“I wasn’t patting anybody on the back I wanted to win”: When Bob Knight talked about coaching Coach K at West Point

Former Indiana coach Bob Knight is one of the most renowned college basketball coaches for his glory-filled 29-year reign at the helm of the Hoosiers. During his career, Knight's coaching tree sprouted several coaches, including Duke Blue Devils legend Mike Krzyzewski, aka Coach K.

Krzyzewski played for Knight when he was the Army Black Knights coach between 1966 and 1969. During a segment of "Undeniable" with host Joe Buck in February 2024, the legendary Knight spoke about how he forbade Krzyzewski from shooting when he coached him at Army (0:30).

"I've always had a lot of respect for a kid in those circumstances and we were good but we did not need him as a shooter," Bob Knight said. "We needed just a tough kid that could guard a guard on the other team.

"And a good passer and all the time he played, we were good. And we beat an awful lot of people and it was because of how good and how tough these kids were. I wanted to win and I wasn't patting anybody on the back."

Knight further spoke about how despite his tough coaching of Krzyzewski, he stood by him when his father died in 1969, even going to Chicago to comfort his family.

"Well, I think that's a coach's responsibility," Knight said. "I hope that when it was necessary to help a kid deal with a problem, I hope that I never neglected that kid. I'm expecting everything from that kid as a player and if I'm not getting everything then he's gonna know about it. But in turn, that kid should be able to expect everything from me as a coach that will be of benefit to him and so that was my coaching philosophy."

Bob Knight and Coach K's relationship broke down

After playing under Bob Knight for the Army Black Knights, Mike Krzyzewski learned his craft from his former coach as an assistant coach for the Indiana Hoosiers before returning to his alma mater for five years and finally landing at Duke.

Knight and Coach K soon started battling for the national championship and after the Blue Devils beat the Hoosiers in the Final Four of the 1992 NCAA Tournament, the polarizing Indiana coach totally ignored his former player during the postgame handshake and their relationship deteriorated from then on.

In Ian O'Connor's book titled 'Coach K,' the author revealed that Bob Knight and Mike Krzyzewski's beef only deepened when the former Duke coach snubbed the former Hoosiers coach's approach to help him scout opponents for Team USA's 2008 Olympics preparations.

“Knight said, 'You know what, Mike, if you want, I’ll go over there with you,'" O'Connor wrote. "I’ll scout the other teams. I’ll do this, do that, and we can talk about the other team before the games.’ And he never got back to him, which was literally the worst thing he could’ve done. ... Coach said he did more (expletive) for (Krzyzewski) than he did for his own kids, or as much.”

According to O'Connor, the relationship between the pair never recovered from a series of incidents during their careers before Knight passed away in 2023.