There's a new hardwood sheriff in town and he wears a Raider red vest. The double T's on his chest attest to the trust of his new townspeople. He wears a big hat, flashes twin guns and if you cross him, his posse will cut you down with epithets that will turn your hair whiter than his own. It's Bobby Knight and Texas Tech against the world, and their guns are up and ready.

One of the first things Knight did at his recent Lubbock housewarming was recruit the guys in fatigues who bugged the heck out of him when last he graced the high plains with his presence. That was back in '99 when Knight helped his old buddy Gerald Myers and the Red Raiders inaugurate their new $68 million United Spirit Arena with a visit by his former Indiana team.

Knight promised then that he'd be back at the turn of the century. He kept that promise, and now he is circling his wagons in the Llano Estacado, protected by a posse that will verbally gun down anyone making a false move toward their man.

Knight needs this windblown Big 12 Texas Tech opportunity as much as the town of Lubbock -- make that all of the high plains -- needs him. The Texas panhandle and its people are ready for an infusion of respectability and recognition, and, unbelievably, Knight is just the man to give it to them.

Since its last visit to the NCAA "Sweet 16" five years ago, the Red Raider men's basketball program has been retreating in the face of NCAA sanctions that have cost it nine scholarships over the last four years. That has torn the flesh from this homegrown program and left its carcass out in the hot sun for the buzzards to pick clean.

But there are a few things that Knight does well, and nobody can take those things away from him. One, he can run a clean NCAA program. Two, he graduates his players. And three, he can raise the visibility of a program higher than a blue Texas sky, bringing in bales of money for the likes of libraries, grants and faculty chairs. Now that's the kind of talk farmers understand.

"I'm not right all the time, but when it comes to this game, I'm right most of the time," Knight told the howling crowd of 7,500-plus in his new barn out back last week. The crowd roared when he finished with, "If they'll pay attention to it, then I think we can put a basketball team out there that you'll enjoy watching as much as the women Red Raiders."

Tech women's basketball coach Marsha Sharpe has raised attendance of the Lady Raiders' roundball gigs to the top of the Big 12, and they rank second only to Tennessee's perennial championship program, drawing an average 12,800-plus per game. In Lubbock, Sharpe is considered a roundball goddess and is having a freeway named after her.

It was a deft move on Knight's part to embrace the head Lady Raider as one of his own. He donned the Raider red and waxed eloquently of his respect for Sharpe and that other former basketball coach very close to his heart -- his wife Karen. Knight then insinuated that if he had anything to do with it, Texas Tech soon would have two Sweet 16 teams to follow at the end of some upcoming magical season. The hungry crowd boomed its approval.

Ever since the Knight whispers began in Lubbock, Tech basketball season ticket sales have jumped dramatically, and at his insistence last week they surged even further. Red and black "General's Army" camouflage gear has flown off the racks, and this dusty West Texas town is suddenly mobilizing to sign up and back the "General."

In what some might see as a pact forged in hell, Knight appears intent on giving some payback to his friend of over 30 years (Myers), hoping to rejuvenate a sinking program that his friend has dedicated a lifetime to. In return, Myers is thanking Knight for taking him under his wing when he was a fledgling Div. I coach all those years ago.

Knight almost took this same Red Raider job back in '69. Two years later, Myers took the Lubbock job and Knight gave Myers the time of day when no other big-time NCAA coach would. He invited Myers to visit the Indiana campus, put him up at his home and spent hours watching film with him discussing zone defenses, motion offenses and a lot of things that resulted in Myers winning 326 games in his 21-year career as head basketball coach at Texas Tech.

A powerful friendship was forged then, and now Texas Tech, the Big 12 and the entire state of Texas might be about to reap the benefits of whatever these two old friends might accomplish together.

These are simple people in Lubbock Texas. They know how to forgive and forget. "I have tremendous respect for him," said Myers of Knight. "He's one of the best coaches who has ever coached the game of basketball."

If any one thing clinched this whole deal, it was when Knight told Tech officials he was not proud of all that had gone on before. With that one simple admission, Myers and school president David Schmidly both got the same gut feeling that this was the right thing to do, and they had to do it now. They moved to give Knight his second chance, to go for broke, and make a bold move to put the Red Raiders back on the national basketball map.

Myers and Texas Tech officials are betting that Knight's passion for academic excellence and ability to field a winning program will, in the end, outweigh any bad publicity that might come back to haunt them.

It has been 31 years since this lazy West Texas cowtown has been blinded by such media glare. Back then, it was a killer tornado blowing through the center of town, leaving a miles long, half-mile wide path of death and destruction in its wake. Well, there's a new Texas twister blowing through Lubbock, only this one plans on staying a while. Hold on to your hats, pardners! We could be in for high winds and hail!