thursday, february 5, 2004
sports
the university daily kansas
3B
Texas Tech's Knight shows signs of calming down
The Associated Press
LUBBOCK, Texas — Maybe it's the wide open spaces of West Texas. Or perhaps it's all those years of scrapes at Indiana.
Whatever the case, Bob Knight seems to be handling himself differently these days.
this week, the coach acknowledged he was partially to blame for a verbal spat with Texas Tech's chancellor. Last month, he apologized for an expletive-ridden tirade during a television interview that coincided with the national broadcast of a Red Raiders game.
Knight's temper and outburst still surface. But so far there have been no chairs, punches or even salad thrown in anger — at least publicly — during his three years at Texas Tech.
Art Angotti, who did a radio show with Knight in Indiana for eight years, has noticed a change.
"When his emotions seem to get the best of him in Lubbock, he is very
quick to recognize it and he has apologized," Angotti said Wednesday. "When he was here and it would get away from him, he'd stop going to press conferences. He'd kind of withdraw."
Knight was reprimanded but not suspended Tuesday for his verbal spat with chancelor Dr. David Smith a day earlier at an upscale Lubbock grocery store.
Hours later, Knight guided the No.
19 Red Raiders over Baylor 83-63.
Knight didn't take questions about the episode during his postgame news conference Tuesday night. Still, he talked about it and admitted having been partially at fault.
Knight said Smith followed him to the side of the salad bar and said, "You've got issues. What are they?"
"Right then is where I think I was at fault. I should have shook my head, walked away, done a lot of other things, and I didn't," Knight said. "I went on to tell him what one of those issues was and then it got back and
Knight said he "absolutely did not instigate anything."
forth a little bit."
Smith wasn't available to comment Wednesday. When reached at his home late Tuesday night, he declined to comment.
The reprimand was Knight's first punishment from Tech. He was hired in March 2001, six months after he was fired by Indiana for what thenschool president Myles Brand called his "pattern of unacceptable behavior."
In his 29 years at Indiana, he won three national championships and 11 Big 10 Championship titles. Yet he's also remembered for throwing a chair across a court, punching a police officer in Puerto Rico and kicking a chair his son, then a player, was sitting in. He also was accused of choking a player.
Knight said he would have ridden out a suspension had Tech decided on that discipline. He said he didn't eat or sleep much after the incident.
Texas Tech basketball coach Bobby Knight instructed guard Will Chavis during first half action in the Red Raiders' game against William and Mary at the United Spirit Arena in Lubbock, Texas, on Friday, Nov. 16, 2001.
SPORTS COMMENTARY
Smith at fault as much as Knight for grocery store spat
Chancellor's praise more of an insult in coach's mind
By Dan Wetzel
Yahoo! Sports national columnist
I'm not saying Bob Knight should have gotten into a public argument with David Smith, the chancellor of Texas Tech and Knight's superior.
Getting into a public spat with your boss is risky behavior. Better to grin and bear it and then take it behind closed doors.
But then again, what the heck was David Smith thinking?
Knight was at the salad bar and Smith complimented Knight on doing a good job conducting himself this season. Knight responded that he thought he had conducted himself well for the past three seasons and then went around to the other side of the salad bar.
The details are fuzzy and likely will remain fuzzy. But from what I have been told and can gather, Smith ran into Knight at a local lunch spot.
Smith followed and asked if Knight thought the two men had issues that should be discussed. And it went from there, with both men, who both have eyes and are not close friends to begin with, shouting at each other.
absolutely no common sense.
By Monday night Smith had given Knight an ultimatum: Take a five-day suspension or be fired.
Technically, Smith had the right to do all of this. But in doing so he exhibited some horrendous management skills and showed
A restaurant is no place to provide a performance evaluation or to discuss issues between a boss and an employee.
How would you like to be having lunch (with others around) and have your boss come by and basically say, "Hey, thanks for not screwing up lately"?
Not congratulations on having a top 15 team, a roster full of good kids and a sold-out arena.
I'd be angry, too.
And I'm not Bob Knight.
The fact that Smith thought this was a good approach to take with The General bolsters my long-held belief that the dumbest person on most college campuses is the chancellor. Sure, he has a bunch of doctorates, but basically he gets to the top by kissing up to the right people.
Who in their right mind provokes Bob Knight?
Any good boss knows the personalities, strengths and weaknesses of his employees. Some people need kid gloves. Others need strenuous motivating. Some should just be left alone.
It's no different on a college campus. Whether it is the brilliant yet self-conscious scientist or the volatile-yet-talented Hall of Fame basketball coach. You don't push the scientist to attend a lot of alumni functions and speak at graduation. You let him hide in his laboratory and try to win the school a Nobel Prize. That is his job. Let him do it.
With Knight, you just let him coach basketball.
I was in Lubbock just over a week ago for a game against the
University of Texas. The United Spirit Arena had a record crowd of 15,250, national television was in the house and the school was receiving immense publicity that can't be bought.
Knight has put together a top team, a real Final Four contender come March. He has energized the alumni and student body. His players seem like terrific representatives of the school, a bunch of likable, tough-minded kids. Knight has raised millions of dollars not just for the athletic department coffers but also the school library. Just this week Knight got Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to come to West Texas and speak to the law school.
He is a big deal in little Lubbock.
He is doing everything he was hired to do.
A chancellor that goods him - or
is too naive to realize he is goading him - is not a good chancellor. A boss that can't determine the appropriate place for this discussion is just as at fault as the employee who doesn't take it the right way, perhaps even more at fault because of his superior position.
Should Knight have smiled politely, taken the comment and arranged a meeting later where he calmly could have discussed his feelings on being approached that way?
Of course.
But anyone who knows anything about Bob Knight knows that isn't how he operates.
So why didn't his boss know that as well?
Dan Wetzel is Yahool Sports' national columnist; column courtesy of Yahool Sports