INDIANA LOOKS TO REBOUND; PLAYERS ACCEPT BLAME FOR '96.

Byline: Nancy Armour Associated Press 

Bob Knight sat back and watched as his Indiana team got blown out in the first round of the NCAA Tournament for a third straight year. There was no yelling, no swearing, no gesturing.

When it was over, he walked back to the team's hotel - by himself, in the middle of the night. It was almost as if he were trying to put as much distance as possible between himself, the season and those players who had let him down once again.

But the frustration never went away, not with Neil Reed accusing Knight of abuse and a Sports Illustrated article asking, ``Has Bob Knight lost it?''

And with a new season about to start, all eyes are back on the Hoosiers to see if their run as one of the top teams in college basketball is really over.

``Everybody thinks the Indiana program is going down, and that Bob Knight is not the coach that everybody thought he was, and that his time has passed,'' senior forward Andrae Patterson said. ``And that's not true. Coach is still one of the greatest coaches that ever coached this game.

``And that's one of the things the team is going to prove and bring back this program.''

The Hoosiers have gone 10 years without a national championship and four without a Big Ten title, the longest droughts since Knight arrived at Indiana in 1971. Since losing to Duke in the 1992 Final Four, the Hoosiers haven't challenged for the national title.

After starting 14-1 and winning the Preseason NIT last season, Indiana lost 10 of its last 18 games to finish 22-11. Its 9-9 record in the Big Ten was good enough only for a sixth-place tie with Michigan and Michigan State.

``It wasn't exactly a terrible team, but it wasn't what Indiana people are used to seeing and it's not what Bob is used to turning out,'' said Bob Hammel, retired sports editor for the Bloomington Herald-Times and one of Knight's closest friends.

That doesn't mean Knight, a Hall of Fame coach with three national championships, 11 Big Ten titles, an Olympic gold medal and 700 victories, has lost his edge, said John Feinstein, who spent the 1985-86 season with the Hoosiers for his book, ``A Season on the Brink.''

``I do not buy into the argument of the game passing Bob Knight by. Ever,'' Feinstein said. ``Bob Knight knows basketball as well as anyone who ever lived and always will. But obviously, there were internal problems on that team.''

That's an understatement. After the tournament loss, Knight ``invited'' Patterson, Reed, Robbie Eggers and Richard Mandeville to leave the program. Not only did Reed take Knight up on his offer, but he refused to go quietly like the many other players who've left Indiana after a falling out with The General.

Reed accused Knight of ``verbal attacks and physical assaults,'' saying he was singled out for criticism. This from the same player Knight had praised for playing with a separated shoulder for most of his freshman season.

Charlie Miller, a senior forward and one of Reed's former roommates, said Reed was angry at Knight, ``So, he's going to say anything negative, do anything to degrade the program.''

Reed never elaborated on his claims of abuse, but the mere mention of it was enough. Knight's temper is legendary - remember the infamous chair-throwing episode in 1985? - and people have wondered more than once just how far his discipline goes.

But whenever the 57-year-old Knight is accused of anything, many of his former players are the first to line up in his defense. Keith Smart said that's because they know a different side of Knight, who refused several requests for an interview and didn't attend media days for Indiana or the Big Ten.

``When I first came back to Bloomington, I went to Assembly Hall and ... when he saw me, he said, `Keith!' He came to me and hugged me, `My boy, what's going on?' He wanted to know about my family and everything that was going on,'' said Smart, who's jumper gave Indiana the 1987 NCAA championship over Syracuse.

``He's trying to get you to perform at an extremely high level, which is going to take a lot of him getting on you, because you're going to have to go into the real world,'' said Smart, now coach of the CBA's Fort Wayne Fury.

And Knight gives every player - or at least the talented ones - the same treatment Reed got. Even Isiah Thomas was once told he was going to spend the rest of his career on the bench.

The players say there's a very simple explanation for why the Hoosiers did so poorly last year, and it had nothing to do with Knight. They were selfish. They were lazy. They pointed fingers at each other when things went wrong.

And no matter how many times Knight told them early on they weren't playing well, Patterson said they didn't listen.

``All we could see was the wins,'' he said. ``It backfired on us. Playing those games and winning, but not playing well, and then getting into a conference like the Big Ten, if you don't play well every night, you're not going to win.''

He could just as easily be describing himself. He arrived at Indiana as one of the top prospects in the country, one of five finalists for national player of the year and Texas' Mr. Basketball.

He's shown flashes of that brilliance, hitting a buzzer-beater in last year's Preseason NIT victory over Evansville and then scoring a career-high 39 points in the championship game. But he's also looked for much of his career like many of Knight's other phenoms: solid but uninspiring.

Patterson knows he's better than that, but he's come to realize part of his problem was trying to prove that to people. In his meeting with Knight after the tournament, he promised to work harder.

``I want to try to reach some of the expectations, some of the standards that I've made for myself this year, rather than trying to reach everybody else's,'' he said. ``I'm just going to set a high standard for myself so I can look back and feel good about myself.''

All of the Hoosiers hope they can say that about this season. If they really did learn something last year, this could be the best Indiana team since 1992-93.

Freshman Luke Recker, Indiana's Mr. Basketball, and Rob Turner, a junior college transfer, give the Hoosiers some speed and depth at guard. Sophomore center Jason Collier and forward William Gladness, another junior college transfer, should take on some of the scoring load.

Then there's A.J. Guyton, who might be Indiana's best pure player since Calbert Cheaney. The Big Ten freshman of the year is quick, handles the ball well and got better as the season went on, averaging 13.6 ppg and scoring more points (450) than anyone on the team.

He joined Thomas as the only Indiana freshmen with more than 400 points, 100 rebounds and 100 assists in a season.

And, of course, the Knight factor can't be overlooked.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Andrae Patterson makes a baseline jumper to give Indiana a 74-73 victory over Evansville in the preseason NIT semifinals last year.

(2) Bob Knight, whose team was blown out in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season, begins his 25th year as Indiana coach.

Associated Press