Bobby Knight came to Lubbock Texas armed with 29 years of experience, 3 national championships and 764 victories under his belt. What he needed most were hundreds of Texas Tech fans in camo gear to keep the press at bay while his young, raw Red Raiders grew into the champions he expects them to be, eventually.

The eyes of Texas college basketball are all on Lubbock Texas these days. No comeback in recent memory has been half as scrutinized as Bobby Knight’s re-birth at Texas Tech. But with the immediate credibility of his hiring also came the unprecedented attention that could eventually begin to take its toll on coach and players alike.

“There’s a very positive apprehension about how we’re going to do”, said Knight early on this season. “But then in the back of your mind you’re saying, ‘I wonder if we’ll beat anybody.’ That to me is what coaching is all about.”

One of Knight’s first moves as the new Tech roundball “General” was to dismiss three players from the Tech men’s team for being late for a meeting. Tardiness has not been a problem since then.

Knight is known as the “General” because his team runs like an army and he is its lone leader. Even with a few heads lopped off along the way, Knight gets his teams to win and nobody on the Llano Estacado has complained about that thus far.

Bobby Knight donned his new Tech signature black sweater (with red underneath) for the first time in early November, roaming the sidelines for the first victory of his new career in an exhibition game at Tech’s sparkling roundball palace of the high plains, the United Spirit Arena.

His Red Raiders came back from a 12-point deficit to win that first effort with a typical Knight team on the floor. It was a team effort with everybody chipping in, doing what they did best.

“We made some plays that weren’t real smart. We’ve got to learn to make good plays.” Knight said then, in spite of the win. “We’ve got to learn to be smart when we play.”

Tech cruised to an early 5-1 record to begin the season despite a supposed lack of top-flight talent, but the team played impressively with the “General” at the helm. Bob Knight kept telling anyone that asked, that the talent on his team wasn’t as bad as people thought.

The General savored almost two weeks between victories at TCU and Houston to work on the team’s mistakes. With his team scoring at an 80-ppg clip at this point some observers began admitting that Knight might be right.

“Offensive may be the best facet of our game,” the General said then. “But sometimes I sit and watch our practices and wonder if we could beat anyone.”

Going into that key early season match-up at Houston, the Red Raiders were getting big-time contributions from the Tech triplets Andy Ellis, Andre Emmett and Kasib Powell.

The long break also came at a good time for Pawell Storozynski.  Returning to the team after working off a seven game suspension Pawell responded nicely scoring 27 points in his first two starts, posting 14 points and 9 boards in his second game.

But the Houston outing also afforded the Knight stalkers a near opportunity to pounce as the Compaq facility manager chose to confront Knight after the game about the coach’s less than savory comments about the locker room arrangements.

A press pleasing broo-ha-ha was avoided when Compaq Center officials forced the manager to apologize to Knight and Tech. Thus, it may never be known whether Bobby really asked him to “take it out back” to settle the dispute. The Knight stalkers were again relegated back to the shadows, thinking surely this Knight fellow was just a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.

On New Year’s Day Bobby Knight’s Red Raiders sat at 11-1 with key wins over the Minnesota and Wyoming teams. By all appearances the general had his troops towing the company line and Knight himself was being his newborn, relaxed, shoelace tying, post-game treat serving self. What a sweet guy he’d turned out to be!

The new age Red Raiders sent out a fresh message, that falling behind didn’t faze them. They put together three comeback wins on the road early in the season and then overcame a first-half 12-point deficit against Minnesota to win by 20.

Texas Tech and Bobby Knight started the year on the brink of breaking into the Men’s top-25, receiving the most points amongst unranked teams in the Associated Press. They were poised to tackle some first rate Big 12 competition and Bobby Knight had his troops in attack mode.

After rolling over K-State in their Big-12 opener and pulling out a squeaker in an emotionally charged 2-point win against their arch-rival Texas A&M, Knight had his team standing firm at 13-1 overall, 2-0 in conference play and on a 10-game winning streak. People were really starting to believe now!

But running up against a tough 3-point overtime loss to Texas and a whipping at the hands of highly ranked Oklahoma seemingly brought everyone in Lubbock back to reality and most observers thought they were finally seeing the Red Raiders’ veneer rubbing off.

But the General’s bunch was just getting warmed up. In a matter of eight days they knocked off two top-10 teams, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma, to grab the 20^th spot in the AP rankings.

From that point on, however, Tech has pretty much been a homer, beating the heck out of anyone stepping foot in the Spirit Arena, but falling flat in three consecutive losses on the road.

Knight has taken advantage of every chance he’s had to practice his team on the fundamentals. He works them to eliminate the mistakes that cost them games early. He knows if he doesn’t, these mistakes will bring about more losses in the future.

Early on Knight worked his troops to give them a better feel for defensive spacing. He also didn’t feel they had all the movement they needed in their offense.

In back-to-back loses to Texas and Oklahoma in mid-January Knight watched his Raiders beat the Big-12 stalwarts in most of the statistical areas needed to win, yet they still lost. What kept coming back to bite them were mental and physical mistakes. It often came down to making one bad pass at a critical moment that lead to a disappointing loss.

His troops love his system so Knight whips them constantly, working on the simple things like their free-throw techniques. He often simulates game pressure situations in practice to see how his young bunch responds.

In teaching his unselfish style of play the “General” doesn’t force players to try to do things that can’t do well. Instead, Knight teaches his players to concentrate on honing their strong points.

Knight knows that today’s college game favors the team that makes the fewest mistakes. He’s teaching his Red Raiders to make fewer mistakes, and when they do, they play well enough to be a top 20 team. Take that Bobby Knight naysayers!!

And believe it or not, Bobby Knight has been very pleasant company for college officials this season. Official Scott Thornley said of the kinder, gentler Bobby Knight, “His teams make very few mistakes. It’s a lot of fun to referee his games. He’s going to coach them and he’s no different than most coaches and will let you know if he thinks you missed a call.” My how things have changed!

Andre Emmett, head of the Texas Tech triplets, ripped the Baylor Bears for 30 points recently and has averaged 22.9 point in his last eight games. His team will need more of the same the rest of the season if they stand a chance of making it to the big NCAA Tournament dance.

Losing three of four has put the Red Raiders back on the proverbial “bubble” and they probably need to win at least three of their last five to have any hopes of getting an NCAA invite without having to go deep into the Big-12 conference tournament.

Knight doesn’t believe in working a set rotation during games. Mostly coaching by the seat of his Raider black pants, the General sends in subs that he thinks will work against a particular offense or defense. His schemes have worked so well this year that some feel Bobby Knight is a viable candidate for Coach-of-the-Year honors. They may be right!

This season has produced nothing less than an amazing coaching job by Bobby Knight.  He has developed what was perceived as marginal talent in his young Red Raiders and gotten them to perform at a high level. A much higher level than most had expected.

This new and improved Bobby Knight has kept the Knight stalkers at bay thus far. His consistent serving up of hot hoops and after game-snacks within nose-shot of the Lubbock stockyards has been a big hit in these here parts. So you’d better watch what you say about him, pardner!

If this camo wearing, dust eating team of hard riding Red Raiders can just get off that NCAA Tourney bubble they might go where no Tech men’s team has gone in many a year. If so, Bobby Knight will then truly become the toast of the Llano Estacado, and continue his march towards his probable destiny of becoming the winningest coach in NCAA history. 

Copyright © 2002 by Steve Schindler. All rights reserved.