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The late Bob Knight had a confounding connection to Carolina.
Known as The General for his militaristic style of coaching, Knight passed away quietly at his Bloomington home Wednesday after making a lot of noise as a basketball coach at West Point, Indiana and Texas Tech, where he passed Dean Smith in 2002 for having the most wins as any major college coach.
Knight and Smith were giants and Hall of Famers in the same era, with Knight winning NCAA championships in 1976, 1981 and ’87; Smith won two, in 1982 and ’93. And if it weren’t for The General, The Dean might have had three or four. Knight’s Hoosiers and Smith’s Tar Heels squared off six times, with each team winning three. But two of the Indiana victories were among the most painful defeats of Smith’s stellar career.
In December of 1980, Carolina completed a sweep of the home-and-home series that Smith and Knight agreed to, then agreed to never do it again since both were destined to meet in early-season or post-season tournaments. In fact, that 1981 season ended with Indiana meeting Carolina in the national championship game at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. Smith was positioned to win his first NCAA title after thumping Virginia and Ralph Sampson in the Saturday semifinals behind 39 points from Al Wood.
On Monday morning, President Ronald Reagan was shot in Washington, and the game hung in limbo until Reagan was declared out of trouble.
IU led 27-26 at halftime, then James Worthy picked up his third and fourth fouls early in the second half. Isaiah Thomas scored 23 points in the 63-50 win. Wood had 18 for the Heels, but the saddled Worthy had just 7.
Three years later, the teams met again at the Sweet Sixteen in Atlanta, and top-seeded Carolina was a decided favorite over the No. 4 seeded Hoosiers even though freshman Kenny Smith played with a short cast on his broken wrist. Michael Jordan fell into early foul trouble and never found his game, scoring just 13 points in the shocking 72-68 loss to the hot-shooting Hoosiers.
The Tar Heels were ranked No. 1 in the country and the pick of most pundits to win Smith’s second title. UNC old-timers still feel the agony.
The backstory to the Knight-Smith relationship was that, despite disparate personalities – The General was as foul-mouthed as they came and Smith never cursed – the two became close friends who talked on the phone often and shared the same beliefs that the game should be played fairly without cheating in recruiting and their athletes’ education was paramount.
When Smith died in 2015, Knight was among the first to call his family.
Featured image via WCNC
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