Jan. 25, 2000 10:25 PM AP

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) Indiana coach Bob Knight, who blew up at reporters after a game last week, started Tuesday night's postgame news conference with a sarcastic walk through the Assembly Hall media room, making small talk as he shook everyone's hand.

After the No. 14 Hoosiers' 85-50 victory over Michigan, instead of going to the podium at the front of the media room as usual, Knight began walking through the rows of writers and photographers, shaking hands with each one, offering such pleasantries as "How are you?" "Nice to see you." "You doing all right?" "How are you doing?"

Then he walked to the microphone and asked the 60-some people in the room, "Did I miss anybody? Does anybody want to hold a press conference on hand shakes or anything now?"

A week earlier, Knight lashed out at the media for repeated questions about his first game against new Iowa coach Steve Alford, who played for Knight and led the Hoosiers to the 1987 NCAA championship. Alford, in earlier interviews, had said Knight hadn't spoken to him since he was hired as coach at Iowa last spring.

Both of them last week said they hadn't spoken because they had not had an opportunity, even though they were at the Big Ten preseason media day in Chicago. After last week's news conference, Knight left the interview room, then came back several minutes later and angrily berated the media again.

This time, after finally getting to the podium, he was asked whether he was going to wash his hands after touching everyone.

Knight replied:

"I think you people are among the finest, cleanest people in the world. Why would I need to wash my hands? Anybody got a question?"