A Season on the Brink

October 28, 1986
Washington Post sportswriter Feinstein spent the 19851986 season with the Indiana Unversity basketball team. The season began under ominous circumstances because the 19841985 record had been a losing one, and its highlight (or, more accurately, nadir) had been coach Bob Knight's hurling a chair across the court in the Purdue game. His outbursts are central in this story, and it is not always clear when they are staged or if he is out of control. Feinstein writes that Knight believes in coaching through fear and, although those around him assert that he has learned to be more patient, he will not strike readers as noteworthy for his emotional control. So, despite his legendary loyalty to his friends and his acts of charity, Knight emerges here as an unlovely human being. Photos not seen by PW. First serial to Sports Illustrated.