Bob knight was not a scrub. He was a reserve on a team that was an incredible class. OSU went to the final game all 3 years he played. All 5 starters were drafted and 3 are in the nba HOF. While being a star in HS, he wasn't at Ohio State. Not the first state hero who should have went to a smaller college.
While he didn't get a lot of minutes he played in almost every game. Not sure where you got your numbers but he shot about 40% which is not bad for the day for a forward. He really didn't get to the line enough to call him "a terrible FT shooter." Since you are into stats he lead the team in free throw percentage his senior at about 82%. He also had a key basket in that championship game with under 2 minutes left. Scrubs don't play under 2 minutes!
Bob Knight's understanding of the game far surpassed his ability to play the game. (happens a lot with coaches) We see that in all walks of life. Another example is Obama in reverse, his education far surpassed his intelligence.
Great post. It never hurts to be part of a winning program even if you are not a starter on the team. As you said, those 1960-62 IU teams each played the the NCAA Championship game. The 1960 team, in particular, was awesome...with Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek, Mel Nowell & Larry Siegfried, etc. It remains as the only team to win every game in the NCAA Tournament by at least 15 points. There is a school of thought that maybe reserve players on their college team even have an advantage later in their coaching career and can become better coaches than players who were star players on the team. Dean Smith had a similar situation when he played at Kansas. The reasoning is that such players have more opportunity to watch the coaching strategy from the bench than they would playing on the court. It worked out very well for Knight & Smith, anyway.
Cast Knight's 3 Final Fours & NCAA Championship as a player aside, if you wish. He still had 5 NCAA Final Fours & 3 NCAA Championships, 11 Big Ten Conference Championships & 900+ wins as a coach. And he accomplished all of that without having a Sam Gilbert in the shadows buying players for him. He also had a protégé whom he coached at West Point, mentored as an IU assistant...and recommended for the job at Duke when Duke AD Tom Butters called Knight about hiring him for the Duke job...who has coached teams to 12 Final Fours with 5 NCAA Championships, 14 ACC Championships & 1,071 wins.
Together for those two men that is a coaching record of 17 Final Fours, 8 NCAA Championships, 25 Conference Championships & nearly 2,000 wins.
You can see how a WF fan could legitimately belittle the accomplishments of these two men. After all, WF did make a Final Four.....55 years ago.
Here is a good non-sports article that compares & contrasts the management styles of Bob Knight & Coach K from a business managerial point of view:
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/on-managing-with-bobby-knight-and-coach-k