HE EXCLUSIVE: A Witnessed Sit-Down of IU’s Bobby Knight and Georgetown’s John Thompson Adds a Wild Layer of First-Hand NCAA Basketball History

Bobby Knight throwing the chair.

HE finally reached former Indiana attorney Doug Bernacchi residing in Connecticut, again.  But instead of wanting to talk about his 2016-17 legal case when he was running for judge, the past or current Supreme Court of Indiana (SCOIN), or the current state of legal regulation and attorney discipline in the Hoosier state, Bernacchi only wanted to talk about NCAA basketball. Attorney Bernacchi won. He won, because he offered a historic account of real mutual respect between two Basketball Hall of Fame coaching legends.

Specifically, as a 1981 graduate of the Georgetown University, he pivoted away from the power of IU’s law schools to the power forwards at his alma mater’s GU Hoya basketball team, and how he as a fan of the game, was glad he did not matriculate to Bloomington after his high school graduation in Indiana.  “IU basketball, like its law schools, is not good,” he observed.

“When I was a student…” He recalled that Georgetown University defeated Indiana University in the 1978–79 basketball season.  “It was considered a ‘huge upset.’” On December 6, 1978, the Hoyas secured a 60–54 victory over the Hoosiers at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland.  Doug was a sophomore at GU in the nation’s capital and a senatorial intern for Hon. Richard G. Lugar.

The Hoya’s win was significant as it marked Georgetown's first-ever victory over Indiana, or any Big Ten team, in men's basketball. Eric "Sleepy" Floyd (later an NBA Allstar) led the Hoyas with 21 points, showcasing his scoring prowess. The game was competitive, with both teams exchanging leads throughout. Georgetown's “Hoya Paranoia” defense played a crucial role, limiting Indiana's scoring opportunities and maintaining a narrow lead in the final minutes. This victory was a notable achievement for Georgetown, contributing to their strong 25–4 record that season.

Here's the point, Bernacchi was a fan of IU coach Bob Knight. Bobby Knight was known for his innovative coaching methods, including the development of the motion offense, which emphasized disciplined passing and cutting to create open shots. John Thompson, who became Georgetown's head coach in 1972, was instrumental in transforming the program into a national powerhouse, leading the Hoyas to multiple NCAA tournament appearances and a national championship in 1984. Sports fans from that era will recall the other final game loss by Thompson’s team with center Patrick Ewing to University of North Carolina with freshman legend Michael Jordan and later to a Villanova team coached by Rollie Massimino.

He pointed out that while Bobby Knight is best remembered for when he threw a chair during a game between Indiana and Purdue on February 23, 1985, what Bernacchi remembers Knight for is something else far more positive and far more impressive.

“Knight is an unsung American hero and a civil right leader to me,” Bernacchi said. He wanted HE to document first-hand basketball history--this exclusive story by the Hoosier Enquirer, Indiana’s best media company. Doug Bernacchi in 1978 had a front row seat to witness college basketball history never before reported nationally.

He watched outside of on open window on 36th St NW outside of the room knows as the Hall of Nations at the GU School of Foreign service, where with a rolling chalkboard, IU Coach Bobby Knight generously was sharing coaching and game strategies with John Thompson on Friday night in late September 1978—then it was richly ironic that just months later, Thompson’s Georgetown Hoyas beat Knight’s Indiana Hoosiers, 60–54 in December 1978.  

“My takeaway as I listen in amazement to Coach Knight’s seminar being put on to an audience of one, Thompson, and me an earshot away outside an open window on a hot night and learning bball myself from the master.  It was ‘ambitiously kind’ of Knight to help Thompson in such a genuine and sincere manner, and I would rather tell you about that then discuss my unjust, rigged downfall,” Bernacchi said.  He did confirm that he will participate in the HE podcast on Sunday, April 27, to discuss his bar suspension case in Indiana; you will want to tune in.

The kind of moment Bernacchi witness in 1978 carries a lot of weight in sports storytelling:

• Bob Knight, at that time, already a legendary coach with a national title under his belt (1976), would have been the mentor figure, possibly seeing promise in Thompson and trying to help him develop further and showing nothing but compassion for one of the nation’s prominent African American college basketball coaches.

• John Thompson, still building Georgetown into a national force, according to Bernacchi was given inside knowledge... and later that year, he used it to outmaneuver the master in their very next meeting between GU and IU.

“It’s the kind of poetic twist sports fans love.”  Not that Thompson would have copied Knight's playbook—he was a brilliant strategist in his own right—but the idea that Knight might have unknowingly contributed to his own team’s defeat?  That’s the stuff of legend.

The all-IU justices of the Supreme Court of Indiana were not so kind to Bernacchi, a GU student, turned Indiana lawyer in 1990 only to be “put out of Business” by the SCOIN wrongly when he ran for judge in 2016.

This former lawyer is truly brilliant, shared sports history with HE, veering away from the interviewers question with news, and so,  HE promises soon to cover the details of Bernacchi’s Indiana DI case, full of irregularities, with or without his help, since his case more than any other case found raises the most serious question of fairness, equal justice under law, and election interference by the an unchecked commission of the supreme court, requiring an historic investigation.