MIAMI — If Indiana completes a perfect season with a national championship Monday night, the Hoosiers will own the most recent undefeated season in both college football and basketball.
It will be 50 years in March since Bob Knight’s basketball Hoosiers won the crown with a 32-0 record in 1976. The iconic coach went on to win three national titles in Bloomington.
Curt Cignetti is building is own resume as a legendary Indiana coach. And the 64-year-old has been around long enough to have developed an appreciation for the late Knight from afar.
Knight went viral in press conferences before going viral was even a phrase. More recently, Cignetti has had his share of memorable moments in front of the microphone.
It turns out Cignetti is something of a student of Knight.
“I was a big Bob Knight fan as a little kid,” Cignetti said Sunday morning at a national championship news conference in Miami. “I liked sort of the shenanigans and the faces at the press conferences and throwing the chair across the court. I thought that was pretty cool. And the guy I bought my house from was a big friend of Bob Knight, actually.”
Cignetti made a splash the first time he stepped on the basketball court on Indiana, proclaiming “Purdue sucks, but so does Michigan and Ohio State.”
Knight had several memorable moments on the same floor. He once said to a packed house he wanted to be buried upside down “so my critics can kiss my ass.”
It was during these very moments — postseason runs in the NCAA Tournament — Knight delivered remarks that still generate significant views on social media. He once brought a bull whip to a press conference and said he used it to motivate his players. And he rubbed on a glass like a crystal ball to generate visions of how a player would perform.
But Cignetti has toned down his public comments during his second season in Bloomington. He often claims he was provocative early on because he felt he needed to energize the fan base. Nevertheless, Cignetti says people in Indiana who knew Knight well have told him he reminds them of the Hall of Fame basketball coach.
But the comparisons will really take off if Cignetti delivers Indiana’s first ever football national championship. Especially on the 50 year anniversary of Knight’s perfect season.
Cignetti is not ready to say there’s a deeper connection.
“It really has no effect on what’s going to take place here at 7:50 tomorrow night. But it was 50 years ago, and if we’re able to climb that mountain, it’ll be a unique coincidence,” Cignetti said.
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