Kruger matured; Knight never did

It’s astonishing that as college basketball coaches grew increasingly willing to indulge and stroke the egos of their pampered athletes, Knight, who resigned Monday at Texas Tech, remained stubbornly resolute in his approach, one many viewed as a tyrant instilling more anxiety than discipline.

Which should make UNLV fans feel fortunate to have Lon Kruger as coach.

Kruger is proof you can evolve, develop, transform your method with age and still not lose intensity or integrity. He was a passionate, slap-the-floor, run-you-through-the-screen athlete talented enough to be an NBA and major league baseball draft pick while also being invited to rookie camp with the Dallas Cowboys. He coached like it at first, too.

"When I first started out, I thought everyone should compete like crazy and treat every play like their last and have that same intensity," Kruger said. "But I learned over the years to process things more and became more tolerant. The older I got, the more I realized every kid is different and matures at different rates. You have to treat them as individuals, as unique personalities and not throw a blanket over all of them."

In many ways, Knight’s coaching ability was as incomparable as his actions were inexplicable. Most of his best teams lacked great talent, but all played their tails off and were unbelievably efficient.

Few programs anymore screen and pass and move like those coached by Knight. You don’t become the winningest coach in college history without knowing how to use an eraser board.

He graduated kids and didn’t break NCAA rules, traits that still matter despite the actions of many in a game that long ago became a big-time business, in which honor assumed a back seat to TV rights and shoe contracts.

But what made Knight such a contentious figure was his inability to display the same kind of discipline he demanded from players, his legacy defined as much for excessive outbursts as 902 victories. He wasn’t a good coach. He was a great one, but one whose reputation often eclipsed his expertise.

Kruger is a tremendous coach who has proven respect is not born from fear. He has an effective enough hand to remove from his program anyone not willing to conform for the team’s greater good (see the departed Emmanuel Adeife) and the wisdom not to handle all players in a similar fashion.

"We don’t have a lot of rules as a group — be on time, be responsible, be respectful of each other and how you represent the program," Kruger said. "But we also want them to know they’re going to be treated as individuals and what is best for someone might not be for another. In the long haul, I think it has helped our chemistry.

"(Knight) was an outstanding coach. Terrific. The highest level fundamentally and how hard his teams played. I think it took a special kid to play for him, but those who did became better players, better people, better citizens. Coach Knight’s style was extreme one way or the other. He was his own guy and wasn’t going to adjust, but for his teams it was very effective."

Knight was such a conflicting figure. The same guy who tossed chairs and berated officials and the media is one who set up a lifetime trust fund for one of his former players who was paralyzed in an automobile accident. The same one who grabbed a player by the throat and allegedly punched a Puerto Rican policeman also generated more than $5 million for a library at Indiana University.

He was never an apologist and hardly at any point a victim. His best was as one of basketball’s greatest tacticians. His worst was as one of its most notorious bullies.

"When my time on Earth is gone and my activities here are past," Knight wrote in ‘Knight: A Coach’s Life,’ "I want them to bury me upside- down so my critics can kiss my (butt)."

It’s good to know things can be done a different way, a more respectful way, a more balanced way, the way Kruger runs UNLV’s program. He is like all active coaches not named Krzyzewski, meaning he will retire looking up at Knight’s career achievements.

But not at how he handled himself.

"I make mistakes," Kruger said. "We’re not always going to be right. But we want the players leaving here capable of being successful in basketball or whatever they do. We’re here to help them along the way and take that responsibility very seriously."

In a thoughtful, firm, considerate way called evolving.

It is a concept Bob Knight, as fantastic a coach as he was, never really grasped.

Ed Graney’s column is published Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.