Coach, If You're Not Going To Use That Chair, How About Throwing It Over To Me?

During a campaign rally Tuesday night, Sen. Ted Cruz was speaking to his supporters at Hoosier Gym in Knightstown, IN.  Cruz, like any politician worth his salt, chose the gym made famous in the movie Hoosiers for what he hoped would be a magnificent photo opportunity.

Everything was going along just fine until the moment he tried to recreate one of the most memorable moments in the beloved film. 

In the movie, Gene Hackman has a player measure the height of the basket to show that there's no difference between the court his small town team was used to playing on and the larger arena where the state tournament was taking place.

A man at one end of the court had already climbed a ladder and Cruz asked if he had a tape measure.  He did and Cruz asked him to measure the height.  Everyone in that gym knew where he was going with this, but to the uninitiated it wasn’t clear what point he was trying to make.

And then it happened.  He referred to the hoop as a basketball ring.  Oh my!  In basketball vernacular, it was an airball.

It was truly cringe-worthy

No one has ever called it a "basketball ring" before Cruz just now in the history of basketball, politics, or words.

— Luke O'Neil (@lukeoneil47) April 26, 2016

This evening, Donald Trump will appear at the Indiana State Fairgrounds with college basketball’s legendary Hall of Fame Head Coach Bobby Knight.

Knight has not returned to the state since his firing in 2000.  He has held a grudge ever since that fateful day and famously said, "When my time on earth is gone, and my activities here are passed, I want they bury me upside down, and my critics can kiss my ass!"

Knight ran a clean program having never been sanctioned by the NCAA for recruiting violations and for graduating most of his players. He was no stranger to controversy; he famously threw a chair across the court during a game against Purdue in 1985, was arrested for assault, and regularly displayed a combative nature during encounters with members of the press.

I despise Bobby Knight.  It would be sacrilege for me to feel any differently since I am a devout Duke Blue Devils fan.  I root for the Carolina Tarheels except when they take the court against Duke.  I also loved Jim Valvano, but then everybody loved Coach V.

Coach Knight remains the object of fanatical devotion from his former players and Indiana fans. His name still carries a lot of weight with Hoosier fans and Donald Trump, who enjoyed a 5-state sweep in Tuesday’s Acela Primary, is counting on that devotion to challenge Ted Cruz in next Tuesday’s Indiana presidential primary. 

Cruz may need Jimmy Chitwood, Larry Bird, Damon Bailey, Steve Alford and Yogi Ferrell to pull off Indiana #hickory

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) April 26, 2016

A Coach Whose Name You Can’t Spell

Folks who visit this blog know well my devotion to the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Green Bay Packers.  I’ve said often enough that my devotion to these two teams goes all the way back to the 1960’s.  That’s a damn long time. 

For 35 years, I’ve also been a devout fan of the team America loves to hate—the Duke Blue Devils.

The Great State of North Carolina is home to some of the best men’s college basketball teams in the country—the Tarheels, Wolfpack and Demon Deacons—but Duke, now there’s a team!

A list of some of the Duke players who have gone on to the NBA include Johnny Dawkins (1987), Mike Gminksi (1991), Christian Laettner (1991), Bobby Hurley (1994), Grant Hill (1995), Cherokee Parks (1996) and J. J. Reddick (2007).

Most everyone in North Carolina is a rabid Tarheels fan. I’m a “Dookie” and damn proud of it. That makes me a target of some fierce teasing from friends who simply cannot fathom why I would root for Duke. 

While there is no championship, no conference title or Gold Medal on the line, No. 5 Duke hits the hardwoods against The Red Storm of St. John’s in Madison Square Garden.  It’s the same venue where Coach K became the winningest coach in college basketball history.

On that night his mentor and friend, Bobby Knight, was calling the game for ESPN.  When the buzzer sounded and Duke had defeated Michigan State 74-69, Coach K walked over to the broadcast table and told Knight he loved him.  It was a remarkable moment when the two switched places in the NCAA record book.

The Garden is special to Coach K. “Kids dream, and coaches dream, of playing in this place…Just the way the court is lit, the sound, how the ball bounces, there are different sounds here. The Garden sounds different; the horn sounds different and it’s all good. Those are things that people recall when they think of their playing days, so it’s a great experience for us,” he said.

A win today against 13-5 “Johnnies” would bring his record to an astonishing 1000 wins.  Krzyzewski has led the Blue Devils to 4 NCAA Championships, 11 Final Fours, 12 ACC regular season titles and 13 ACC Tournament Championships.

No matter the outcome of the game today, Coach Mike Krzyzewski is a legend.  I think it’s fair to say his level of achievement is otherworldly. 

GO DUKE!

Coach K: Alone At The Top

John Wooden, Bob Huggins, Jerry Tarkanian, Lute Olson, Lefty Driesell, Adolph Rupp, Dean Smith and Bobby Knight—all storied coaches with phenomenal records in men’s collegiate basketball.

Mike Krzyzewski, known as Coach K, passed his mentor Bobby Knight as the winningest coach of all time last night at Madison Square Garden.

This is Coach’s 37^th season.

With Knight sitting across the court at the ESPN broadcast table, and with several former players in the stands, Krzyzewski moved to the top of the list in front of a sellout crowd of 19,979.

At the final buzzer, Krzyzewski went right across the court to Knight.  They were cheek to cheek in a hug. Krzyzewski, tears in his eyes, broke away and Knight pulled him back, hands on his shoulders, then one final slap of the shoulder.

"I just told coach I love him," Krzyzewski said. "I wouldn't be in this position without him. It's a moment shared. I know he's very proud and I'm very proud to have been somebody who's worked under him and studied him and tried to be like him."

What a class act.