Bob Knight has lost his star player, and perhaps the rest of his team. He has lost his relationship with Texas Tech's administration to a salad bar, and he has lost his strength coach to a scandal. He has lost his ability to recruit high school kids, something he lost years ago.
It all makes you wonder if he has lost the most important thing of all.
Has Bob Knight lost interest?
Knight looks beaten these days, and Knight never looks beaten. He looks angry or agitated, condescending or cantankerous, even pleased on occasion. But never beaten. Until now.
Knight is 63 and presiding over a program treading water in the Big 12. In three years, by his own admission, he has never gotten through to star forward Andre Emmett -- the best player he has coached, at Texas Tech or Indiana, since Calbert Cheaney in 1993 and maybe even since Steve Alford in 1987.
Now Knight seems to have lost his grasp on the rest of the team.
Before Knight's needless and embarrassing spat with chancellor David Smith on Feb. 2, the Red Raiders had been blown out just once in their previous 44 games, on Nov. 28 by Georgia Tech. In the seven games since the incident, after which Smith tried unsuccessfully to suspend Knight, Texas Tech has been blown out four times -- and by an increasingly unimpressive string of opponents: Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska.
The Nebraska game was a low moment in Knight's 37-year career, a 72-44 loss at Lincoln. It was Texas Tech's lowest scoring total in 14 seasons, when Knight's buddy -- athletic director Gerald Myers -- was going 5-22 in 1990.
Knight didn't come to Texas Tech for this. Last season's team went 6-10 in league play, a .375 conference winning percentage that was the lowest of his career. This season's team won't repeat that ignominy, but Texas Tech (19-8, 7-6) has slipped in one month from the No. 13 ranking to the NCAA Tournament bubble, with Saturday's visit to No. 10 Texas not likely to help.
Along with the losing, Knight has faced questions about strength coach Aaron Shelley's alleged misuse of school funds. Understandably, his press conferences have grown short, and his tone has evolved from anger to frustration to something bordering on indifference. Blown out again? Knight rubs his face with a hand and has no answer.
Knight's reaction to Emmett's assault on the Big 12 scoring mark was pure indifference. Emmett became the Big 12 career leader in a Feb. 21 home victory against Texas A&M, but the record wasn't announced when it happened. Play continued.
Knight didn't make Emmett available to reporters after the game, but filled the void by reminding reporters that Emmett was one-dimensional.
Congratulations.
If Emmett wins Big 12 player of the year, he will do so without the support of Knight, who has publicly endorsed Oklahoma State's John Lucas III.
Next season's team will be considerably less talented, with the loss of Emmett, center Robert Tomaszek and wing Michael Marshall not offset by a recruiting class ranked No. 100 nationally by the Hoop Scoop. For the first time since he arrived at Texas Tech before the 2001-02 season, Knight is bringing in a recruiting class without a junior college transfer -- or four -- and the result is horrendous.
An ogre for so long, Knight is in the unfathomable position of being one of the greatest coaches of all time -- with a clean program and players who graduate -- yet being unable to recruit top high school talent.
Knight is getting older, not better, and he is beginning to sound like a man whose spirit has been broken. It's an appealing sight -- not for cruel reasons, but because a man who has been humbled is a man who has humility. Humility can lead to remorse, which can lead to self-improvement. Like all of us, but more publicly than any of us, Knight has shown the need for self-improvement.
Don't give up, Robert Montgomery Knight, unless you have nothing more to offer than a clean basketball program and a foul attitude.
http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/7121119
It all makes you wonder if he has lost the most important thing of all.
Has Bob Knight lost interest?
Knight looks beaten these days, and Knight never looks beaten. He looks angry or agitated, condescending or cantankerous, even pleased on occasion. But never beaten. Until now.
Knight is 63 and presiding over a program treading water in the Big 12. In three years, by his own admission, he has never gotten through to star forward Andre Emmett -- the best player he has coached, at Texas Tech or Indiana, since Calbert Cheaney in 1993 and maybe even since Steve Alford in 1987.
Now Knight seems to have lost his grasp on the rest of the team.
Before Knight's needless and embarrassing spat with chancellor David Smith on Feb. 2, the Red Raiders had been blown out just once in their previous 44 games, on Nov. 28 by Georgia Tech. In the seven games since the incident, after which Smith tried unsuccessfully to suspend Knight, Texas Tech has been blown out four times -- and by an increasingly unimpressive string of opponents: Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska.
The Nebraska game was a low moment in Knight's 37-year career, a 72-44 loss at Lincoln. It was Texas Tech's lowest scoring total in 14 seasons, when Knight's buddy -- athletic director Gerald Myers -- was going 5-22 in 1990.
Knight didn't come to Texas Tech for this. Last season's team went 6-10 in league play, a .375 conference winning percentage that was the lowest of his career. This season's team won't repeat that ignominy, but Texas Tech (19-8, 7-6) has slipped in one month from the No. 13 ranking to the NCAA Tournament bubble, with Saturday's visit to No. 10 Texas not likely to help.
Along with the losing, Knight has faced questions about strength coach Aaron Shelley's alleged misuse of school funds. Understandably, his press conferences have grown short, and his tone has evolved from anger to frustration to something bordering on indifference. Blown out again? Knight rubs his face with a hand and has no answer.
Knight's reaction to Emmett's assault on the Big 12 scoring mark was pure indifference. Emmett became the Big 12 career leader in a Feb. 21 home victory against Texas A&M, but the record wasn't announced when it happened. Play continued.
Knight didn't make Emmett available to reporters after the game, but filled the void by reminding reporters that Emmett was one-dimensional.
Congratulations.
If Emmett wins Big 12 player of the year, he will do so without the support of Knight, who has publicly endorsed Oklahoma State's John Lucas III.
Next season's team will be considerably less talented, with the loss of Emmett, center Robert Tomaszek and wing Michael Marshall not offset by a recruiting class ranked No. 100 nationally by the Hoop Scoop. For the first time since he arrived at Texas Tech before the 2001-02 season, Knight is bringing in a recruiting class without a junior college transfer -- or four -- and the result is horrendous.
An ogre for so long, Knight is in the unfathomable position of being one of the greatest coaches of all time -- with a clean program and players who graduate -- yet being unable to recruit top high school talent.
Knight is getting older, not better, and he is beginning to sound like a man whose spirit has been broken. It's an appealing sight -- not for cruel reasons, but because a man who has been humbled is a man who has humility. Humility can lead to remorse, which can lead to self-improvement. Like all of us, but more publicly than any of us, Knight has shown the need for self-improvement.
Don't give up, Robert Montgomery Knight, unless you have nothing more to offer than a clean basketball program and a foul attitude.
http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/7121119
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