Dan Dakich Says Indiana Got Bob Knight Right This Time

OutKick's Dan Dakich is applauding Indiana University for finally doing something it resisted for more than two decades. Bob Knight is getting a statue at IU.

"Bob Knight finally getting a statue at Indiana University," Dakich said in a reaction video. "And the reason I say finally and good news might surprise some people."

Not sugarcoating his own history with Knight, DD made it clear this is not about rewriting their past.

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"It’s been well documented that, at the end of our relationship, I had no respect for Coach Knight," he said. "It had nothing to do with Indiana or playing at Indiana for him or coaching with him. It was how he treated me, went behind my back, tried to backstab me at ESPN to get my job."

Dakich said personal grievances should never have erased Knight’s place in Indiana history.

Welcome remarks from fans as NCAA basketball coach Bob Knight, who took the Indiana Hoosiers to three NCAA national titles, returns to Assembly Hall, Saturday, February 8, 2020, in Bloomington. (Photo by Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

"The reason it's good news is that Bob Knight represented the best in all of us back in the day," Dakich said.

Inside The Program

"I understand a lot of you are going to say that’s crap. He did this, he did that. That’s fine," Dakich said about Knight's criticism, which, of course, stemmed from people who were never part of the program. 

"This is why I say all of us. The people that played for him, coached with him, managed for him, the people inside the program. It was our thing."

Dakich described the Knight era as a closed, loyal culture that outsiders never understood.

"It was Omertà. It was La Cosa Nostra. It was our thing," Dakich said. "It may not have been your thing…

"I always joke, yeah, he choked Neil Reed, but Neil Reed needed choked. Sometimes a kid needs grabbed."

What Knight Actually Did

Dakich pushed back on the narrative that Knight single-handedly turned players into men.

"He didn’t make you a man. That’s one of the biggest fallacies," Dakich admitted. "He didn’t make you go to school. He was smart in who he recruited. 

"Ninety-nine point nine percent of us would have gotten a degree with or without Bob Knight."

Dakich also addressed how Indiana handled Knight’s authority.

"Bob Knight got too powerful. Bob Knight was above it all," Dakich said. "He didn’t answer to the athletic director. Per his contract, he answered to the president."

Dakich said Knight’s priorities shifted late in his tenure.

Dan Dakich calling a season-opening college football game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Indiana Hoosiers on August 31, 2017, at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, IN. (Photo by James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

"Before he got fired in 2000, he really didn’t care about coaching or recruiting," he said. "From 1993 or 1994 on, he just wanted to be Bob Knight."

After Knight

Despite that, Dakich said Indiana drew the wrong conclusion when it cut ties with Knight. "They thought anybody could come into Indiana University and win," Dakich said. "When Bob Knight got fired, it was, we don’t want anything to do with anybody from Bob Knight."

In his view, the fallout has been obvious.

"Indiana has been an irrelevant basketball program really since he was fired," he said. "Nobody cared either on the court or off the court except for one year, 2002."

Dakich said Indiana’s recent willingness to reconnect with its past was inevitable.

"They went back and now with Scott Dolson as the athletic director, they went back," he said. "We would always laugh. Yeah, everybody’s so mad. They’ll come back. They always come back."

Where The Statue Should Go

Dakich has a clear opinion on where the statue belongs.

"Put the statue outside of Assembly Hall," he said. "Assembly Hall generally closes at five o’clock every day."

He said fans often travel to Bloomington only to find the doors locked.

"You go to the United Center, there’s the statue of Michael Jordan outside," Dakich said. "So people that drive up or come back or whatever it is to Assembly Hall can take pictures with it even if Assembly Hall is locked."

Dakich said resistance inside the university misses the larger point.

"Man, there was a lot of old school clowns still bitching, whining and moaning and that’s sad to me," he said.

According to Dakich, Knight elevated the entire university.

Bobby Knight upset during a game vs. Michigan State. (Photo by Manny Millan/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

"Bob Knight raised the profile of that university," Dakich said. "Make it the Bob Knight Assembly Hall and put his statue out front."

Better Late Than Never

Dakich acknowledged the downside to the timing.

"Bad news, Bob Knight’s dead," he said. "Wouldn’t you like to do that when he was alive?"

Knight’s return to Assembly Hall late in life mattered, but Dakich said Indiana waited too long.

"I wish they’d have done this when he was alive, but better late than never," he said.

For Dakich, the statue represents more than honoring one coach.

"Indiana basketball is back. We’re celebrating our history," he said. "What a great history. Everybody graduated. We played every year basically for championships."

"Maybe old school’s back," he said. "Now we’re seeing Bob Knight being celebrated. I love it."

Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela