INDIANAPOLIS – Pat Knight doesn't like to mince words – and
he's not about to start now.
Knight, one of Bob Knight's two sons, told The Associated Press
on Thursday he believes his father will take the Texas Tech job –
if it's offered – and that he's also ready to move to Lubbock,
Texas.
"You know for him to go down there, it has to be close. He
wouldn't go down there for nothing," Knight said of his father's
three-day visit. "If he's going down there, it's got to be pretty
close in his mind."
What Bob Knight will contemplate during his trip is whether
Texas Tech is the right fit.
There are obvious things: That Texas Tech's 2-year-old arena is
a first-class facility, that the Texas recruiting base is loaded
with talent and that Lubbock would be an ideal location to avoid
distractions.
And not so obvious things such as the petition circulating among
Texas Tech faculty members, which Pat Knight said is of little
concern. At least 58 faculty members signed a petition against
hiring the fired Indiana coach before his visit to the campus on
Thursday.
But the most important factor for Bob Knight may be who's
running the athletics department. That man at Texas Tech is Gerald
Myers, a longtime friend of Knight who served as an assistant on
Knight's 1979 Pan American Games team.
"I think if he likes it, he's going to take it," Pat Knight
said. "I know he likes coach (Gerald) Myers and that he's somebody
he can trust. That factors into it huge, especially after what
happened last year."
What happened was that Indiana University fired Bob Knight on
Sept. 10 after winning a school-record 661 games and three national
championships in 29 years as coach.
President Myles Brand made the move after Knight grabbed the arm
of a freshman student who addressed Knight informally, saying the
behavior violated the university's "zero-tolerance" policy.
Assistant coach Pat Knight also left.
Since then, Pat Knight has said his father should have left when
the university imposed the "zero-tolerance" policy in May. That
followed an investigation which uncovered a videotape showing Bob
Knight putting a hand around a former player's neck during a
practice.
But in the seven months since the firing, few if any of the
bitter feelings have subsided for the younger Knight.
"I've got some bad personal feelings about Mike (Davis), that
he didn't take the job in the right way," he said. "The night
before, he tells my dad he's not going to take the job and he and
(assistant coach John) Treloar were asking him to help them get NBA
jobs. An hour later he takes it. Then, instead of driving 10
minutes to tell him face-to-face, he leaves a message and we
haven't spoken since.
"My feelings about him staying are a lot different, so I
couldn't care less. I don't ever want to be quoted saying that I'm
endorsing (Davis) because it's just too personal with me."
Pat Knight said he and his father have spoken several times
about where their next move may be.
For now, though, Pat Knight remains in Akron, where he served as
an assistant coach for the Zips last season, waiting for his father
to say where he will resume the chase of Dean Smith's all-time
victory record.
He just hopes it comes soon.
"My lease is up at the end of the month, and I just sold my
house in Bloomington, Indiana, and my fiancée is down there packing
everything up," he said. "When I get the phone call, I'll be
ready."
The Knights would not be the first father-son combination to
change locales. When coach Tom Penders left Texas, his son, Tom
Jr., followed him to George Washington. Lou Holtz also took his
son, Skip, with him when he moved to South Carolina two years ago.
Like them, Pat Knight is ready to follow his father, perhaps
even in his father's footsteps – wherever that road leads.
"I always thought Texas Tech was a good situation," he said.
"Even last year, I said that I hoped I would have a shot at that
job four or five years down the road. It's kind of funny that it's
turned out to be one of the places he's considering."
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