Basketball Statistics Blog

Same Knight, Different Channel

By: Jack Isenhour
Basketball legend Bob Knight is fond of saying that he has never gotten over West Point. In Same Knight, Different Channel, Jack Isenhour takes him at his word. A player on Knight’s first West Point team, Isenhour shows how the controversial coach has changed little from his early days at the academy, temper tantrums and all. Knight made up his mind there to "win-gotta win" and follows that philosophy to this day.

Knight’s sentiment was in step with the core value of "there is no substitute for victory" at West Point, where soldiers were being trained to fight and win the next war. So it came as little surprise following Knight’s 18-8 record in his inaugural 1965-66 season-a season in which the twenty-five-year-old hot-headed coach berated officials, totaled chairs, and got into his first shouting match with an athletic director-that West Point chose to keep the young Coach Knight on. What’s a tantrum or two in the name of winning? With that, "Bobby T" was born. Knight’s bad-boy persona-the hair-trigger temper, the acting out, and the defiance-was codified as at least tolerable, if not acceptable, behavior.

Relying on firsthand experiences and interviews with teammates, administrators, and Knight himself, Isenhour traces the pattern of misbehavior established during Knight’s inaugural year at West Point, during his last days at Indiana, and to his reemergence at Texas Tech. The result is the most even-handed portrait of Knight to date. In a narrative both lively and irreverent, Same Knight, Different Channel demonstrates who Knight is today and shows how he was shaped by his experiences at West Point, ending with a thought-provoking discussion of just what it takes to play, coach, and win in the high-pressure world of college basketball...."

Jack Isenhour an award-winning television journalist, was a seldom-used guard on Bob Knight's first Army basketball (1965-66). His premise is that the Knight we know today--controversial, temperamental, successful--was forged by his tenure at West Point when he became the Cadets' head coach at the ridiculously young age of 25. The raw material was there: a fierce competitor in high school and college, Knight was the kid skidding around the court diving after loose balls.

When Army coach Tates Locke resigned to take another position, he recommended that his young assistant succeed him. Knight's inherent competitiveness flourished at West Point during the Vietnam era. He developed a style--stifling defense, patient offense--that maximized the skills of players who were not big and not heavily recruited.

Filled with great anecdotes from former players and Isenhour's self-deprecating replays of his time--yesterday and today--with Knight, this is a compelling look at the early career of a man who will soon become the winningest college coach in history.

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