Knight Time Rewind: January 31, 1993

With the transfer portal in full swing and new head coach Darian Devries building his staff and roster for the 2025-26 basketball season, I can’t help but take a look back in time given a recent addition to the General’s collection. Fitting…considering the mass shuffling of players that’s happening across the country. This story happens to be about arguably one of the most notorious recruits in Indiana University basketball history.

Coming off of a blowout victory on the road against Northwestern and his team on the verge of assuming the No. 1 spot as the top team in the land in the upcoming Associated Press poll, Coach Bob Knight’s doing his weekly television show and starts talking about a player named Ivan Renko from Yugoslavia, whom he said intends on enrolling and playing basketball for the Hoosiers, adding another player to his already heralded recruiting class for the 1994 season. He went on to say that Renko came into the picture while he was speaking at a coaching clinic in Europe the previous summer. And finally, Knight closed the door on talking further about the recruit due to NCAA rules and the turmoil happening within his native country.

Hindsight being 20/20, some believe Knight was looking to confuse recruiting analysts by creating a distraction. Considering his well-known disdain for some members of the media and journalism community, others believe he might have done this to bring into question the integrity of some in the profession. For the latter, one could say his views were validated when some recruiting analysts began to publish articles describing elements of the fictitious player’s skills and strengths.

Published in 1993 by Mid-America Publishing (who also published the annual schedule/calendars) and measuring 16’ x 20’, this is a fairly uncommon poster to find.

Go IU!