This past Saturday at a speaking engagement in Indiana, Bob Knight said that the starters on Kentucky’s 2010 NCAA basketball tournament team “had not been to class that semester.”
(Audio of Williams’ comments on KentuckySportsRadio.com below)
Speaking to a group in Wabash, Indiana, Knight’s remarks were captured on video:
Knight’s exact quote was:
“Kentucky year before last started five players in the NCAA tournament that had not been to class that semester. That’s that one and none philosophy.”
University of Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart released a statement Monday night that reported Knight’s comment about the 2010 UK hoops team to be “blatantly erroneous.”
Tuesday ESPN college basketball analyst and former Duke basketball star Jay Williams appeared on KentuckySportsRadio.com to address Knight’s comments about Kentucky. After being read exactly what Knight said about the UK NCAA tournament team in question by show host Matt Jones, Williams said, in part:
He (Knight) does owe Kentucky an apology for that (statement) because those are accusations which are wrong.
Williams was later asked by Jones, “Do you believe ESPN as an entity, with Bobby Knight as an employee, should make a statement or address this in some way?“
Williams’ response to Jones’ question:
“I think ESPN should come to the table and do something about the comment because obviously it’s very demeaning to the players that play at Kentucky.”
More from Williams on Knight:
“I think those comments were wrong I think he does owe the fans at Kentucky an apology, but Bobby Knight is Bobby Knight and I’m sure he’s not going to give that apology.”
So will ESPN hold Knight accountable for what was clearly a blatantly - and possibly deliberately - false public proclamation?
From the last communication I had with ESPN officials this morning, it appears the network is trying to reach Knight before commenting as a company.
That said, I do believe ESPN will release a statement - with or without a Knight - soon.
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1:30 pm on April 19th, 2011
Note to Bobby “green eyed monster” Knight. In attempting to insult the coach and university you are so blatantly jealous of, you have very successfully embarrassed yourself. Hope this is a lesson learned…..check your facts before getting on your soap box next time. To ESPN, do you really want this loose cannon on your payroll? If so, I think I’m as highly qualified to be a commentator. I could ad lib about any college or university in the nation. It’s not like I have to know any hard facts or even tell the truth for that matter.
1:36 pm on April 19th, 2011
Knight is probably on to something, but by overstating the bit of truth he had he makes us all more disgusted with him than UK.
2:13 pm on April 19th, 2011
i think the motorcycle owes Jay Williams an apology.
2:45 pm on April 19th, 2011
i wish espn would fire this asshole. he s so insulting all the time . piss on the general
3:09 pm on April 19th, 2011
They won’t get an apology from Knight or ESPN. Bobby says whatever he wants. Always has
3:12 pm on April 19th, 2011
BK is a bully & a coward. always has been, always will be. the question is will ESPN holds him accountable. the answer is only if ESPN holds his feet to the fire.
3:13 pm on April 19th, 2011
At Indiana, Knight graduated almost 88% of his athletes> He ran a clean program and he made sure that his kids were not taking underwater basket weaving or some sort of crib subject. Calipari has a reputation of being nothing more than a babysitter for kids who would have otherwise have gone pro had it not been for the NBA and their insistence that all draftees have at least 1 year of college , see Derek Rose and John Wall. I’ll wager that Knight is not that far off base in his accusation
5:15 pm on April 19th, 2011
It would be interesting to see the records of boogie cousins, bledsoe, dotson and others before discounting what BK said so quickly
5:20 pm on April 19th, 2011
I know for a FACT that these players attended at least one of their “Underwater Fire Prevention 101″ classes! Bob Knight is a liar!
6:36 pm on April 19th, 2011
I wrote a few 5-page papers for John Wall and I helped him study for his econ final, so I know that he was in class
6:40 pm on April 19th, 2011
Saw Cousins in class three times last spring and I was there almost everyday… enough said..
7:15 pm on April 19th, 2011
Knight may not be totally accurate saying none of the players went to class,but if you believe that every “one and done” goes to class the entire year you are living in Fantasyland. I would love to hear that Rose went to class the entire 2nd semester when he took his SAT in Detroit. I am guessing someone with that name took the SAT,but i would ask the question of how many SAT testing stations they have in the Chicago area? Plus Coach Cal might not be telling the truth bout not keeping track of Rose and his test scores. I find it hard to believe the best recruit you ever had and Coach Cal doesn’t keep track of the kid qualifying.
8:45 pm on April 19th, 2011
What would Walt Disney do? Maybe utilize the General as a cartoon character. I could see him with his hunter’s vest, hunting hat, and shotgun tracking down rabbits! Wait I think that has already been done by someone.
9:04 pm on April 19th, 2011
The point of this entire arguement is that BK stated that FIVE STARTERS did not attend the spring classes. Patterson must have, he graduated. Miller must have, he stll is playing, Wall must have, he let the year with a 3.5 gpa,after spring semister. Maybe Bledsoe and Cousins didn’t, but BK stated ALL Five starters. SO he lied! And believe me if coach Cal would of been selected to coach any other school BK would not be saying these things. Show me a perfect NCAA-I college.
10:07 pm on April 19th, 2011
It is absolutely amazing how biased the American general public has become. Knight has done everything from assaulting his own players to advising women to enjoy rape, and yet, intellectual giants come to sites like this and suggest he has credibility. Some of you people, quite obviously, will agree with the devil, in this case Knight, if it allows you to shout out your own biases.
11:35 pm on April 19th, 2011
All of these players did attend class I know I am a student at U.K. ,and the Bobby admitted he was wrong only because ESPN told him too.ESPN needs to fire him now.I am so sick of everyone in Indiana defending this borish lout,he was fired for his conduct.He was is and always will be a chair throwing head butting neck choking arm grabbing bully and I.U. fans should be glad he is gone.What right has he got to say anything about another coach?And also how do we know he ran such a clean program? What proof do we have his word?
12:51 pm on April 20th, 2011
@Debbie
I can tell you go to UK by the way you typed out your response. Could be on the basketball team except your spelling was pretty decent. Bobby has every right to say what he wants, he earned the right by running a clean program and winning all those games and by graduating his players. I guarantee he was under the scrutiny of the NCAA at all times because of the way he bashed them constantly, so he had to run a clean program. As a Kentucky fan, you would know nothing about a clean basketball program, really at anytime in the last 30-40 years. Calipari will have them on probation, of course after he leaves.
5:21 pm on April 21st, 2011
BK made an assertion (that Kentucky once started five players who hadn’t been in class all semester) and the UK AD made a counter-assertion (that all of the players on the team were in “good academic standing”). It is possible that those two assertions aren’t mutually exclusive.
Now, it’s important to think like a lawyer here, because that might be what KU’s AD is doing. Notice that he didn’t say “that’s false, they have, in fact, been to class.” What he said is that they were in good academic standing.
Some players in money sports at certain schools don’t take real classes during their semester, or if they do, they’re independent-study classes, or fluff like “kinetics,” which may or may not require attendance.
There is a federal guideline (called FERPA) that prevents the school from releasing specific academic information about students. All that can be released are graduation rates and aggregations of academic performance. None of this would prove or disprove BK’s point.
As I understand it, FERPA would permit UK’s AD to give specific information that would rebut BK’s point, but he doesn’t do so. He skips ahead to calling for the apology.
4:15 pm on February 29th, 2012
People are putting to much pressure on ESPN to do something about the Bob Knight’s comments. I don’t care what the AD at UK said about them being in good standing at the end of the spring semester, because they are probably taking 3 gym classes a semester, due to the fact that half of them are only going to be in college for one year. As far as the athletes not attending class if Knight is right I would not be surprised, I don’t know if I am the only one in the world who saw the David Pollack interview on Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable, but Pollack admitted to going to less than 20% of his classes his senior year, and last time I checked he played in every football game for Georgia that season. And who cares if Bob Knight didn’t put UK in his top 5 teams, or if he didn’t mention Anthony Davis for player of the year. He is entitled to his own opinion. Does he have some bias in his opinion, most certainly, but still its his opinion.
4:16 pm on February 29th, 2012
People are putting to much pressure on ESPN to do something about the Bob Knight’s comments. I don’t care what the AD at UK said about them being in good standing at the end of the spring semester, because they are probably taking 3 gym classes a semester, due to the fact that half of them are only going to be in college for one year. As far as the athletes not attending class if Knight is right I would not be surprised, I don’t know if I am the only one in the world who saw the David Pollack interview on Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable, but Pollack admitted to going to less than 20% of his classes his senior year, and last time I checked he played in every football game for Georgia that season. And who cares if Bob Knight didn’t put UK in his top 5 teams, or if he didn’t mention Anthony Davis for player of the year. He is entitled to his own opinion. Does he have some bias in his opinion, most certainly, but still its his opinion.