Bob Knight will break Dean Smith's record for career victories this season, a thought that doesn't make me violently ill.
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| Bobby Knight is deserving and worthy of reaching 880 victories. (Getty Images) |
Knight is different, having moved within reach of Smith the right way. His teams at Army, Indiana and now Texas Tech haven't been convicted by the NCAA. It would be a shock if they've been investigated -- ever. Knight doesn't cheat. He doesn't have to. He can take his players and beat yours, even if yours are bigger or quicker.
Only Smith and Adolph Rupp (876) have won more. Knight is third at 869, but his stalking of Smith will resume Saturday when Texas Tech opens the season against Sam Houston State. By mid-January, Knight will be at 880 and counting.
Knight can be a rather large jerk at times, but his character defects have not eroded his sense of fair play or purpose. His players aren't knuckleheads. They graduate. Whoever passes Dean Smith will own one of the most special records in sports. Knight's a worthy name to see atop that list.
Some of those who once jostled for position alongside him? Not worthy. At all.
• Until his health bottomed out in the last few years, causing him to retire last season, Eddie Sutton (798) had an outside shot at Smith's mark. Sutton's a decent man, he really is, but his name ahead of Smith's would have been difficult to take considering he left Kentucky on massive probation and considering he stockpiled wins at Oklahoma State with players many schools wouldn't touch. In Sutton's defense, many of his reclamation projects turned out OK. But not all of them. And to be The Guy Who Passes Dean, you must be mostly pure.
• Lou Henson? Not close. Under Henson, New Mexico State and Illinois were put on NCAA probation. At New Mexico State in the early 1970s, star player John Williamson was found to have been given a cake job. At Illinois, Henson's program was found guilty of recruiting violations. He, too, ran into health problems and finished his second go-around at New Mexico State with 779 wins.
• One win behind Henson, and 101 behind Dean Smith, was Jerry Tarkanian. The former UNLV coach had Fresno State winning 20 games every year until he ran into NCAA issues and quit in 2002. Tarkanian will tell you that the NCAA had it out for him, and though that might be true, the NCAA had a very good reason to have it out for him. It would have been a travesty for Tarkanian to be the one to challenge Smith's record.
Baseball purists are seeing the same thing with Barry Bonds' unseemly pursuit of Hank Aaron.
• The only other Division I coaches to get within 100 wins of Smith were Jim Phelan and Lefty Driesell, fabulous coaches but unworthy for competitive reasons. Phelan won 830 games at Mount St. Mary's, a Division II school for much of his tenure. Driesell won 786 games, including 348 in 17 seasons at Maryland, but he made his approach at 800 wins in his final six years of coaching ... at Georgia State. Had he hung around long enough to catch Smith, it would have been like Pete Rose breaking Ty Cobb's hit record from the International League.
Bob Knight? He's the real thing. In fact, I'd argue that he deserves the all-time wins record more than Dean Smith. Of course we could all be wimpy about it and sing Kumbaya and say, gee, both men deserve the record. But there can only be one -- and Knight has had the more impressive career.
Knight won more NCAA titles than Smith, three to two, but that's too narrow a frame for this debate. It's more appropriate to look at how each coach won his 800-plus games.
Smith coached 12 consensus All-Americans, six national players of the year and 26 eventual first-round draft picks. Knight had less stars: nine consensus All-Americans, two national players of the year and 13 eventual first-round draft picks. Yes, recruiting is part of coaching. But recruiting is easier to do at some places.
Smith won all his games at North Carolina, which had been the premium job in the ACC before he got there. Knight had a similar platform at Indiana, but he spent six years at Army and is entering his sixth at Texas Tech -- two of the more historically challenging positions in college basketball.
Soon Knight will pass Smith, and deservedly so, but he won't hold the record forever. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski -- who played for Knight, coached for him, was crapped on by him and now is again in good standing with him -- is coming on strong. As badly as Knight wants to pass Smith, Krzyzewski (753 wins) will want to pass them both. He will succeed, and then he will put the record out of reach.
Until then, Knight will deserve his place atop college basketball, just as Smith deserved it before him. The man who held the record before Smith, Adolph Rupp? The more coaches who pass him, the better.
