ALL IS NOT FINE IN INDIANA

Neil Reed quietly withdrew from Indiana the other day. Depending on whose version you believe, Reed left dishonored and with a shove from his former Hoosiers teammates, as well as from the coach he once idolized, Bob Knight. Or . . . Reed left embittered but proud–the kid who stood up to the great dictator and his Big Red Machine.

I’m not ready to call Reed or Knight a liar just yet. They have their stories, they’re sticking to them. All anyone knows for sure is that Reed is back home in Louisiana, that allegations of physical abuse toward the junior guard still linger, and that the Hoosiers’ basketball program is as defensive and paranoid as ever.

But Indiana, despite another shiner under its eye, is still Indiana. And Knight, despite some calls for his resignation and the predictions that his program is headed for the dumper, is still a considerable force.

About the same time Reed left Bloomington, two of the better junior college players in the country, along with a highly recruited high school senior from Tennessee, signed letters of intent with Indiana. They knew about the Reed mess, about the public backlash, about the accusations that Knight, in a fit of anger, supposedly wrapped his hands around Reed’s neck.

They knew all this and yet they stood by their verbal commitments of several months ago. They could have gone elsewhere. In fact, up until the moment they actually signed the scholarship papers, friends and, in some cases, anonymous coaches and boosters from other schools were telling them to play anywhere but Indiana and for the monster Knight.

Instead, forward William Gladness of Carl Albert (Okla.) Junior College, guard Rob Turner of Tyler (Texas) Junior College and center Kirk Haston of Perry County (Tenn.) High School became instant Hoosiers with the stroke of a pen.

“I think Bobby Knight is a legend,” Gladness said in a telephone interview from the Carl Albert basketball offices.

Of course, that’s what Reed said about Knight three years ago, and look what happened to him.

But Gladness is like no other Indiana recruit, past, present and maybe future. He didn’t play basketball in high school. Actually, he barely attended high school. He left without a diploma, roamed the streets of West Memphis, Ark., perfected his bad attitude and then one day, after playing in a summer league game, had what he now calls “a little accident.”

There was a car. A flash of gunfire. Screams.

A bullet pierced Gladness’ back, just missing his spine and near-certain paralysis. Gladness recovered from the drive-by shooting and later made a vow that would forever change his life.

“After that day, I said I would do everything I could to get to school,” he said.

Gladness is 22 now, but he earned his GED, earned a scholarship offer from tiny Carl Albert, earned recognition as a top-20 juco player, and then earned an invitation from Indiana. Compared with the rest of Gladness’ life, how hard can Knight be?

“I saw (the anonymous letters),” Gladness said. “I ignored them. I just told them Neil Reed didn’t have anything to do with me.”

Then there is Turner, perhaps one of the best juco guards in the country. Even before he officially chose Indiana over Iowa State, Minnesota and Connecticut, Turner felt the pressure to look elsewhere. And this was before the Reed incident, before Knight’s coaching and disciplinary methods were subjected once again to national scrutiny.

Turner had second thoughts. He admits as much. If this could happen to Reed, who spent an entire high school career preparing to play for the school of his dreams, then it could happen to Turner.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Turner said. “He was going to be a senior and he left. But that’s just one person, that I know of, who has left (Indiana) like that.”

In the end, he said he stuck with Indiana because “I know coach Knight’s attitude. He wants to win. That’s what I want to do. Strongly.”

The scary part? Change a word here or there and that’s what Neil Reed said when he signed.

Turner will get a chance to win, as will Haston. A 6-foot-10-inch center from Linden, Tenn., who led Perry County to an undefeated season and the state’s Class A championship, Haston wanted to play at Tennessee or Vanderbilt. But Vanderbilt waited too long and Tennessee, which had been recruiting him all along, wasn’t ready to commit a scholarship.

In a strange little twist, however, then-Tennessee coach Kevin O’Neill called Indiana assistant Dan Dakich and recommended Haston. Haston could face O’Neill’s new Northwestern team next season.

Haston chose Indiana over Purdue, Colorado, Ohio State and Michigan State. His only official campus visit was to Indiana, where he spent time with Hoosiers freshman center Jason Collier. Haston asked about Knight’s legendary temper tantrums.

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“Jason and I, we both come from real small towns,” Haston said. “He said all the stuff you hear is pretty much true about the verbal stuff. But Jason said that after (Knight) gets through with what he’s calling you, you’ve got to get past it and look at why he’s calling you that.”

As for the Reed situation, Haston said it had no effect on his choice of schools.

“They’ve always had controversies around them,” he said. “It’s the way coach Knight handles things. The way (Reed’s departure) was explained to me, it was more a team decision than a coaching decision.”

Whoever made the decision, it was distasteful and ugly. It left a layer of mental scar tissue on Reed and a slimy film on Knight and his program.

Indiana apparently can live with that. So can the most recent recruits, who in their sheer innocence think the Reed incident will fade away. “Especially if we hang up a banner,” Haston said.

But he misses the point. What happens if they don’t? Then who becomes the next Reed?