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Bobby Knight out as ESPN college basketball analyst

By Patrick Schmidt

Feb 27, 2014; Lexington, KY, USA; ESPN announcers Bobby Knight and Rece Davis before the Kentucky Wildcats game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Rupp Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 27, 2014; Lexington, KY, USA; ESPN announcers Bobby Knight and Rece Davis before the Kentucky Wildcats game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Rupp Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports /
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Bobby Knight and ESPN are parting ways after the NIT championship game on Thursday night.

Hall of Fame head coach Bobby Knight will not be returning to ESPN as a broadcaster after the network declined to pick up his contract, according to Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated.

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Knight has served as a college basketball analyst since he was fired as the head coach at Texas Tech in 2008 and has appeared in a variety of platforms on the network and on ESPN Radio. Knight was one of the staunchest critic of the media when he was a head coach at Indiana and later at Texas Tech, but he joined the fraternity and lent his opinionated voice to the broadcasts, working alongside Brent Musberger early in his broadcasting career.

Initially, Knight was a reason to tune into the Big 12 games he was working as an analyst for because he was entertaining and you cared about his opinion and wanted to see if he would get unhinged and go off on a tangent as he often did in games and post game press conferences.

However, in recent years the appeal of Knight as an in-game analyst lessened as his enthusiasm for the job diminished. He was on the call for American Athletic Conference games this season but came off as a bitter old man who didn’t want to be there. If he didn’t want to be there, why should we watch and care about his analysis?

So ESPN made the decision to part ways with the legendary head coach who was an amateur broadcaster, but could Knight catch on with CBS or another network and continue his work as a broadcaster?

Of course he could and probably would have some offers to continue working in the field if he wanted, but at 74-years-old I’m not so sure that he wants to continue working as an analyst.

I could see Knight making appearances on radio and guest spots on television, but I’m not sure Knight wants to continue traveling as much as he’s required to call the games and put in the necessary work to perform like he’d be expected to perform.

Further, he does come with considerable baggage stemming from his firing at Indiana and his recent broadcasting work is not something an aspiring broadcaster would put on their demo reel, so after Thursday night’s NIT championship game, I think that will be the last time we’ll hear the Hall of Famer on the call for a college basketball game.

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