The World Has Moved on From Bob Knight

Thank God.

Tonight, my beloved Illinois Fighting Illini men’s basketball team will play the Indiana Hoosiers. It’s an important game in the Big Ten standings, but the reason the game really matters is because of the history between the two teams. Indiana hates Illinois. But Illinois really hates Indiana.

And the reason is of course Bob Knight.

I grew up in Central Illinois, the town of Mattoon, and in the days before streaming or the Big Ten Network or ESPN-Plus, every Illinois game was played live on WCIA Channel 3, the CBS affiliate. Whatever the national programming that CBS put on, it was always pre-empted in Champaign for the Illini game. This is a direct beam to my childhood, right here:

When every game is on locally like that, the Illini became more than just the…