12
Tuesday, March 1, 1994
SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Knight benches players to motivate team
10-point deficit prompts move by feisty coach
By Steve Herman The Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS—Bob Knight, who frequently loses his temper, never loses sight of what he's trying to accomplish with his basketball team. Even in a humiliating loss.
When Knight benched all his top players in the second half of Sunday's
106-56 loss at Minnesota, his worst defeat in 23 years at Indiana, he already was preparing the Hoosiers for tonight's game against Illinois and for the rest of the season.
He was telling them, in effect, to play his way or they won't play at all. It was a motivational message he's used before.
ten years ago, he benched his regulars and started four freshmen against Michigan State. The Hoosiers won that game, and no one thought twice about Knight's tactic. The next season, he benched six regulars, including All-American Steve Alford, and started Uwe Blab and four freshmen against Illinois. Indiana lost that
game, and Knight dismissed criticism by saying the ones most upset "were the ones who bet on the stupid game."
But he also explained the shakeup as a result of a lack of "effort and intelligence. If I don't see that, then my position is that I've got eight or nine other kids who aren't starting but who are working every bit as hard at practice every day, and now it's their turn to play."
Indiana dropped from 12th to 17th in the Associated Press poll released yesterday. Minnesota climbed from 20th to 18th.
At a news conference after Sunday's game, Knight wouldn't explain his action — "Well, you wouldn't understand it if I told you, so we'll just leave it go at that" — but he said he wasn't simply throwing in the towel.
"I don't ever call it off," he said. "I always have some reason for what I'm doing.
"There are some times that you get in a game that what happens just eliminates you from the game," he said. "I said, 'This game was over with. Now what's the best thing we can do from that point on?' And we tried to do those things that we thought were best for us from that point on. And you do that in any game. You're ahead, you're behind. Whatever happens in the game, you say to yourself from a coaching standpoint, 'All right, what's
oest for us to do right now?" And that can be a variety of things."
Assistant coach Norm Ellenberger called Knight's move on Sunday a result of a season-long battle with the players "about movement, offense, defense, running the court, just basic things we've got to have to win."
"We came in here, and in the first six minutes it was exactly the opposite of the way we practice." Ellenberger said after the game. "It didn't just come to a head here. It has been happening, and coach said, 'We are not going to practice one way and play another way. I've fought this long enough.'
"By that time we were down 10, and
so he said, 'If you're not going to play the way I want you to play, then we'll try to get some folks in there.'
"It comes down to how long do you ride this pony? Do you try to ride it out to the end of the season and try to goose it along and milk-feed it and sugar-coat it and try to win that way? Or do you say, 'Hey, whoa, it is going to stop now.'
"We did one thing for sure. We stopped that lackadaisical play," he said. "If you're not getting the message through practicing and planning and going through it that way, then maybe you'll get the message this way through a complete embarrassment. We'll just have to wait and see."
Future Olympic hockey teams tough to predict
Russia realizes effects of losing talent to NHL
By Howard Ulman The Associated Press
LILLEHAMMER, Norway — The future of Olympic hockey is tough to predict. About as tough as figuring out what happened in the tournament Sweden just won.
Will there be "Dream Teams" in Nagano in 1998 — Eric Lindros playing for Canada, Jeremy Roenick for the United States, Sergel Fedorov for Russia? That's being discussed.
Will shootouts still decide medal-round games, even when the gold medal is at stake? Maybe that issue should be brought up.
Sweden used that device, adopted in 1988, to win its first Olympic hockey gold medal with a 3-2 victory Sunday and destroy Canada's hopes for its first gold in 42 years.
It was a stunning conclusion to a tournament full of surprises.
The loss of talent to the NHL finally caught up with Russia. Its 4-4 record was worse than any of its predecessors from the Soviet Union and Unified Team that won eight of the previous 10 gold medals, losing just six games along the way. The Russians lost the third-place game to Finland and left without a medal, something
that never happened to the Soviets and Unifieds.
The Americans, who won the other two golds, also hit a new low with an eighth-place finish. They won just one of eight games, their fewest ever.
Finland's 6-0 start was another shock. So was a 19-minute nightmare against Canada in which it gave up five goals, as many as it allowed in its other 461 minutes. That burst gave Canada, another medal longshot, a 5-3 semifinal win.
Certainly, few could imagine the gold-medal game that wouldn't end.
Sixty minutes of regulation play. Ten minutes of overtime. A five-round shootout in which each team scored twice. Still no winner. Time for sudden death.
Both teams missed on their first shots. The next round showcased two youngsters tabbed for NHL greatness
20-year-old Peter Forsberg, who Wayne Gretzky called the world's best young player, and 19-year-old Paul Kariya, whose style has been compared to Gretzky's.
Forsberg scored. Kariya didn't. Sweden won. Canada got its second straight silver.
Even Swedish hero Tommy Salo, the goalie who made the final save, doesn't like it.
"It's too big a tournament," he said.
"It takes too much luck."
The tournament could be even bigger four years from now.
A proposal for a two-tier system has been made by the NHL. Eight teams
would play for two quarterfinal spots. Six other spots automatically would go to countries with the most NHL players — the United States, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland and Czech Republic.
Russia, finally suffering the talent drain that Canada and the United States dealt with for years, likes the idea.
"The idea to get all the best players is not bad at all," Russian assistant coach Igor Dmitriev said.
U. S. coach Tim Taylor, who had the youngest team at the Olympics and made relatively few changes in the group he assembled last August, disagreed.
"It should not be an exercise in some sort of vacation in the regular season
to come over here and play eight games and go back," he said. "I don't think that what's the Olympics are all about."
What they are about is perseverance and overcoming obstacles. Sweden persevered for 74 years, from the first Winter Games in 1920, and finally prevailed.
That was no surprise. It was seeded second, behind Russia, and considered a gold-medal favorite from the start. Its countrymen in other sports had won just one gold.
"We won 23," one for each player, Swedish coach Curt Lundmark said. "We are at the top. It's enough for us. We leave Lillehammer with the most gold medals."
That much, at least, is certain.
Membership has its privileges...
✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩
The Best Sales Are Key!
UNDERCOVER
Blow-Out Sale Extravaganza
**FORRAMP**
Christian Dior Housewear $1.50 NOW $2.75
Selected Styles Only
Sports Bra were $1.50 NOW $9.00
9th and Vermont
--interviews will be held Wednesday, March 2nd from 10 a.m-2 p.m
★★★★★
--interviews will be held Wednesday, March 2nd from 10 a.m-2 p.m
Find Out About SAA Officers March 2,7pm Adams Alumni Center
United Parcel Service Part time Jobs $8 Hour ups ups
sign up in the placement center. 110 Burge Union
*Various shifts available
*Immediate openings on the night shift-11:00PM-2:30AM
E/O/Em/f