gajensen

February 24th, 2012 at 5:49 PM ^

 

Effectively he says this is the worst group of Seniors he's ever seen anywhere, he'd be surprised if they won another game from here on out, and that they are stealing money by being on scholarship considering their on/off-field issues.

Erik_in_Dayton

February 24th, 2012 at 5:53 PM ^

But it's hard to imagine that turning into something constructive.  I thought that he came off to some extent like he was covering his ass by saying, "These guys suck, but we'll replace them." 

AnthonyThomas

February 24th, 2012 at 6:13 PM ^

I don't understand why he did this in the context of Lamar's season. They're 17-11, 8-5 in conference. Regardless, Pat Knight's entire basketball career has been based on being Bob's son. He was never a very good player or coach.

True Blue Grit

February 24th, 2012 at 6:39 PM ^

as a coach you don't completely humiliate your players in public like that.  What he's doing here is basically disowning himself from this team and the results by placing the blame completely on the players.  That's pretty dickish in my opinion.  He might be right, but saying that in front of the cameras sends a message that "I've been unable as a coach to improve this team so now I'm going to try and shift the blame to someone else".  Nice.  Like someone else said, "the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree".

manchild56

February 24th, 2012 at 7:02 PM ^

Coach Beilein and Coach Hoke doing the same exact thing after a tough loss. No way in hell, this was brutal and something Brian Kelly would look down on. Wow this is why your at Lamar and not Texas Tech, freaking tool.

jsquigg

February 24th, 2012 at 7:24 PM ^

So recruiting is supposed to help?  After hearing that, what parent wants Pat Knight to coach their son?  Also, why apologize to the fans when Lamar has none?

Don

February 24th, 2012 at 8:02 PM ^

but he's also a gigantic jackass and dickwad. He gets away with it because he was a great coach.

Pat has the second part down pretty well.

Blue boy johnson

February 24th, 2012 at 10:26 PM ^

Pat's biggest problem with the game was his team missing shots, he even went so far as to read their shooting stats. Yeah Pat when your team misses shots things get ugly. Pat wasn't the greatest shooter in his day, I wonder if he attributed his shooting woes to poor leadership on his part

Pat Knights stats from his IU playing days:

http://www.indystar.com/interactive/article/99999999/SPORTS/90129031/Interactive-Indiana-University-Basketball-Database?template=interactive&xt=5&xd=PKnight

SEASON
GP
GS
PTS
PPG
FG
FGA
FG%
3PT*
3PTA*
3PT%*
FT
FTA
FT%
RPG
APG
22
0
39
1.8
NA
NA
41
NA
NA
0
NA
NA
70
1
0.9
32
0
32
1.0
NA
NA
46.7
NA
NA
0
NA
NA
44.5
0.5
0.8
27
2
22
0.8
NA
NA
26.7
NA
NA
100
NA
NA
71.4
0.7
1.1
31
3
45
1.5
NA
NA
26.8
NA
NA
25
NA
NA
75
1.2
1.9
TOTALS
112
5
138
1.2
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
0.8
1.2

 

gobluesasquatch

February 24th, 2012 at 10:27 PM ^

Honestly, given that we don't know what has gone on with the team ... I'm not sure it was that bad. Honestly, the tone was actually quite calm. He was pretty controlled, but it sounds like his seniors are not working. 

Now, I'm not sure if you have been a coach before, but take over a poor program at any level, and it's difficult to come in, change the culture, when you have seniors who don't care and aren't doing what they need to do. As a coach, I can understand the frustration, and at some point, you need to say this, and if they aren't listening in private, you might need to go public and see how they respond. I hear the remarks and he's basically saying their childish and they need to grow up. 

I think it probably should stay in the locker room, but sometimes you have to do something extreme to get their attention, or shut them down permanently. 

O.J. The Bouvier

February 24th, 2012 at 11:02 PM ^

...I can assure you all that Pat is incompetent. Nothing is ever his fault.

Simple questions: If your seniors are terrible players/human beings, why don't you just bench them? If they have drug issues, why are they ON the team?

gobluesasquatch

February 25th, 2012 at 6:32 PM ^

However, again, having coached athletes, you realize that if he didn't care about them at all, he would have already removed them from the team for whatever their violations were, both serious or just consistent minor infractions. Sometimes, because you care, you actually have to say hard things to people.

My suspicion is that after much of a season where all efforts to get through to them have failed, he finally pushed the final button. What does he have to lose? Nothing. If the seniors have no pride, they'll quit, won't play, etc and that will be the end of their careers. If they have that special pride in them, they'll make corrections, grow up, and change their destiny. 

As for the rest of the team, do you think that there are others on the team, non-seniors, who probably are playing hard, doing the right things, and are sick and tired of seeing others not do it. They don't have a problem when the coach embarrasses those they already know to be screw ups. 

If you listen back to the audio, he is constantly referencing the long term impact on these kids lives, or ability to function in larger society. It might not be nice or pretty, but I can hear someone making a point much larger than basketball here. As a coach, I can tell you that is what every game, practice, workout, etc is about, a life lesson. Sports throws a lot of easily managed "adversity" at you (it really isn't adversity - I hate it when athletes say that), but it can help prepare you for those really adverse and challenging moments in life. I think this is where Pat is going.

Too much coddling these days, and not enough calling out and making statements that are more true than fair.

Tater

February 25th, 2012 at 9:20 AM ^

I liked most of this.  I usually don't think bad shooting is a matter of effort, but when he related it to off the court attitude, it made a lot of sense.  And he did let one senior off the hook.  He related a lot of this to society and to success after basketball, too.  

His dad used to do stuff much worse than this behind the scenes, at least according to "A Season on the Brink."  This might motivate the team or it might make them text the rest of the season in.  

It will be interesting to see how this works out for the team.  It will also be interesting to see if he decides to backpedal at the post-season banquet.

Either way, he has people talking about a program that is largely irrelevant.