Indiana's national Knight-mare

It was like waking up, turning on the television and still being in a nightmare Saturday morning.

The scary part is the implication that college basketball might not have enough good men to go around, that the choices are a Kelvin Sampson or a Bobby Knight but finding a coach with the best of each without the worst is an impossible dream.

ESPN's "College Gameday" was on location at Indiana, so the Hoosiers were the inevitable topic. But it couldn't stop at the dubious future of Sampson, their outlaw current coach. It had to extend to Knight, their loutish former coach.

From that point it didn't matter what was said -- that the anchor asked whether Knight might return to Indiana and the reporter answered that it is doubtful.

What mattered is this story just won't go away.

Hoosiers fans fuel it by wearing "Bring back Bobby" T-shirts. That's understandable. If they worshipped Knight for decades, certainly some still hope he'll return, like some Bears fans still hope Da Coach will.

What isn't as understandable is why media types would keep feeding the beast.

(The answer is good copy has no conscience, I guess, which is why Knight and Sampson are being discussed here today.)

Anyway, any frightening improbability is a possibility in the unconscionable world of college athletics. Yes, even Knight returning to Indiana.

If Hoosiers administrators feel they can generate revenue from the comeback -- perhaps marketing merchandise that reads "Knight time: Bad is Back!" -- who's to say they wouldn't?

That's what college athletics have come to, which means they're in bigger trouble than even a critic like me imagined.

Here's the rationale for wanting Sampson fired and Knight rehired: Banging our heads against the wall didn't work so let's go back to sticking fiery bamboo shoots in our eyes.

The flaw in this theory is that just because Sampson is a cheater doesn't mean Knight is any less an embarrassment now than he used to be.

Perhaps I'm crazy -- OK, Knightophiles, fill in your wisecrack here if you want -- but it's clear to me this Sampson-Knight deal should be neither-nor rather than either-or.

Of course, that's assuming the college coaching community could produce an alternative to both Knight and Sampson. You know, that the options weren't limited to the former coach who tried to bully people and the current coach who appears incapable of playing by the rules.

There must be an available coach out there who could conduct himself in a civil manner while also being fair and honest, right?

Hiring Sampson to replace Mike Davis, who replaced Knight, doesn't mean that firing Knight was wrong. Nor do Sampson's transgressions mean Knight's improprieties now are tolerable.

The case made by Knight's supporters is, sure, he demonstrated some unacceptable behavior, but his players graduated and he never was caught breaking rules.

As if that matters. Doing some things properly doesn't give a person the license to do other things improperly.

I mean, even if a mobster donates to the church, he's still a mobster.

Seriously, if a college basketball program can't find a coach who would behave with more dignity than Knight and more integrity than Sampson …

If it can't do that, it's time to blow up college athletics and end our long, national nightmare.