Knight Wants to Hunt More In Neighbor's Yard

Bob Knight resigned unexpectedly on Monday, turning over the head coaching job at Texas Tech to his son Pat Knight. Sources cited that Knight stepped down because after 42 years of coaching, he "was tired". Texas Tech is in the midst of a difficult season, where an NIT bid might be their only chance.

While Knight will never be remembered for his coaching exploits at Texas Tech, he did a lot to bring stability and respectability to an inconsistent Red Raider program. It gave Knight a chance to start over after Indiana in a place that would be out of the glaring media spotlight he encountered in Indiana.


He came to Texas Tech during a period that saw the coaches in the Big XII improve dramatically. While he found out early on that it is difficult to get top basketball prospects to want to go to Lubbock, Texas, he managed to turn teams that were low on talent into Big XII contenders year in and year out. His teams were ones that you looked at on paper and figured they should be easy wins, and it never really turned out that way.

He will forever be known as one of the top coaches in the history of the college game and certainly the most poloarizing figure to ever grace the hardwood. Bob Knight did it his way and was successful at it. He will be missed in the Big XII, and Texas Tech certainly will not be the same without him.

What lies ahead for Texas Tech is unknown. Pat Knight will take over, and Red Raider fans hope that he is able to do a better job than Sean Sutton, who replaced his father Eddie at Oklahoma State. Texas Tech has a difficult time recruiting, and that was with Bob Knight at the healm. Pat Knight will have a very big challenge in front of him as the program is already short on talent. He is an unproven coach that is getting his first taste of head coaching in a major conference.

This is a period of transition for the Big XII as Oklahoma State has fallen off, Oklahoma is just starting to get back, Kansas State will have major question marks after the season, Texas Tech will surely experience some problems, and many other teams are rebuilding. Kelvin Sampson, Bob Huggins, Billy Gillespie, Eddie Sutton, and Bob Knight have all moved on in the last two years and the conference is still in the rebuilding process. Kansas and Texas remain strong, while Texas A&M should be able to maintain their level under Mark Turgeon. Baylor looks to be a newcomer under Scott Drew and Oklahoma looks to almost be back under Jeff Capel. But after that, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, Iowa State, and Kansas State (after Beasley and Walker go pro) are far from NCAA Tournament programs.

Bob Knight signals the changing of a guard in the Big XII as it now becomes a conference that must rebuild its ranks with top young coaches. That is the direction that Colorado, Iowa State, and Missouri have taken. I believe Oklahoma State and Texas Tech will follow suit in the next few years, because I don't think Sutton and Knight part duex can be successful. Nepotism is rarely a winning strategy.

Bob Knight will be missed, and he leaves Texas Tech with his legacy untarnished. He is one of the great all-time coaches, and possibly the greatest personality. Here's to hoping he doesn't join Eddie Sutton at a bottom dweller in the West Coast Conference.

So This is How it Feels to be the Big Ten

The ACC/Big Ten Challenge is an annual event of the ACC every year showing that they are in fact, much much better than the Big Ten. It has become quite the humorous event for the general public who gets to see the Big Ten severely beaten down, the December karma for Ohio State getting in the football National Championship game for beating Michigan and no one else. The event was created to showcase the top two basketball conferences, which is certainly not the case anymore for the Big Ten, who might not be in the top 5 conferences in the country.

Well someone, somewhere must have wanted to know what it feels like to be the Big Ten when they signed the Big XII up for the Pac-10/Big XII Hardwood Series. It was supposed to be the showcase event of the West, and two games in, it has the potential to get ugly. It could be done before the bulk of games on Sunday. Let’s take a look…

#17 Oregon 80, Kansas State 77 OT
- This was a game that the Big XII needed, with Kansas State playing at home. Unfortunately, Michael Beasley’s 24 points and 12 boards weren’t enough to get it done. They did a good job of erasing a 5 point deficit with 5 minutes left, but couldn’t get the win in regulation and a more mature team in Oregon, pulled away.
Pac-10 1, Big XII 0

#24 USC 66, Oklahoma 55
- This one wasn’t as close as the final score as USC almost lead wire to wire. The Sooners were held to 18 points in the first half, shot 35% from the field for the game, and were without a starter scoring in double figures. They also had no answer for the USC freshman tandem of Davon Jefferson (23 pts, 9 reb) and OJ Mayo (18 pts, 5 reb).
Pac-10 2, Big XII 0

FRIDAY

#6 Washington State (6-0) at Baylor (5-0)
- Baylor continues to improve each season, led this year by their three guards Aaron Bruce (Sr, 10.6 ppg), Curtis Jerrells (Jr, 14.0 ppg), and LaceDarius Dunn (Fr, 12.4 ppg). They already boast an impressive road win over Notre Dame (68-64) but this will be their stiffest test of the season thus far. Washington State is ranked #6 in the country and boast one of the best backcourts in the country with senior guards Derrick Low (15.5 ppg) and Kyle Weaver (12.7 ppg). Baylor is improving, but they’re not that good.
Prediction: Pac-10 3, Big XII 0

Iowa State (2-3) at Oregon State (3-2)
- Iowa State comes in with three straight losses at the hands of Bradley, Minnesota, and Northern Iowa. While none of those teams are complete pushovers, none of the games were closer than a nine point margin. Even the return of sophomore guard Wesley Johnson and his 18 points didn’t help against Northern Iowa. However, in Oregon State, you have an opponent that might actually be worse than the Cyclones. Boasting a loss by two to Alaska Fairbanks, Oregon State should be the wiping boys of the conference. But when you pin two bad teams against each other, you go with the home court advantage.
Prediction: Pac-10 4, Big XII 0

SATURDAY

Washington (4-2) at Oklahoma State (2-3)
- A nice win against LSU is about all the Cowboys have to show for this season. A loss to North Texas and being absolutely throttled by #13 Marquette and losing handily to Illinois are the more pressing issues for this team. A young team rebuilding, freshman James Anderson (19.2 ppg) is expected to carry the load. Washington’s only two losses have come at the hands of #15 Texas A&M and #21 Syracuse. Juniors Jon Brockman (18.8 ppg, 11.3 rpg) and Justin Dentmon (13.8 ppg) should give the Cowboys all they can handle.
Prediction: Pac-10 5, Big XII 0

Missouri (5-2) at California (4-0)
- Missouri’s fast paced, full court pressure has given everyone problems this season. Close losses to #11 Michigan State and Arkansas are the only blemishes on their schedule. Missouri uses a 9 man rotation and looks to pressure at every opportunity. California’s nucleus of four players which accounts for 81% of their scoring and 75% of their rebounding will be challenged to stay fresh and stay out of foul trouble.
Prediction: Pac-10 5, Big XII 1

SUNDAY

#4 Kansas (6-0) at #24 USC (6-1)
- USC will get their second shot at a Big XII opponent, but this time against the class of the Big XII. Kansas is deep and talented, boasting five players scoring in double figures. Brandon Rush against OJ Mayo should be an exciting matchup, but Kansas will have too much firepower for the young USC squad.
Prediction: Pac-10 5, Big XII 2

Arizona State (4-1) at Nebraska (4-1)
- Senior center Aleks Maric (16.6 ppg, 9.2 rpg) is one of the best players in the Big XII, but is about all that Nebraska has in terms of firepower. He will cause problems all day for Arizona State, but will it be enough compared to the problems that Arizona State’s freshman backcourt of James Harden (17.6 ppg, 5.6 rpg) and Ty Abbott (11.6 ppg) will cause for the Huskers.
Prediction: Pac-10 6, Big XII 2

Stanford (7-1) at Colorado (5-2)
- Led by seniors Richard Roby (14.6 ppg/5.6 rpg) and Marcus Hall (13.6 ppg) Colorado is trying to rebound from a disastrous 2006 campaign. They might be a little better than last year, but not by much. With no one over 6-6 logging over 11 minutes per game, Colorado is going to have serious problems with 7’0” Robin Lopez (12.4 ppg/ 6.6 rpg).
Prediction: Pac-10 7, Big XII 2

#9 Texas A&M (7-0) at Arizona (4-2)
- Texas A&M is a power team that can shoot from the outside. Senior forward Joseph Jones (11.3 ppg/ 4.7 rpg) and 7’0” freshman center DeAndre Jordan (9.1 ppg/ 7.1 rpg) open things up for the perimeter shooters. Arizona boasts two NBA talents in freshman Jarryd Bayless (18.8 ppg/ 4.7 apg) and sophomore Chase Buddinger (18.3 ppg/ 5.0 rpg), but they don’t have the size inside to deal with the A&M power game.
Prediction: Pac-10 7, Big XII 3

#8 Texas (6-0) at #1 UCLA (7-0)
- The match up between DJ Augustin and Darren Collison will be the one to watch, but Texas’ quickness shouldn’t overwhelm UCLA, and Texas will struggle with the inside skill players of UCLA. Oh, and they’ll have absolutely no answer for freshman sensation Kevin Love (18.1 ppg/10.6 rpg).
Prediction: Pac-10 8, Big XII 3

The Big XII Hates a Conspiracy

In Monday's press conference with the media, Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach stood by his innane babbling about the referees disallowing two third quarter touchdowns, because of the Austin lake front property owned by one of the members of the officiating crew. Which, frankly, who can blame him, I hate those people with lake front property.

While he felt like much of his comments were taken out of context, he thought the overall message was in fact, correct. Mainly, the officiating disallowing Texas Tech touchdowns. On Monday, Leach wanted to address the comments that he made, emphasizing that he wasn't talking about officiating.

While Leach didn't go as far as to say he wished there wasn't replay, he did say, "How we do instant replay maybe ought to be looked at, maybe other systems looked at." Obviously Leach is in favor of that new version of replay, the one that doesn't get the calls right, but instead favors the team with the Coach that is a bigger alcoholic.

Leach didn't comment much more on Monday, saying that, "I'd almost need an attorney to figure out whether I'm supposed to answer that or not." It was a good decision, because Leach's law degree from Pepperdine obviously doesn't cut it these days. While the situation has been embarrasing for Leach, it is being used by the Tech players as a rallying cry. Tech linebacker Brian Duncan was particularly touched, saying, ""If we got a coach like that, that's somebody we can go to war for. It feels real good." Duncan qualified his statements that Tech's defense would be going to war next week, and planned to hold Oklahoma under 50 points.

Whether it was a tactic to rally the troops and prevent Brian Duncan from realizing that the real problem is he, and his 10 closet friends can't tackle, or whether Leach truly believes that the referees getting two calls correct was the reason he lost, the Big XII today declared that they don't like conspiracy theorists.

To prevent further conspiracy theorists from following suit, the Big XII handed down their largest fine ever in the history of the league, $10,000. The Big XII said $5,000 was for the commentary on officiating, while $5,000 was for being the stupidest arguement they had ever heard.

While Leach wouldn't comment on whether other conference coaches had contacted him since the game, we're pretty sure that Mark Mangino and Jeff Tedford picked up the phone to empathize about how they too, have been wronged by the Burnt Orange.


Leach's Monday Presser
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3107114

Leach's Big XII Fine
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3108196