Bob Knight: Coaching Legend Knight's Facts Off, Point on the Money

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Bob Knight Attacks Coach John Calipari, Kentucky Basketball, But He's Not As Far Off Base As You Might Think

Former Indiana coaching legend Bob Knight lashed out at John Calipari and the Kentucky basketball program on Saturday during a speech in Newcastle, Indiana, telling the audience that UK started five players who failed to attend any class in the second semester during the 2009-10 basketball season.

"That's the one-and done way," Knight told the crowd.

The comments naturally sparked a flurry of consternation from UK fans across the country, as well as the school itself, which was quick to point out that standouts like Patrick Patterson and Darius Miller, were either still in school or had graduated.

But, while Knight's facts seemed to be a bit off (although Patterson wasn't really a starter in 2010; he was the team's sixth man off the bench), his point is still valid.

None of the players in Kentucky's starting five that season were actually at Kentucky to be student athletes. They were there to be athletes, and there's a big difference there.

Must Read: College Basketball Rankings 2011-12: Predicting the Top 25.

Knight's using Kentucky as an example of the evils of the one-and-done philosophy, in which the best players in the country come to a school not to get an education, but to bide their time for a mandatory waiting period before jumping to the NBA. He picked the Wildcats because the fact of the matter is, head coach John Calipari has built his reputation on recruiting talent that has no intention of getting a real education.

The funny thing is, he's right. The one-and-done system is killing college basketball and hurting the game as a whole. Players have no interest in getting an education, and think they're ready to jump to the pros whether they actually are or not. That results in the college game losing top talent to the pros who aren't ready to go, while the pros wind up with undeveloped talent wasting away on their bench.

Sure, there are exceptions, but for the most part, one-and-dones aren't ready for the spotlight of the NBA when they jump. Then, when they crash out of the NBA, they find themselves without an education to fall back on. Coach Cal, for all his success, has thrived on one-and-done's, turning Memphis and Kentucky into a glorified NBA Draft camp for players.

Was coach Knight right about Kentucky's starters? Probably not; John Wall tweeted that he had a 3.5 GPA spring semester, making it tough to prove Knight's claims (although, he doesn't say what courses he took that semester). But that doesn't make his critique of Coach Cal's tactics, and the one-and-done system as a whole any less right.

It's not the easiest thing to do, but try to look past the facts and look at the issue he's addressing; you'll see that in the end, this eccentric legend does know of what he speaks.

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