IU hoops war: Guyton slams Dakich

To quote the late Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?”

When it comes to the Indiana University basketball program, apparently not.

With the Hoosiers off to a 6-0 start in the Big Ten, you’d think everyone involved with the program—past and present—would be singing Kumbaya. Bob Knight notwithstanding.

The latest rift in the land of candy-striped is between two former players.

Former IU player Dan Dakich has taken exception to the behavior of Knight. He was specifically peeved that Knight didn’t show up at Assembly Hall earlier this month for the celebration of IU’s 1976 undefeated team. On his radio show on WFNI-AM 1070, Dakich called Knight “an incredibly small human being.”

Another former IU player, A.J. Guyton—who played for Knight from 1996-2000—didn’t care for that. Guyton also took exception to what Dakich recently said during an ESPN telecast of an IU hoops game about players who played for Indiana during the mid- and late 1990s. Guyton took those comments personally.

During a nearly 20-minute diatribe Thursday on WNDE-AM 1260 (oh by the way, a competitor of WFNI), Guyton called out Dakich for everything from criticizing Knight, to remaining mum about failed drug tests and classes by IU players during the 2007-08 season while Dakich worked on Kelvin Sampson’s IU staff. Guyton critiqued Dakich for being only a sub at IU and even for being a poor free throw shooter. He went on to say that if he ran into Dakich, nothing good would happen.

Here’s a snippet from Guyton’s Thursday afternoon interview on WNDE:

“To me, there’s a pinnacle at Indiana University. There are the Quinn Buckners. There are the Isiah Thomases. These guys have the right to comment and talk about A.J. Guyton and say ‘he’s wasn’t that good.’ I would wholeheartedly disagree with them, but I wouldn’t argue with them because these are the pillars of Indiana University. Somebody who sat the bench [during] his sophomore year on their Big Ten championship team, you think you have the right to talk negatively about A.J. Guyton, Yogi Ferrell, James Blackmon? I don’t really understand that because you don’t have the statistics to back up what you’re saying. You couldn’t shoot. Your free throw percentage was poor. You played 14 minutes a game in some years. Six minutes a game your sophomore year. So you were an extra.

“So why do you feel like you have the right to come out and discredit somebody? I ran the same mountains and hills you did. We did the best we could with what we had. Fifteen years later to discredit a guy who has nothing but positive things to say about Indiana University, about Tom Crean, and about the state of basketball at Indiana University. Why me? Or why us? Also to discredit Bob Knight. Now you don’t have anything positive to say about the man who recruited you and the man who helped you get into college coaching? I think that’s very hypocritical and I think it’s unfair and I wish he would just stop.”

Those who know Dakich know he never stops talking. Of course, that is part of his job now.

In addition to calling college hoops games on ESPN, Dakich does his radio show weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on WFNI.

To hear the entire Guyton interview, click here.