Dawning of the Knight Era at ESPN

Jeremy Schaap knows he's almost certain to bump into Bob Knight in the ESPN cafeteria at the company's Bristol, Conn. headquarters over the next few weeks. And when he does, he also has a pretty good idea about what he'll likely say to the latest addition to the cable network's stable of college basketball shrieking heads.

"First, I would hope that he'll pick up the tab," Schaap said in a recent telephone interview. "Then I hope I can tell him that he's got a long way to go before he's Digger Phelps."

Eight years ago, Knight was not especially happy with Schaap's line of legitimately tough questioning during an exclusive interview about his recent firing as Indiana's head basketball coach. In typical raging bully mode, Knight told Schaap, the son of the late sports journalist, author and broadcaster Dick Schaap, that, "you've got a long way to go to be as good as your dad."

That inappropriate putdown said far more about Knight than it did about Jeremy Schaap, an immensely talented sports journalist, author and broadcaster in his own right. The two haven't had much contact ever since, but Schaap also said he was not the least bit surprised -- nor particularly upset -- that ESPN had hired Knight as a basketball analyst a month after he stepped down on Feb. 4 as the head coach of Texas Tech midway through the 2007-08 season.

"It's not unexpected," Schaap said of Knight's employment as a studio analyst for March Madness, with his first appearance scheduled on Wednesday, March 12. "I assumed when Bobby decided to retire, he'd probably wind up working at ESPN because it's where retired coaches always seems to go. Am I extremely comfortable with people who disparage the media becoming members of the media? At some level, there is something troubling about it in the abstract.

"But these roles are usually reserved for people like him who are not really paid members of the media. They're emeritus coaches. Was Bill Parcells a member of the media? No, of course not. And Bobby was usually available to the media. At least he talked to us. It's not like a Steve Carlton situation, where (the former Philadelphia pitcher) refused any interview requests. So I can't say it really bothers me."

Still, Knight has always been a slasher and basher of the media, a man who once said sportswriters were "one or two steps above a prostitute" on the career ladder. On another occasion, he was equally scornful, saying that "all of us learn to write in the second grade. Most of us go on to greater things."

ESPN certainly was not immune from his ire back in 1987 when Knight went off on the so-called worldwide leader after a Monday night game between Indiana and Wisconsin in Madison, an 86-85 triple overtime Hoosier victory that ended at about 11:15 p.m.

"It's just ridiculous for us to be leaving here to gets in class, and we won't be home until 3 in the morning," Knight ranted that night, according to the Milwaukee Journal. "This Monday night television is bull¿It's time the presidents or somebody stepped in and laid some rules down on when these kids can play and can't play, how much class they miss, and the hell with ESPN because this is an absolute ridiculous thing to put a college student through."

Of course, when Knight was hired two weeks ago, he had a much different view now that he's about to cash the network's paychecks to appear on pre-game, halftime and post-game shows, as well as SportsCenter, ESPNews and ESPN Radio.

"ESPN," he said in a statement, "has been real good for college basketball."

But will Knight be real good for ESPN college basketball?