What happened the last time IU basketball played USC? Bob Knight coached from the bleachers

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BLOOMINGTON — Indiana basketball is hosting USC for the first time in program history on Wednesday night.

The new Big Ten rivals don’t share much history — the all-time series is tied 2-2 — but former IU coach Bob Knight made the last matchup between the schools in 1974 a memorable one.

Indiana faced USC in the title game of the inaugural College Commissioners Association tournament, a postseason tournament for conference runners-up at a time when the NCAA only invited league champions to the NCAA Tournament.

The Hoosiers won the event with an 85-60 win with Knight lending a helping hand to his coaching staff from the bleachers after getting ejected midway through the first half.

Knight sat among the 4,721 fans in attendance at the St. Louis Arena and had one of his assistants deliver a series of hand-written messages to Dave Bliss, who was coaching in his stead.

Here’s a look back at the game based on reporting at the time from The Herald-Times longtime sports editor Bob Hammel:

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Former Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight unloads on the officiating

Knight got into a heated exchange with officials when they failed to call USC’s 6-foot-10 center Mike Westra for an obvious traveling violation. He got into an extended back-and-forth with official John Overby that resulted in his ejection.

“If a coach can’t bitch on an out-and-out bad call, then that’s what’s wrong with basketball,” Knight said.”The officials think the damned thing is played for them, and it isn’t. It’s for the kids. It would have been different if he (Overby) had told me, ‘Sit down, I blew one.’ But he told me it wasn’t a palm and that’s a lot of baloney.”

Indiana responded to Knight’s ejection by going on a 9-0 run to erase a 28-20 deficit. The Hoosiers freshman center Kent Benson, who was named the tournament’s MVP after putting up 17 points and seven rebounds in the finals, scored seven points during that run all by…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/happened-last-time-iu-basketball-154452051.html

Author : Indianapolis Star

Publish date : 2025-01-08 15:44:00

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