I’m not saying Coach K is a bad guy. He’s obviously a terrific coach as well as a great recruiter. And he does lots of good things for his employer and for charities. But he’s hardly a saint. None of us are.

And Knight is hardly Satan, even if there have been plenty of times you could have handed him a pitchfork and passed him off as the Prince of Darkness. As I’ve already said, he earned his pink slip at Indiana, and he’s done some very dumb and offensive things in Lubbock. But he, too, has done a lot of good in his life, including seeing to it that his players graduate and turning out teams that treat the game and their opponents with respect.

Monday night, he had a kid of whom he expects great things. He knows the kid gets down on himself and doesn’t want to allow that to happen. He wanted Prince to get his head up, to look his coach in the eye, to do his job without fear of failure.

The chuck under the chin was quick and sudden, but hardly the “slap” it’s been described as. It was nothing other than a way to get Prince’s attention. It worked.

We’ve got such problems in this country with physical contact that we’ve all but legislated it away. Teachers can’t hug kids, not even kindergartners, who often need hugs even more than sports columnists do. If Knight had done what he did in a high school classroom, he’d probably be up on charges and even facing suspension.

That’s because rare instances of abuse have inspired enough lawsuits to make officials loathe to allow any physical contact. Better to be isolated than sorry.

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Knight’s a hands-on guy, sometimes to a fault, as when his mitts have found themselves on a player’s neck or throwing a chair or grabbing a student on campus for the crime of saying hello. But that doesn’t mean every time he touches a player, he’s wrong.

This is one of those times when he did nothing worth remarking on. If Krzyzewski had done the same thing, no one would have noticed. It shouldn’t be any different for Knight.

He’s got a kid he wants to make better. He lifted the kid’s chin to get his attention. For just this once, give the guy a break.