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Bob Knight’s Last Great Team: The 1993 Indiana Hoosiers

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Bob Knight is one of the all-time greats of college basketball, a man who won consistently and did it without compromising recruiting ethics or his school’s academic standards. Knight produced several great teams over the years, including three national championship runs at Indiana. The 1993 Indiana Hoosiers were his last truly outstanding team, and if not for an untimely injury might have added another national title to the trophy case.

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Indiana was coming off a Final Four run in 1992, losing a close game to eventual national champion Duke. The Hoosiers had almost everybody back in the fold for 1993, and it started with Calbert Cheaney. A small forward with a smooth jump shot and an exceptional ability to work the baseline, Cheaney would average 22 ppg in 1993 and win National Player of the Year honors.

Cheaney was well-supported by a lineup oriented to the backcourt. Greg Graham and Damon Bailey could each shoot from the perimeter and handle the ball. The bench was deep and mostly with guards, ranging from pure shooters in Pat Graham and Todd Leary to a great on-ball defender in Chris Reynolds.

The frontcourt didn’t have the same depth, but they had Matt Nover, who was steady and consistent. And the difference-maker up front was Alan Henderson, a power forward who averaged 11 points/8 rebounds per game and added a shotblocking dimension to the Hoosier defense with his athleticism. Both Nover and Henderson could be classified as power forwards, so depth in this area was the one weakness the 1993 Indiana Hoosiers would have to navigate.

Indiana won the preseason NIT in New York City, beating Florida State (who would ultimately reach a regional final in the NCAA Tournament) and Seton Hall (who won the Big East). They also beat Cincinnati, another team destined for the regional finals in March. A close loss to Kentucky on a neutral floor rankled, and a loss to Kansas in the Hoosier Dome was an ominous foreshadowing, but Indiana was on everyone’s short list of national title contenders when conference play opened.

After two wins to start Big Ten play, Indiana traveled to Michigan on January 12. This was the age of “The Fab Five” in Ann Arbor. Chris Webber and Jalen Rose led a class of five sophomores who had made the NCAA final the prior year, the first team to do so with an all-freshman starting lineup. Michigan was even better in ’93.

The Michigan-Indiana games of 1993 had the undertones of a basketball culture war. It was Michigan’s relatively undisciplined style, it’s trash-talking, it’s baggy shorts and suspicions (ultimately proven true) that the recruiting methods to lure them to Ann Arbor were not in line with the NCAA rule book. All this against the squeaky-clean Indiana, with it’s discipline. And before any overly sensitive reader thinks that’s “talking in code” about race, Cheaney, Henderson, Greg Graham and Reynolds were all African-American.

Snow blanketed the Midwest that Tuesday night, so there was nothing to do but hunker down in front of the TV set. The game was fantastic, and the Hoosiers clung to a 76-75 lead. On the game’s final possession, Webber came up with an offensive rebound and looked certain to win the game. Henderson stuffed him clean. This writer, then 23-years-old, ran screaming through a friend’s house in jubilation.

Indiana showed its mental toughness in going on the road to NCAA Tournament teams in Illinois and Purdue immediately after this win, and keeping it going, stretching the Big Ten record to 5-0. The Hoosiers won a rematch with Michigan in Bloomington. It was another one-point affair, 93-92, but the score in this case is misleading. Indiana built up a comfortable lead and the Wolverines hit a couple late three-pointers, the last one at the buzzer to make it close.

The Big Ten record ultimately hit 13-0, with the closest call being a double-overtime affair at lowly Penn State. Indiana got some help from a rather shaky off-the-ball foul that bailed them out, and the Nittany Lions also missed a chance for a key overtime basket when Reynolds got away with grabbing a player’s jersey in the open floor. IU critics who felt officials often caved in to Knight had plenty of ammunition on this night.

It was the final win of this 13-0 start that proved the most costly though. Or, more accurately, the practice leading up to it. Henderson injured his knee and would be lost for the remainder of the season. Indiana beat Purdue without him, but given how thin this team was up front already, the only way the news could have been worse was if anything had been wrong with Cheaney.

Indiana lost their next game in overtime, at Ohio State, ending the hopes of being the first perfect team in the Big Ten since the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers had pulled off an 18-0 run. As of this writing, in March 2014, the ’76 Hoosiers are still the last Big Ten team to complete the league schedule unscathed. The 1993 Indiana Hoosiers were still able to right the ship, win their last four games and go into the NCAA Tournament as the #1 seed in the Midwest Regional.

There was home cookin’ on opening weekend, as Indiana was seeded at the Hoosier Dome. It didn’t matter in the first round, as they dismantled Wright State 97-54, but it helped in a tough 73-70 win over feisty Xavier. Cheaney scored 52 points in the two games combined, and led his team to St. Louis for the regionals.

How long until the lack of Henderson caught up with Indiana? That was the question analysts were asking, and ESPN’s Dick Vitale felt it would be in the Sweet 16 against Louisville. The Cardinals were a team of athletes, and Henderson was the man who might have helped Indiana match up. The fallen power forward had given it his best to come back and was getting playing time in the tournament, but they were inconsequential minutes and it was clear he just wasn’t healthy.

Cheaney came up with probably the best game of his life on Thursday night in St. Louis. He shot 83 percent from the floor and scored 32 points. Graham scored 22 points, and was 7-for-11 from the floor himself. The team overall shot 62 percent and they won 82-69.

The undermanned Hoosiers were one win away, but they now had to beat a team without Henderson that they had lost to with him–#2 seed Kansas. Even though Cheaney and Graham were again heroic, combining for 45 points on 18-for-33 shooting, Kansas had too much muscle inside. With three good big men, Nover had no chance to match up and KU was well-coached under Roy Williams. It was a good game, but Kansas always seemed a step ahead and they won 83-77.

Even amidst the disappointment, no one could have imagined that Knight would only make two more appearances in the Sweet 16 for the rest of his career, and that only one of those (1994) would be with Indiana. No one would have guessed that Indiana wouldn’t be in the Big Ten throne room until 2002, and even that was a quad-championship. The Hoosiers would not win the conference outright until 2013.

The 1993 Indiana Hoosiers were a special team for what they achieved, and they remain one of my favorite teams of all-time. They are a historic team for being what we now know was Bob Knight’s last great team.

1987 Indiana Basketball: A Real-Life Hoosiers Ending

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The 1987 Indiana basketball team was looking to redeem themselves. 1986 had ended with March disappointment—they’d been upset by Cleveland State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament—but they were also looking to avoid a dubious historical distinction. The senior class, led by sharpshooter Steve Alford, had never won a Big Ten championship and no team in the Bob Knight era had ever graduated without winning at least one conference title.

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Alford was the leading scorer and team leader, and power forward Daryl Thomas joined him in the senior class. Rick Calloway was a smooth and athletic small forward. There were holes at point guard and center and Knight had gone with what, for him, was the unusual route of recruiting junior college players to fill them, adding Keith Smart in the backcourt and Dean Garrett in the post.

IU came through some tough times in the early part of the season, less about on-court performance and more about a brief suspension of Thomas for not going to class. The senior got back on track and the team was enjoying a big year. The problem was that it was a strong year in the Big Ten. Purdue would be in the hunt all year, as would Illinois. And no offense in the conference—perhaps in the nation—could score quicker than Iowa, under a fast-paced style by Tom Davis and they hung 101 points on the Hoosiers in a January win in Iowa City.

Indiana went through a trying stretch on the court in conference play, barely getting by three cellar-dwellers in Northwestern, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The game against the Badgers was a 9 PM ET start for ESPN and went to triple overtime before Garrett scored the game-winner in the 86-85 final. The game is best known for Knight lambasting the late starts for television, noting how late the kids were going to be back on campus on a school night and asking “Where’s the priorities?”

The mediocre performance and late nights didn’t stop Indiana from getting revenge on Iowa’s return trip to Bloomington, but against Illinois they faltered and it allowed Purdue to hold a one-game lead in the conference coming into the final week. The goals of Alford, Thomas and reserve forward Todd Meier, the third part of the senior class, were in serious jeopardy.

Indiana took care of its business, winning both of their games. On the final day of the regular season, as Alford signed autographs after a 90-81 win over Ohio State, the word came through to him—Michigan was killing Purdue and the Hoosiers would share the Big Ten crown with the Boilermakers.

The Hoosiers were the #1 seed in the Midwest Regional, and the first two games would be in Indianapolis. The blowout win over Fairfield to start the tournament could’ve happened anywhere, but a home crowd advantage was surely a help when they fell behind Auburn 24-10. After a chewing out from the head coach, Indiana quickly turned the game around and they won 107-90. The win sent them on to Cincinnati for the regionals, where Duke would be the opponent, while LSU and DePaul faced off in the other semi-final.

Today the names of Bob Knight and Mike Krzyzewski are inextricably linked, with the mentor-protégé relationship being well-known and Krzyzewski’s breaking of Knight’s all-time career wins record being a high point of the 2011-12 early season. Back then, even though Coach K had made his first Final Four appearance the previous year, he was still the up-and-comer without a ring, while Knight was the legend who’d already won it all twice. This year, Knight had the better team.

Even though Duke got out to a 29-21 lead, the Hoosiers had a ten-point lead by halftime. Calloway, playing in his hometown, scored 21 points and Smart added 21 more. Indiana shot 56 percent, won the rebounding battle and eventually the game, 88-82. On the other side of the draw, LSU, the #11 seed in the regional upset #2 seed DePaul and was looking to make the Final Four for the second straight year as a double-digit seed.

Indiana was the solid favorite, but they only led by one at the half and LSU controlled the early part of the second half, moving out to a 12-point lead. During the Tiger run, Knight became angry with the officials and went to the scorers bench where NCAA officials were and pleaded his case. The lasting image of this is Knight pounding a courtside phone and the receiver springing up.

The phone incident eventually cost IU a $10,000 fine and for a few years Knight and LSU coach Dale Brown were enemies over what the Tiger coach perceived as intimidating the officials. The two men traded insults in public, before they sat down, talked it out and became friends. To think, if they’d just used cell phones in 1987, the imagery wouldn’t have happened, and maybe none of the fallout.

LSU was still leading 75-68 with five minutes to play. A fast-break basket by sixth man Joe Hillman and a foul, cut the lead to four. The Hoosiers were down by a point at 76-75 when Tiger guard Fess Irvin went to the line to shoot a one-and-one. He missed the front end. Indiana brought it down the floor. Thomas took what looked like the final shot from the lane and it came up an air ball. Calloway swopped in for the rebound and put it back. Indiana had survived 77-76 and their hometown kid was the hero.

The Final Four was in New Orleans and Indiana was paired with fellow #1 seed UNLV in a high-profile semi-final. The Rebels were generally seen as the best team in the country, with a potent backcourt led by Mark Wade distributing and Freddie Banks scoring. Armon Gilliam was as good a power forward as there was in the nation and any team coached by Jerry Tarkanian would play hard on defense.

This year was the first time in the NCAA Tournament that the three-point line was in effect. It had been used in regular season play in different conferences at different distances since 1983, but the ’87 rules codified the distance at 19’9” and introduced it into postseason play.  Today that worked to the advantage of the Rebels, as Banks drained ten by himself on the way to 38 points. Gilliam scored 32 and pulled down 10 rebounds.

But Indiana made a surprise decision to run with UNLV and Alford poured in 33 points and while the Hoosiers weren’t as prolific from behind the stripe they outshot Vegas from the floor 62-43%. Indiana led 88-76 and held off a furious UNLV rally that cut the lead to as little as four, which is where it ended, 97-93.

Syracuse would be the opponent in the Monday night final in the Superdome. The Orange had three future NBA players in their starting lineup, with power forward Derrick Coleman, center Rony Seikaly and point guard Sherman Douglas. All would have productive pro careers.  Alford was the only player on Indiana’s roster who would last more than a year at the next level and it was far from productive. It’s the singular testament to Knight’s coaching that not only did this group win a national title, but they were so efficient all year that they actually entered this title clash as a favorite to beat the Orange.

The game would be a back-and-forth classic and this time it was Indiana who benefited from the three-point shot. Alford hit 7-for-7 from behind the arc, including one right before the half that put IU up by a point at intermission. But Coleman was rebounding ferociously and would have 19 boards by night’s end. Syracuse finally opened up some breathing room at 52-44 in the second half. It was time for Knight to turn to another hometown hero.

Smart hailed from up the road in Baton Rouge and he’d been briefly sat down by his coach with the firm admonition to “settle down.” With the championship in the balance, Smart took the game over. He had 23 points for the game and 12 came in the final five minutes.  Trailing 72-68 he drove the baseline for a reverse layup. But when he went to tie it one trip later, his short jumper missed and was rebounded by Syracuse forward Howard Triche who was immediately fouled.

Triche hit the first free throw, but missed the second.  Smart grabbed the long rebound off the and rapidly sprinted the other way for a basket that cut it to one as the clock neared the half-minute mark. It was a play that Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim would look back on with regret, feeling he should’ve pulled his rebounders off the lane and kept the defense back. It wasn’t that Smart had scored, it was that Indiana only had to use a few seconds of time to cut the lead to two.

Still, the Orange had the lead and just need to hit their free throws. It was the freshman Coleman who was fouled and had the chance. Coleman was in position to be Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. But he missed the front end of the one-and-one.

Now that extra time that Boeheim lamented came into play as Indiana was able to work the ball around, first seeing if Alford could take the final shot, and then looking for other options as their captain was closed off. Thomas had the chance to take a decent shot from the free throw line, but he saw Smart whirling around the side to his left and slipped him the ball. Smart’s dribble took him close to the baseline and he pulled up for the shot, that with four seconds left, won the championship.

The final was 74-73. It was the fifth national championship in Indiana basketball history and their coach’s third. Bob Knight had taken a special place in history and in a year when the movie Hoosiers, later to be seen as one of the great sports films ever made, hit the big screen, the 1987 Indiana basketball team had provided a real-life dramatic finish.

The 1976 Indiana Hoosiers: The Last Perfect Team

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The 1976 Indiana Hoosiers, led by fiery head coach Bob Knight, were hungry for a championship that the bad luck of sports had denied them one year earlier. The 1975 team, one Knight always believed was the best he’d ever coached had rolled through the regular season undefeated, but All-American power forward Scott May broke his arm late in the season and Indiana lost a 92-90 heartbreaker to Kentucky in the regional finals of the NCAA Tournament.

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Indiana wasn’t as dominant in the season that got rolling in earnest in December of 1975. They held off Notre Dame in a three-point win and went to overtime for a win over Kentucky. The Irish would be a Top 10 team, but the Wildcats were starting a season that would result in them missing the NCAA Tournament, so that narrow escape was a sign that Knight’s team would be beatable. St. John’s, coached by a future Hall of Famer in Lou Carnesecca took the Hoosiers to the wire. Most alarming was the Big Ten opener against a terrible Ohio State team when IU had to pull out a 66-64 win.

The next game would come in Ann Arbor, where Michigan was a national power and the pre-eminent challenger to Indiana in the Big Ten. Indeed, the Wolverines were just a year away from a team that would conclude the regular season ranked #1 in the country. Indiana had to play its best game and they did, with Kent Benson scoring 33 points to lead the way to a six-point win.

Benson was one of four first-round draft picks in the Indiana starting lineup. Three of them—May, point guard Quinn Buckner and swingman Bobby Wilkerson were seniors and chose in the top 11 of the ensuing spring’s NBA draft. Benson was a junior and one year later would be the first overall pick of the Milwaukee Bucks, re-uniting him with Buckner at the pro level.

Those four, along with forward Tom Abernathy, comprised a lineup that was big, as Buckner led a quartet that was all 6’6” or taller. It was also a team with a weak bench, and these five had to carry the load.

Indiana’s brushes with danger continued, as they fell behind Michigan by ten points in the Wolverines’ return trip before rallying to win in overtime. And as IU sewed up the Big Ten crown down the stretch, they trailed at halftime against Illinois, Purdue and Minnesota before rallying to win. They closed the regular season undefeated and ranked #1, but there was nothing suggesting that a national title was a foregone conclusion as the tournament opened.

The NCAA Tournament was a 32-team affair so Indiana had only one game to win in the first segment of the bracket and that was a rematch with St. John’s in Dayton. This one ended decisively, 90-70 for Knight’s team and they headed to Baton Rouge for the Sweet 16.

There were few coaches that Knight respected more than Alabama’s C.M Newton, so much so that the Tide mentor was Knight’s choice to be his #1 assistant on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team that was the greatest amateur team ever assembled. So there was no way Indiana would be overlooking Alabama in their regional semi-final.  May, the National Player of the Year, played his best game of the tournament with 25 points and 16 rebounds to key a five-point win.

Next up was Marquette, coached by its own legend in Al McGuire. In a few short years this matchup would not be allowed to happen at this point in the bracket. Marquette was ranked second nationally, but in 1976 the emphasis was still on geographic cohesion, so Midwestern teams went to the Midwest regional. Hard to argue with the logic, but it’s certainly better for the fans to have the field more appropriately seeded today.

Indiana’s defense came out tough and held Marquette to 37 percent shooting and was able to open up a tight game in the second half and win 65-56. Indiana was going to the Final Four for the second time in Knight’s tenure—the first had been 1973—and now they couldn’t settle for anything less than cutting down the nets.

Indiana was joined at the Philadelphia Spectrum by UCLA, Rutgers and Michigan, all with a story of their own. UCLA was in its first year of the post-John Wooden era. Rutgers was undefeated themselves. Michigan was a beneficiary of the fact that the NCAA was just starting to open its field up to at-large teams—no longer was it just one bid per conference.

The Hoosiers officially called an end to the era of UCLA dominance in the Saturday semi-finals with a 65-51 win keyed by Wilkerson’s 19 rebounds. Michigan ended Rutgers dream season and set up an all-Big Ten title game on Monday night.

It wouldn’t have been the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers if they coasted home. Michigan led at the half 35-29, but it was all Indiana in the second half, as they hung 57 points on the board after intermission. Knight’s biggest stars played like it, as May and Benson combined for 51 points and the final was 86-68.

When you hear about the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers it can seem as though their perfect season was almost a fait accompli, coming off the disappointment in 1975. The record shows the reality as quite different. This was a team that was beatable and in repeated situations where they might have lost, right up to the bitter end.

But being beatable and being beaten are two different things and Knight’s ’76 Hoosiers never were. They’re the last Division I college basketball team to be able to say that on the final Monday of the season.