By: Mark Sparrow
Updated: February 5, 2008, 11:00 AM CT
Photo by Sue Ogrocki via AP Images
Bob Knight put Texas Tech
basketball back on the map after several rough years.
| What a Difference | ||||
What a difference one man can make. After Texas Tech’s 2000-2001 men’s basketball season, there wasn’t much to be excited about. The Red Raiders finished the season 9-19 under head coach James Dickey, losing 11 of their last 12 games. Not to mention, the game they won was a 1 point victory over a sub .500 Nebraska team in Lubbock. Texas Tech was 3-13 in conference play, good for dead last in the Big 12. Something drastic needed to happen, and athletic director Gerald Meyers knew just the man to call. 14 days after the dismissal of Dickey, 3 time NCAA champion Bob Knight was introduced to a packed crowd at the United Spirit Arena as the new head coach for Texas Tech. Right away, Coach Knight felt at home in West Texas.
During his first year as head coach, Coach Knight took a team that was 9-19 in the previous year, added a few junior college players, and turned them into an NCAA tournament team. They finished the season 23-9 and tied for 3rd in the Big 12. The media normally chooses to focus on the negative aspects of Coach Knight while glazing over the positives, but up close the positives are undeniable. On March 23rd, 2001, the day Bob Knight was officially introduced as the head coach of Texas Tech, he made a few promises to Red Raider fans. He promised that his players would adhere to strict academic standards and that basketball would take a backseat to the classroom. He made good on his word, even when faced with a major challenge before the 2006-07 season. All Big 12 guard Jarrius Jackson, who led the league in scoring with 20.5 points per game, was about to begin his senior campaign when he found out the hard way that Coach Knight was serious when he said that academics come before basketball. Jackson was dismissed from the team for “failure to fulfill academic requirements that we have for our men's basketball team." Jackson met the NCAA requirements to play, but Coach Knight requires more of his players. "If Jackson is able to do what is required of him that we have discussed, when he has satisfactorily done what is required of him, then maybe, at that time, we might discuss the possibility of him returning," Knight said. Jackson hit the books hard and was reinstated before the Red Raiders’ first game of the season against Sam Houston State, where he scored 27 points and led Tech to a victory. High academic standards weren’t the only promise Coach made during his first day on the job. He made an initial pledge to the Texas Tech library for $10,000 and promised there would be more money on the way.
Coach Knight has left his footprint on Texas Tech basketball and has built a great foundation for his son Pat Knight to build off of. With the 3 tremendously talented freshmen he brought in last season, along with the 3 he will bring in next season, the new Coach Knight will have the pieces in place to make some noise in the competitive Big 12 conference. Texas Tech basketball is back on the map, with NCAA tournament appearances becoming the norm in Lubbock, TX. What a difference one man made. |
