On the same day the Big Ten fined Indiana coach Bob Knight $10,000 for calling referee Ted Valentine a “travesty,” the conference said Valentine had wrongly assessed a technical foul in the incident that provoked Knight’s ire.
As punishment, the conference said it would not assign Valentine to non-conference games involving Big Ten teams during the 1998-99 season.
Valentine hit Knight with three technical fouls and ejected him during the Hoosiers’ loss to Illinois in Bloomington on Feb. 24. The conference affirmed Valentine’s decision to assess the first and third technicals against Knight, who had used abusive language and refused to leave the court when he was ejected.
“Technical foul No. 2, which resulted in Knight’s ejection from the game, was clearly erroneous and should not have been assessed, because Knight went on to the floor to attend to an injured player (IU’s Luke Recker), and in our view there was no basis for assessing the technical foul,” the conference said in its report.
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“He must have a minimum basis in fact before assessing a technical foul,” said Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany.
The Big Ten’s refusal to assign non-conference games to Valentine does not equal a suspension. Big Ten referees are independent contractors, so Valentine is free to work games in other conferences. Valentine is a 23-year veteran who began officiating Big Ten games in 1986.