BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight apologized Sunday for pulling his team off the floor following his ejection from an exhibition game against the Soviet national team.
'I don't think I'm right in what I did,' Knight said during his weekly television show, taped hours after the defending NCAA champions were declared 66-43 losers Saturday night by referee Jim Burr.
Burr, a Big Ten official, gave Knight two technical fouls after the former Olympic coach ran on the floor insisting the Soviets committed a free-throw violation. Knight was given the third technical foul and ejected moments later. He removed his team after a timeout and Burr halted the game with 15:05 remaining.
'As far as taking the team off the floor after I was ejected, there are sometimes things I wish I could do over again and that was one of them, because of the involvement of our fans in the game,' Knight said.
Knight previously has criticized Big Ten officials, Burr in particular. The coach said his dislike for Burr's officiating contributed to incident.
'It was a situation with an official that I've had all kinds of problems with in the past, including the NCAA Tournament last year and the first game of ours he had as a Big Ten official,' he said. 'I let that get in the way of things.
'I should have said, 'All right,forget it. Let's just go on and play the game.' From that point on, I was really wrong and I'm really apologetic to ours fans for what should have been a good game.'
A sellout crowd of 16,975 in Assembly Hall booed when the game was halted and some fans threw paper objects at Burr and two other officials as they left the court. The Soviets waved to the crowd and departed to mixed applause and boos.
Knight became angry in the first half after the Soviets were not whistled for having six players on the court.
'I don't know what the mixup was among the officials but I got up and said, 'Hey, forget about the tech. Let them have the ball,' which I thought was all in keeping with the spirit of the game,' he said. 'I did not, as the game was progressing, think it was particularly well officiated from either side's standpoint.'
The game was played under NCAA rules.
'I got a technical foul called for being out of the coach's box,' Knight said. 'Well, the Russian coach had been out of the coaching box several times. All I wanted to know is if we weren't going to pay attention to any of the rules.'
Knight has criticized the Amateur Basketball Association of the United States for organizing the Soviet college tour. He claims the games will help the Soviets against the Americans at the 1988 Olympics.
Knight, the referees, Soviet team officials and ABA-USA Executive Director Bill Wall declined to speak with reporters after the game.
The Soviets are 6-2 on their U.S. tour. The game against Indiana was their fourth in five nights. Sharunas Marchulenis led the Soviets with 28 points, making all 15 of his free throws, including seven in the Soviets' string of 17 points before the end of the game.
Knight was suspended by the Big Ten for a game three seasons ago for hurling a chair across the court. As the Pan American Games basketball coach in 1979, he scuffled with a Puerto Rican police officer and was convicted in absentia of assault. Puerto Rican officials decided only weeks ago not to extradite him under new laws permitting such a move.
Knight said the Hoosiers would not have beaten the Soviets despite cutting a 13-point deficit to 5 points early in the second half.
'I don't think it's a game we could have won under any circumstances,' Knight said. 'The Russians played much, much better than we did. We've got a long way to go. We're going to have a tough time being competitive with our schedule.'
