, from his professional demise. Will it happen today?
In February, Chaney threatened to kill Massachusetts coach John Calipari after a Temple loss. He later apologized, although many of peers simply thought Chaney was playing environmentalist in trying to clean up one of the game's oil slicks.
Last week, not long after he headbutted one of his benched Hoosiers, Knight waxed poetic on the public address system at IU's Assembly Hall after a victory on senior day:
"When my turn on earth is gone, and my activities here are past, you can bury me upside down, and my critics can kiss my a--."
What Knight needs is for somebody in Indiana's administration to kick his tail. His rap sheet runs from Indiana to international incidents. Yes, he's a hell of a coach, his teams are wonderful to watch, but . . .
There is no question Knight and Chaney are great teachers of their subject. They stress commitment, hard work, promptness, practice. That said, would any other teacher who has done what Knight and Chaney have done still be working, virtually without punishment?
Knight, wrapped in Hoosiers hysteria, seems like the kid who's seeing just how far he can push authority. Asked during a Thursday news conference why he read the poem, "It just struck me as something that would entertain me a little bit," he said.
While Knight is entertaining himself, Chaney at least has said he was sorry for his outburst. That blast at Calipari hardly was his first, however. He has referred to West Virginia coach Gale Catlett as "that SOB." He once angrily put his hands around the neck of then-George Washington coach Gerry Gimelstob.
Sadly, there's more. There also is more of which Chaney can be proud. It's the same for Knight. Maybe that's why their scary actions are just that.
How appropriate it was Saturday during separate NCAA news conferences that these two coaches whose teams are known for great defense were defending each other.
"It makes me feel pretty good about playing against a very fine coach like Bobby, and I have great respect for what he does," Chaney said. "I also know we mirror each other in a sense. The discipline of our players is something that I certainly do.
"It is something I've always admired Bobby for, in that, regardless of what anyone else said about him his players have always had nothing but respect and admiration for him."
After Chaney played with a matchup zone, Knight went to his man-to-man philosophy.
"When you judge John," Knight said, "you're going to have to look a long, long way to find many people that have more influenced the lives of kids whose lives needed to be influenced than a guy like John.
"That's the bottom line. It's not a guy getting [ticked] off at a [Calipari] press conference and yelling at somebody. You think that's a big thing? How about the guys John Chaney has kept off the streets? How about the guys John Chaney has kept out of jail? How about the guys that have produced families with good kids because of John Chaney's influence?
"You tell me a guy flies off the handle . . . A coach flies off the handle in public. I'd like to be around to see what one of you guys does when somebody changes your copy a little bit or one of you gets a [poor] headline or something.
"If I were John Chaney, knowing what he's done for kids over the years, I'd be pretty damn happy."
Chaney and Knight also share something else. When it comes to the Fourth Estate, each would prefer to take the Fifth Amendment. So, Chaney was asked which of the coaches has a greater disdain for news conferences.
The Owls' coach laughed.
"I'll tell you this," he said. "When I'm buried, I want my head up to above the ground."
Just call it a down-to-earth matchup.
Keywords:
BASKETBALL
by CNB