It finally happened. That momentous event that we all, in the deep recesses of our minds, had been waiting, hoping and preparing for since many of us began watching college basketball in our teen and preteen years.

For those of you who haven’t heard yet, ESPN has inked a an agreement with none other than Bob Knight, bringing him onboard to do studio analysis of men’s basketball leading up to and during the NCAA Tournament this month.

Aside from Knight’s colorful attitude, there are really sound athletic and analytical reasons for ESPN’s move. Knight does, after all, have more wins than any other coach in Division I history, with nearly twice as many wins as Digger Phelps and Doug Gottlieb combined. He also coached or taught at least 45 NCAA head coaches, among them Mike Krzyzewski of Duke and Steve Alford, formerly of the University of Iowa and now at New Mexico. He is, without a doubt, one of the most revered men associated with NCAA men’s basketball – for a variety of reasons.

At age 67, Bob Knight is also nearing the age of many of ESPN’s other commentators and analysts. Indeed, Digger Phelps is scarcely eight months older than Knight.

Among ESPN analysts in other sports, Knight could almost be considered a spring chicken, being more than four years younger than football analyst and trifocal-eyeglass-marketing poster child Lou Holtz and five years younger than Lee Corso. He is also two years younger than commentary legend and ACC cheerleader extraordinaire Dick Vitale.

Then, of course, there is Knight’s infamous temper to consider, as well as his almost Shakespearean command of the non-FCC-permissible corners of the English language. Indeed, Knight’s self-assurance may have contributed to ESPN’s eagerness in his hiring, with Norby Williamson, ESPN’s executive vice president for production, commenting, “It always comes back to . how comfortable they are being themselves. One of the things Bob Knight has demonstrated is he’ll be himself.” No kidding.

It is Knight’s characteristic volatility that holds so much promise for ESPN under this arrangement. Who, watching analysts feverishly trying to come up with enough sentences to fill an entire halftime, hasn’t wished there was someone sitting between Digger and Gottlieb pointing out how stupendously obvious their assertions are or calling them out on obvious attempts at spin or flat-out BS? How refreshing would “Gottlieb, you’re a [expletive deleted]ing moron” be? Who doesn’t want to be tuned in for that? I know I will be.

Of course, there are probably also some inherent downsides to hiring somebody like Bob Knight, mostly in the realm of extra expenses – hiring a guy to hold his finger poised on the bleeping button all day and bolting down all the chairs in the studio are two that come to mind. Hopefully Knight shows up with his own supply of sweater vests.

Perhaps Knight could make a second career in broadcasting. Baseball and football commentary, calling games with Dicky V, or even hosting Sportscenter – who knows where this could lead? I, for one, would really love to hear Knight’s thoughts on the Cubs’ World Series hopes (Can they really still be called “hopes,” or are they more like “dreams” now?). Perhaps ESPN could start a pay-per-view channel called ESPN R-Rated, so we could get the full effect of Knight’s vitriolic, inflammatory linguistic prowess, raw and uncut.

So sit back, relax (since we have absolutely no fear of our Cyclones being in the NCAA tournament to be analyzed by Knight), turn on March Madness and enjoy The General. We’ve all waited far too long for this. Thank you, Bob.

Ryan Frederick is a senior in

management from Orient.