Lubbock, Texas — Texas Tech is ready for the Bob Knight era to begin. So, it appears, is Knight.
A day after Texas Tech coach James Dickey was fired, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, quoting a source close to Knight, said the deposed Indiana coach's feelings toward the Texas Tech job were "an absolute certainty."
"This particular situation he finds really exciting," the source told the paper.
The Post-Dispatch report came from a session with Knight at the St. Louis Cardinals' training camp in Jupiter, Fla. that also included manager Tony LaRussa and two reporters, one of them Rick Hummel, longtime Cardinals beat reporter for the newspaper. Knight and LaRussa are close friends.
Knight, who first said he wanted to talk only about baseball, told Hummel: "I'd really like to get back into coaching. I haven't made any bones about that. I just want to see what I'm best for and who's best for me."
Knight, 60, won three national championships and 11 Big Ten titles in 29 years at Indiana as well as Olympic and Pan-American titles for the United States. But his tenure was marred by emotional outbursts and physical attacks. He was fired last Sept. 10 for what it called "a pattern of unacceptable behavior."
Texas Tech officials have said they have not offered the job to anyone, and can't because of state law that mandates the position remain open 10 working days.
However, Texas Tech athletics director Gerald Myers, a longtime friend of Knight's, said Friday that he and president David Schmidly met with Knight on Monday in Florida before Dickey was fired.
Knight, however, told Hummel: "I only go by what I see and hear."
Mike Weiss, a Texas Tech University System regent, said, "We certainly want a winning program out here. (Knight) would increase the probability that we'd be able to do that."
Asked if he would endorse hiring Knight, Weiss replied: "I have to give you a clear yes."
There was no question that Knight would be welcomed in Lubbock, a Texas prairie town far from the nation's media centers.
"The desire to go and see somebody who has won a national championship is there," law student Derrick Winfrey said Saturday. "We want that at Texas Tech. We've been lame ducks for too long. It's going to wake people up."
Knight's behavior at Indiana seemed moot.
"He got into a situation where people went after him. I'm not a conspiracy theorist but that was all waiting to happen. If somebody wants to get you enough, they are going to get you," said James Gilliland, 36, a season ticket holder for Texas Tech's men's and women's basketball teams.
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal spoke favorably of the possible hiring in an editorial.
"We confess to having initial reservations about Mr. Knight ourselves. However, further consideration of the circumstances leads us to conclude that Mr. Knight may be what Tech needs," the paper wrote.
The news had some doing high-fives, including Tech student Joseph Collins, 21, and four friends who drinking toasts to Knight's possible arrival at a sports bar on Buddy Holly Avenue Lubbock was the hometown of the rock star who died in a 1959 plane crash.
"He's the right man with the fire and the passion to do the things that Tech needs," Collins said. "He will bring Texas Tech students, people from all over Lubbock just to see what he can do with this team."
Knight's ability to draw fans also adds to his appeal.
Junior forward Jesus Arenas said that while the team would miss Dickey, he expected most players would play for Knight. "I think it'd be a great opportunity," Arenas said.
Dickey went 9-19 this year, including 3-13 in the Big 12 his worst record during his four-year tenure at Tech.
Under Dickey, the Red Raiders could not fill the 15,050-seat United Spirit Arena, which opened in November 1999. Attendance at some games this year was around 4,000, although the official average attendance was in excess of 9,700.
The men's team was frequently outdrawn by the 11th-ranked women's team, which lost in the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament but is expected to be a high seed when the NCAA field is announced today.
"We didn't build a $68 million facility and we didn't join the Big 12 to finish at the bottom," Schmidly said.
Knight already has one win and a sellout in Lubbock; he was the opposing coach the night the Red Raiders opened the United Spirit Arena in November 1999. Also, Knight already wears red sweaters the Red Raiders' dominant color and the $68 million arena is on Indiana Ave.
"It's like the stars are in alignment," Gilliland said.
"I remember him strolling out of the locker room and he was wearing that red and white sweater. He looked like a Red Raider fan."
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