I was told not to bring up Bob Knight or "the movie." But when you talk to Iowa's head basketball man, Steve Alford, it's hard to avoid the topic of his old coach. And Alford seems to have a healthy perspective on his time at Indiana.

It's not like Alford and I didn't have other things to talk about. After all, Iowa played eight teams that made the NCAA Tournament, from the five Big Ten teams to Duke, Missouri and Boston University (a total of 15 games).

The question is: Did Steve Alford succeed because of or in spite of Bobby Knight?

Against Big Ten teams in the tourney, Iowa went 1-2 against Indiana, lost three to Ohio State, lost to Illinois and split with Michigan State and Wisconsin.

The Hawkeyes also split with Missouri of the Big 12. They lost to ACC power Duke by 18 and beat BU (of the America East) by 29. That 5-10 record tells you why Iowa went to the NIT and lost to LSU in the first round. The Hawkeyes never really got it together this year. But, after playing for Knight at Indiana, Steve Alford knows how to carry lessons from one season to the next.

As I knew it would, however, ESPN's movie "Season on the Brink" did come up. I had mentioned to Alford that, at times, Iowa guard Luke Recker looked like his mind had moved ahead to the NBA this season. I asked Alford if there were any stretches like that in his college career. He said, "My coach wouldn't let that happen." With the Knight door open, I walked in.

Not surprisingly, Alford did not hang up the phone when I asked about the film. In John Feinstein's book and in the movie, we are watching Knight coach at very close range. A lot of what we learn about Knight and his coaching style we learn as we watch him coach Alford in that book and now in the movie. And Alford is comfortable with this notion; he wrote a book called "Playing for Knight."

Steve Alford survived the movie, just as he survived playing basketball at Indiana for Bob Knight. He spoke to me comfortably about the movie. I sensed that the movie just reinforced things he already knew about his college playing days: whom he played for, what he went through and how it was more about the method than the madness.

He has a sense of humor about his time at Indiana and about the movie. He noted that the basketball shorts in the movie weren't as tight as when he played. He thought the part in the hair of the kid who played him wasn't quite right.

I also got the feeling that Alford used the movie as a teaching tool for his current Iowa team. You can hear all the stories about your coach's playing days under Bob Knight. But it's quite another thing to see them acted out in a movie. His players got a chance to see who Steve Alford is, and they got to see part of what makes him the man and coach he is today. They got to see what his life was like when he was at their current stage of life. And they got to see what part Knight had in shaping him.

Alford stresses many things at Iowa that he learned at Indiana: going to class and getting good grades are both important; discipline; not looking ahead to being a professional player. He wants to establish the kind of legacy at Iowa that Knight did at Indiana.

After seeing the movie, one might wonder why Alford would take away anything positive from his time with Knight. But we need to remember what Alford's association with Knight got him: a college education, a national championship, an Olympic gold medal and what is clearly going to be a long and successful coaching career. Alford is very much a part of and is a proud extension of Knight's legacy at Indiana.

	Iowa coach Steve Alford, left, faced his former coach, Bob Knight, when Knight was still at Indiana.

So the question is: Did Alford succeed because of or in spite of Bob Knight? It's probably a little bit of both. Alford is secure enough to look back without rancor. He can see the good and the bad. And he can laugh at his hair in a movie. He can laugh at the way Knight absurdly hounded him for posing for a calendar sold by a sorority for charity. He's removed enough from those days to only remember what he learned and what he did with those lessons. That's probably what makes him such a good coach.

Again, you're not supposed to bring up Knight in conversations with Steve Alford. But Knight is such a part of who Alford is today that Alford can't talk for too long about basketball without mentioning Knight himself.

In "A Season on the Brink," Indiana has a fairly disappointing season that ended with an opening-round loss to Cleveland State in the NCAA Tournament. But Knight and his Hoosiers learned from that season. And the next year, in 1987, they won the Big Ten title and the national championship.

Iowa was supposed to be good this year, but it didn't turn out that way. Now I'm not saying that Iowa will win the Big Ten and the national championship next year. But we all know that their coach will make sure they take what they can from this year and bring it positively into next year. Alford will continue to build a program and a legacy at Iowa, using lessons every day he learned from that guy whose name you're not supposed to bring up.