As bad of a dude Knight was, he was definitely a "clean" coach. It was a different era, wouldn't have gotten away with it today... and if you look at his last decade or so, he really fell off even at Indiana. I don't think Indiana players were getting paid and they were definitely going to class, staying on track to graduate and stuff.
Philosophically though, I think when you're a horrible piece of human garbage, that's way worse than someone who treats players and other people with respect and throws a few bucks here or there to help players and their families with their living expenses. The Knight zealots always acted like all the bad stuff was fine because he wasn't "cheating", not something I ever agreed with.
Coach K played the game for sure. Zion was getting crazy offers thrown out. He didn't go to Duke because he loved the College of Arts and Sciences