There I sat, with several reporters, chatting with Iowa Coach Dr. Tom Davis about the upcoming basketball season at Big Ten Media Day on Wednesday.

Suddenly I saw a swarm of people walk by and in the middle of the pack was none other than the General himself, Robert Montgomery Knight.

Decked out in one of his famous red sweaters and standing close to 6-feet-4 inches, Knight certainly was an intimidating figure. I watched with awe as this basketball legend (along with the swarm of reporters) paraded by me.

This was the same guy who has won 486 games and three national championships at Indiana, where basketball is a religion.

But it's not that Knight has won that many games. It's the way he's won them that makes him an intriguing figure to me (along with many others).

Remember when he threw that chair? And when he tried to take on the Puerto Rican police force?

He pretended to whip one of his players during last year's NCAA Tournament, which caused quite a stir. And in fact, Knight's players are his whipping-boys -- not literally of course.

You see, when a recruit signs to play for Knight, he is in essence signing the next four years of his life away.

Knight, who coached at West Point before arriving in Bloomington in 1971, is a military man and he runs his team like a boot camp.

Seeing that this is a college campus, though, a more applicable analogy would be that of the relationship between a pledge and a fraternity. Only, there's no 10, 12 or even 15 week pledge program at Indiana. With Knight, it's four-years of hell.

Naturally when you run your team with an iron fist, you don't like your authority to be challenged. Even Knight has been criticized from time to time by the media.

I had read of Knight's disdain of the media in the book, "A Season on the Brink," which chronicles a year in the life of Knight and Hoosier basketball, so I just had to get over there and watch the General in action.

He didn't disappoint.

Knight was every bit as abrasive and sarcastic with the media as he had been portrayed . . .and then some.

When Penn State joined the Big Ten two years ago, Knight was not bashful about about his opposition to the move. Asked about road-tripping to Happy Valley this season and he replied, "I didn't look forward to going to State College when I was in the army (West Point) and it was a helluva lot closer than it is here."

No punches pulled there.

Of course, Knight did his best Henry Kissinger imitation when he said, "they (Penn State) bring a lot of good things, but proximity isn't one of them."

But that's about as diplomatic as Knight would get -- a poor reporter would find that out later.

Knight was uncharacteristically raving about guard Chris Reynolds, a hard-worker but a poor shooter. Yet the reporter made the mistake of comparing Reynolds with former Hoosier Quinn Buckner, who was possibly the greatest guard ever to play at Indiana.

Bad move.

Knight shot the reporter one of his patented icy glares and said, "look at the numbers and that will tell you."

The offender tried to stammer out a justification for the question, but to no avail.

I'll save the best for last . . .

As he was leaving the room, Knight was informed that Indiana had been picked by the media to win the conference. True to form, Knight said that his team had been picked by "people who know next to nothing about basketball."

Then he followed with a one-liner that would make the Diceman proud: "At least I took some English classes. You fuckers never took any basketball classes."

And there you have it, ladies and gentleman, vintage Bobby Knight.

To be continued on Feb. 9 when Knight's Hoosiers invade Rec Hall.