Tuesday, May 16, 2000
Players welcome Knight decision
INDIANAPOLIS — For Indiana's players, all that mattered was that they didn't lose their coach.
Hoosier players welcomed Monday's announcement that Bob Knight had saved his job by accepting a fine, a suspension and agreeing to watch his temper.
“Coach is going to have to make a change, and he's going to have to do things different,” said Jarrod Odle, a reserve. “But we've still got our coach and we've still got our team and I think we can work through it.”
Odle, Tom Geyer and Dane Fife attended the news conference where university president Myles Brand announced the coach's punishment.
“If he had been fired it would have been devastating to the program. You never know how many guys would have left, what would have happened, who they would have brought in. Now that's all behind us and we can go forward,” Odle said.
Geyer, who has been used sparingly the past two years, said Knight's behavior on the floor doesn't need to change.
“We want him to continue to push us and demand the most out of us. As far as how he acts off the court, I genuinely think he can change and become the better person that they want him to be,” he said.
Knight, whose teams have three NCAA championships, 24 NCAA appearances and 11 Big Ten titles, is the reason most of the players came to Indiana.
“I had a lot of offers to go to other schools and play but I turned them down to come here and sit on the bench and learn from what coach Knight has to say,” Geyer said. “From him I get an education, not only about basketball, but about life in general.”
Fife, a starter in 22 of 27 games this past season, said Knight will have to make some adjustments.
“He's got to be careful with reporters and when he's on the court he can't be kicking chairs or smacking the press table,” he said.
“I'm not looking for him to change as a coach at all. He is the way he is, and he's been successful because of it.”
Freshman recruit Jared Jeffries, the Indiana high school Mr. Basketball and Gatorade national player of the year, also praised the decision. “I think I would've really had to think about where I wanted to be if Coach Knight had left,” he said.
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