Feinstein: Indiana University Officials 'Scared Mice'
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Author John Feinstein has chronicled the Indiana basketball coach in his book entitled "Season on the Brink: A Year with Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers." Feinstein also wrote the classic book, "March Madness." And he joins us this morning from Washington. John, good morning.</s>JOHN FEINSTEIN, AUTHOR, "A SEASON ON THE BRINK": Hi, Daryn, how are you?</s>KAGAN: Story came up, we said we got to the guy who wrote the book on Bob Knight. So thanks for joining us this morning.</s>FEINSTEIN: My pleasure.</s>KAGAN: What's your opinion of how Indiana has decided to handle the situation?</s>FEINSTEIN: Well, you know, as I was watching Myles Brand yesterday, I was trying to remember where I had seen him before, and I finally figured it out, he played Stuart Little in the movie because, you know, basically these people are scared mice, both Myles Brand, who sat there with a straight face yesterday and said: Indiana University will not tolerate abuse. And John Walda, the trustee, who said: There are no sacred cows at Indiana University. Well, clearly, Bob Knight is a sacred cow, and clearly he has abused people, and he is going to be allowed to continue as coach because he has a brilliant record on the court, because he does graduate his players, but most of all, because Indiana, never, in 29 years, until yesterday, said to him: Coach, you have to stop doing these things. And that is why they couldn't fire because they had never before given him any kind of warning that he couldn't do these things.</s>KAGAN: So you are saying, you see the trustees and the president, then, as part of the problem, as enablers to the Knight problem?</s>FEINSTEIN: Absolutely, and they had been, not just this president, but previous presidents and previous boards. No one, at any point, Daryn, called him in and said: Bob, you are a great coach but you can't through chairs. If you do it again, you are fired. You can't stuff people in trash cans. You can't pull your team off the court in a game against the Soviet Union. They kept allowing it go on because he was such a huge figure, because he was winning national championships. Now, he is a little bit vulnerable because the team has not done as well the last six years in the NCAA tournament, so people have kind of crawled out of the woodwork to tell their stories, and that forced the hand of Brand and the trustees to at least, you know, give him this slap on the wrist and say: You know, if you do it again, we are really going to get mad.</s>KAGAN: Well, let's make you the I.U. president. what would you have done, John?</s>FEINSTEIN: Frankly, as much as I admire everything that Bob Knight has done, as much a I respect much of what he stands for, I think this was the time, both for Bob's sake and for the university's sake to end it. Because this isn't going to go away, Daryn. This is going to be an ongoing spectacle. It is going to follow Knight, it is going to follow Indiana, he has clearly committed fireable offenses. I would have liked it if he would have resigned, which he wouldn't do because he wants to break dean Smith's record for all time victories, that's why he is submitting to this and allowing this to go on. But I think it would have been best for everybody for Bob to go away, be a TV commentator for two years. He would have been hired in about 15 minutes. And if he wanted to come back and coach then at another school to break Dean Smith's record he easily could have done it because he certainly would get hired.</s>KAGAN: Well, and let's quickly look ahead. Dean Smith's record, 879 wins, is it attainable? It is the carrot on the stick for Bob Knight here. Will he be able to get that and hang on at Indiana, do you think?</s>FEINSTEIN: Well, he's 117 wins away. So that's about five seasons. That's a lot of very good behavior, if you believe that Myles Brand/Stuart Little is going to hold Knight to this so-called "zero tolerance" policy. I believe what will happen is that the first time Knight steps out of line it will be the other person's fault because I really don't believe Myles Brand has the guts to fire this coach.</s>KAGAN: All right, it will be interesting to see how they define what is stepping out of bounds in the future. A little vague on the definition there. John Feinstein, thanks for joining us and giving us your perspective this morning.</s>FEINSTEIN: OK, Daryn, my pleasure.</s>KAGAN: Good to see you.</s>FEINSTEIN: Thanks.