Good Knight and Good Luck

Robert Montgomery Knight, better known as The General, has announced his abrupt retirement from Texas Tech today. Effective immediately, he's resigning his post as men's basketball coach and handing the reigns over to his son, below average point guard Pat Knight. Love him or hate him, it's the end of an era.

There are four things you can say about Coach Knight: he won basketball games (900+ wins), he made the most of the players he had (3 NCAA championships, an NIT championship, an Olympic gold medal, and he even took Texas Tech to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen in 2004-05), he hated dealing with the media, and he ran the cleanest programs in NCAA Division I athletics, bar none. He was also a hell of a coach, as evidenced by him winning the very first Naismith Men's College Coach of the Year Award in 1987.

At every stop along the way, Bobby Knight made chicken salad out of chicken shit. If his players didn't hustle, he tore them up. If they didn't crack their books, he tore them up. If they were boys when they stepped foot on Bob Knight's basketball cour, he turned them into men by any means necessary, and those that could weather the brunt of Knight turned out better for it. They might have hated him between the ages of 18 and 22, but afterwards they usually grew to respect, even love, their coach, and it was obvious that he cared for each and every one of them. He did things his way, and if you don't like it, I have no doubt the man would tell you to your face to kiss his ass.

The last of his kind, Coach Knight will definitely be missed. After all, college basketball has always needed a villain, and Bob Knight has had absoultely no problems being the object of hate and controversy. College basketball is a poorer place without him.

Here's a great quote about the man from his Wikipedia entry: When the three-point line was instituted in 1986-87, Knight indicated "There are only three players in the Big Ten who can hit it, and I have two of them." (This may have been part of Knight's well-known "mind-games" on opposing teams and players. He is later reported to have chortled that for the rest of the season every guard in the Big Ten tried to prove he was the third, resulting in a much higher missed shot percentage for those teams.)

Enjoy your fishing and hunting trips, Coach. You've earned more than your fair share of relaxation in retirement.

Posted 02/04/08 by Ron | Filed under: NCAA Basketball

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Comments

I really wanted to see him succeed at Texas Tech, just to stick it to those snooty rat bastards at I-Who that railroaded him out of town.

I think he'll be back. Check that, I HOPE he comes back as he's the last of a dying breed.

Posted by Len at 02/06/08 08:26:53

Oh yeah, forgot to mention he coached the last unbeaten team in Enn See Two A history. (And man, do I pity those folk in the ACC markets who have to watch T-Tech/Baylor tonight. Although Baylor's done a splendid job rebounding from the tomfoolery from a few years back with that mo-mo Bliss and the like, I like stories like this one.)

And Dickie V returns to us tonight! It's awesome with a capital...you get the point. :)

Posted by Len at 02/06/08 08:34:07

What bothers me is that he's making it clear that this was a resignation, not a retirement; in other words, he fully plans on coaching somewhere else at some point. If that's the case, why not stick out the rest of the season? Also, what kind of message does that give to his now ex-team--"Sorry, just don't want to deal with you losers anymore, my son can handle the likes of you."?

I've never thought much of Bob Knight as a coach or a person, with the exception of his stand on education. I'm even less impressed with his actions now. I hope he never has the chance to coach again.

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