Bobby Knight on Traveling
 

Any thoughts on this segment? It ran on Sportscenter this morning.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=3837838

Give him a whistle in thoes games and see how many travels get by him. Slow motion would be nice, but man, Games would take alot longer.:) There are alot of travels not called at college level and I wont even talk NBA. Thoes plays he showed i thought the official is probably watching for the foul not the travel. DUH!! O well, all i can do is try and call more travels for Mr. Knight.:p

You better do a lot better than try for Mr. Knight or he will scratch you forever like he did to that highly rated official who gave him a T many years ago. I believe his name was Mr. Solomon. Knight basically ended his career.

I actually agree with him. Watch any men's college game and you'll see many examples.

He was right on the UNC player, but wrong on the other play, and both for the wrong reason. He's in that incorrect mindset that the number of steps is determinative. He didn't once mention the term, pivot foot, which makes me wonder if he's actually read the rule.

This is just another example where the media and fans think coaches actually know much of anything about the rules. Traveling is horribly, in my opinion, over called at the lower levels. I don't watch much college ball anymore, at least not until March.

He was completely right on the Tyler Hansbourgh, but on that play it looked like there might have been a push. It is possible the official looked at the play and let things go because it was not totally bad.

And he mentioned in the Hansbourgh case that he took 5 steps. Some of those steps were totally legal.

Peace

Yeah I didn't think the video of Blake Griffin was a travel.

Yes, the Hansborough play was an obvious travel. Way too obvious to let it go because of a bump. The second play looks fine to me.

I'm sure we could find a couple missed lay-ups that "decided a one-point game" or a couple coaching decisions that made the difference too. Is BK's note that referees can make zero mistakes or they decide the game? That is just dumb.

Knight's sideshow act was growing tired as a coach. He seems rather pathetic on the boob tube.

I think Coach Knight may have oversimplified/overstated the point a bit, but I think there is a lot of truth in what he says. The play involving Hansborough is not an isolated incident.

Are you saying that people at the high school level are getting travels right?

Pece

So if some of 5 is legal, then it seems to me that most of 5 is illegal. Correct call is travelling.

What does high school have to do with anything about the OP or the video? Nobody mentioned high school - not even Coach Knight.

It is called a hypothetical question.

Peace

It's hypothetical. I wonder if they get traveling calls right on the moon.:rolleyes:

Wow.....I'm just going to leave it at that

Coach Knight doesn't know the rule. . .
 

This isn't the first time that ESPN has aired a segment which will end up making our jobs harder than they already are. The Hansborough play was a clear travel. The second play was clearly legal, yet Knight acted like it was an obvious travel that was missed. As another poster noted earlier, all Knight talked about was the number of steps taken by the player, and we all know that has absolutely nothing to do with traveling. The only thing that matters is the pivot foot, and that term wasn't mentioned at all in this piece.

I've emailed ESPN on multiple occasions in the past when they have aired segments like this; I have yet to receive a response of any sort. Maybe someone else from the forum will have more luck.

Did anybody else notice that BK never mentioned "traveling" during his segment? He wants officials to call "walking," but last I checked there was not a specific violation for "walking." If he wanted to send a message, he should have referred to the rule by its given name. :cool:

Theres' a tremendous amount of traveling in HS and college that isn't called.

A player ends his dribbles and jump stops off both feet.

3 point shooter catches the ball and bunny hops to the arc or even steps behind it moving both feet.

A low post player with his back to the basket steps into the paint with his left foot, making his right the pivot. Then, he steps with his right and squares to the basket before his shot without a dribble.

Break away dunks and fast breaks are never called.

I have asked the question before why so many are so upset by "over the back" but never say a word about "walking." Also, while the number of steps is not the key to the violation, in layman's terms it is usually possible to get the point across. To most people, if you say, "He was standing flat-footed and then he took two steps," it means he moved the left and then the right, or vice-versa. With this in mind, when people argue "He gets two steps on a layup." I explain that the only way he gets two steps is if the ball is caught while both feet are off the floor, which I think is the exception, rather than the rule. As for the Hansborough play, he may have indeed taken five steps. There was a considerable amount of left right action on the play.

Because one is and exact synonym for the other. Neither traveling nor walking suggests any action is an infraction that the other does not.

"Over the back", on the otherhand, is used to describe actions that may or may not be illegal and is typically used when someone thinks a foul should be called when a player from behind makes a play (with or without fouling contact.)