Today marks the dawn of a dark day for college basketball. So dark that the shine off Dick Vitale’s head can’t brighten the sport’s most unsavory development.

Bobby Knight is en route to becoming the game’s all-time winningest coach.

Excuse me if I hold my nose – and applause.

Knight likely will get a victory today over Bucknell to tie Dean Smith and another over UNLV on Thursday to break the retired Smith’s record of 879 victories.

If his Texas Tech Red Raiders don’t beat those teams, every player better wear a helmet to practice. Students should give the big belly in the red sweater a wide berth. It’s Bad Santa, kids.

Our sports year thus ends with a historic salute to Knight, as if we needed another notorious dolt to fill in for Barry Bonds until Bonds returns to chase the home-run holy grail. Knight will just get there first in the bad-guy derby.

This is truly an incredible achievement for Knight, the last of the coaching cavemen. Especially when you consider the players, administrators, refs, secretaries, sports writers and Puerto Rican policemen he had to bully his way past to reach the record, not to mention the unsuspecting chairs and potted plants harmed in the making of this sorry story.

Knight has had to step over career cow-pies at every turn, and that takes determination, dedication and intimidation. He couldn’t overcome the messes he created by himself, either. He needed more apologists and enablers than you find at a Kennedy reunion.

Smith had it easy by comparison, paving his way to all those wins with common decency and class. John Wooden? Please. Always staying in the straight-and-narrow lane, The Wizard never needed to prove he could rise above his own distractions like Knight.

Knight persevered through all his boorishness, and college basketball is getting what it deserves: an ogre on the bridge. Always nice to have your game represented by a serial moron.

As long as Knight won at Indiana, folks turned their heads to his abusive behavior and temper so quickly there were reported cases of whiplash. That is, until Bobby wasn’t winning as much. Then the last kid he manhandled suddenly triggered a conscience, a decade late at least.

Texas Tech gave him a job out of desperation five years ago. Not surprisingly, Knight has revived the dead-end program, and without a single incident. Unless you count Knight’s shouting match with the chancellor at a grocery store and his tapping the jaw of Tech forward Michael Prince recently. That stuff?

The chancellor is no longer around. The Tech athletic director declared that Knight “did nothing wrong” in inspiring Prince.

Bobby still has it, doesn’t he? He’s bullet-proof again. At 65, he controls his players, but still can’t control himself. He’s heading for a Woody Hayes ending, so naturally Texas Tech gave him a contract extension through 2011-12.

Knight says he doesn’t care about records or talking about his legacy. He’s smart, because questions about his carry-on baggage aren’t far behind. And so it was on a conference call that Knight was asked if he’d be remembered more for his antics than revered for his national titles and coaching acumen. He deflected it with his usual arrogance.

“What you might think doesn’t bother me in the slightest,” he said. “How’s that for an answer?”

Perfect. He then hung up.

You can go ahead and root for Bobby Knight. I’m rooting, too.

Go Mike Krzyzewski.