| | By Mark Kreidler
Special to ESPN.com
A couple of things regarding the future about which you can be relatively certain:
|  | | Despite all the allegations, Bob Knight still hasn't worn out his welcome on the Hoosiers bench. |
(1) Bob Knight will get himself run out of Indiana's basketball program;
(2) The last straw -- or is it, by now, the Ultimate Annual Last Straw Barbecue and Clambake? -- will bear a striking resemblance to the litany of ridiculous behavior that already pockmarks Knight's record as head coach; and
(3) Somewhere, sometime, under some cosmic alignment, a member of the university's top brass finally will bolt upright in the old barcalounger and exclaim, "My god, what were we thinking?"
You want the Bob Knight issue in a nutshell? Just ask the question this way: Is there another NCAA program that would, when presented with the cumulative record of classless, bullying, physically and verbally abusive behavior that Knight has compiled, continue to employ the head coach?
The right answer to that question is, let's hope not. The cynical answer is, possibly so. And the current answer arrives in the form of another question:
What would it take, Indiana?
What, you're still looking for a smoking gun? The soiled piece of toilet paper no longer constitutes physical evidence? The university president getting kicked out of Knight's practice -- that was just one of those things? The assistant coach, the secretary, the sports information director -- maybe they all had it coming, those famously contentious folks?
By now the videotape that shows Knight grabbing Neil Reed by the throat has assumed Zaprudian proportion. It isn't nearly that difficult. That's Reed on the tape. That's Knight's hand around Reed's neck. Most programs with an iota of self-respect would have stopped the charade then and there. No more calls, folks: We have a winner.
Indiana just keeps on going, hoping that this threat or that punishment finally does the trick with Knight. The most popular phrase coming out of Bloomington lately is "short leash," by which university officials attempt to suggest they'll really be watching the Little General now. Knight should have been on a choke-chain 15 years ago, but that still doesn't excuse Indiana for failing to do the right thing here.
From a peak in the late 1970s and early '80s, when he was considered merely eccentric and driven, Knight has devolved into American coaching's No. 1 cautionary tale. Slowly, methodically and especially unerringly, he has undone his own legacy as a wonderful basketball tactician and a coach occasionally worthy of the "genius" label pasted on him by admiring outsiders.
Remarkably, he has been able to continue to recruit good, though rarely great, players. Not so remarkably, he continues to receive public support from many of those players and from a solid percentage of Hoosiers fans, although it would be insulting an entire state not to acknowledge that there are plenty of people in Indiana who understand exactly what a miserable crank Knight has become.
Over the past decade, as his transgressions became more broadly known and the possible excuses for them evaporated, Knight has fallen into twin ruts of explanation: (a) It didn't happen; or (b) It happened, but you're all too stupid to understand the reasons why.
His "apology" over the weekend was classic Knight, straight out of the Who-are-you-to-question-me? school of blustery aggression. At one point, the coach acknowledged his temper and noted ominously, "I'm not very good at just forgetting something and going on." At another point he wrote, "I've always been too confrontational, especially when I know I'm right."
Incredibly, Knight maintained that his temper was not a factor "in the investigated incident," which makes you wonder what would have happened to Neil Reed if the coach had, you know, gotten mad that day. By allowing him to stay, the Indiana University president, Myles Brand, and the school's board of trustees are at least leaving open a window of opportunity to find out.
Here's hoping that they, along with Knight and his program, never do. On the other hand, this is a 59-year-old man. This is a three-decade history. These are the laws of probability. The Hoosiers can't save Knight from himself. It's just a shame that they aren't ready to save their future from Knight.
Mark Kreidler is a columnist for the Sacramento Bee, which has a web site at http://www.sacbee.com/.
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