What would Bobby Knight do?

The Big East tournament is turning out to be one of the best conference tournaments in college basketball. Last night the world regrettably watched one of the worst officiating jobs since the Seattle-Pittsburgh SuperBowl. Rutgers was hacked, fouled and shoved repeatedly for the last 3 minutes and the referees turned their backs and called fouls only in favor of St. Johns. As if the missed calls weren't bad enough, with 1.7 seconds remaining Rutgers was pummeled and not called again, lost the ball while St. Johns ran out of bounds with it and launched it into the crowd with 1.7 seconds remaining on the clock.

Turnover, Rutgers ball with 1 shot to win the game, this is gonna be great. Wait...where are the referees going? They're gone? We're trying to play a basketball game here and they just left.

What's really amazing is how cool Rutgers coach Mike Rice was during the postgame interview, he admitted to bad mistakes, no hard feelings, it happens...

Wow. I was ready for chairs to go flying. I was ready for accusations that could draw blood. Instead I saw the book being written, "How to Take the High Road" by Mike Rice. Put that book in Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com and...  nobody's buying that crap.

I want Bobby Knight back. What would Bobby have done in that situation? He would tear down the basketball hoop and jam it down someones throat while yelling, "YOU WANNA MAKE SIDE MONEY AGAINST MY TEAM YOU S.O.B.". He would throw every single chair onto the court while causing himself an aneurysm. They would have to restrain him with security guards, place the referees in witness protection and then they would play out the last 1.7 seconds.

He may have been a psycho but he was a champion and there was a method to his madness. The only important difference between Mike Rice and Bobby Knight is that Bobby is gonna see that game finished. They're going to get the ball back,  get a shot off with a guaranteed foul called because the referees owed it to him.

The high road is a difficult example to set. I don't mean to take too much away from Mike Rice. It wasn't his fault the refs are dining with Tim Donaghy. But to Rutgers fans, they want to play out the last 1.7 seconds and sometimes the low road can give you that chance. Fans everywhere miss Bobby Knight and we appreciate him even more today then we did yesterday.