Knight Misses Being On Bench
Bob Knight says he hasn't changed much since he was fired by Indiana University. He does, however, miss coaching and would love to return to the bench someday.
"That's what I've always done," Knight said. "This is the first time since the fall of 1962 that I haven't had a basketball team.
"Coaching, teaching, is a daily challenge, and I miss that," Knight told Indianapolis television station WISH in a report broadcast Wednesday. "I want to have an opportunity to do it, but I want to have an opportunity to do it in the same kind of atmosphere that existed at Indiana the first 23 or 24 years I was at Indiana."
Knight described that atmosphere as one where people understood and cooperated with one another. Knight was fired in September after 29 years at IU for violating a zero-tolerance policy established by the school.
"I'm not going to get in all that, but the last five or six years has been a totally different atmosphere than I experienced through the first 24 years I was there," he said.
Knight believes he can find that type of environment again, although he declined to say where he might go. He did say he would prefer to coach at a college again.
"I don't think it's a tough fit to find a situation where people want good academics, they want good basketball, they want a situation with basketball where they know there aren't going to be any problems with the NCAA," he said.
Although Knight felt his firing from Indiana hadn't changed him, he did say, "I think anytime you come through a critical situation, you're a little smarter, a little wiser."
"I'm pretty comfortable with what I am and who I am," he said.
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