Tech trips A&M, gives Knight 900th victory
Victory leaders
Coaches with 700 victories who have spent a minimum of 10 seasons in Division I with last school worked at listed (x-active, records through games of Wednesday):
1. x-Bob Knight, Texas Tech – 900
2. Dean Smith, North Carolina – 879
3. Adolph Rupp, Kentucky – 876
4. Jim Phelan, Mt. St. Mary’s, Md. – 830
5. x-Eddie Sutton, San Francisco – 798
6. x-Mike Krzyzewski, Duke – 789
7. Lefty Driesell, Georgia State – 786
8. x-Lute Olson, Arizona – 780
9. Lou Henson, New Mexico State – 779
10. Henry Iba, Oklahoma State – 764
11. x-Jim Boeheim, Syracuse – 763
12. x-Jim Calhoun, Connecticut – 761
13. Ed Diddle, Western Kentucky – 759
14. Phog Allen, Kansas – 746
15. John Chaney, Temple – 741
16. Jerry Tarkanian, Fresno State – 729
17. Norm Stewart, Missouri – 728
18. Ray Meyer, DePaul – 724
19. Don Haskins, Texas-El Paso – 719
Lubbock, Texas ? Bob Knight reached another milestone.
Texas Tech beat No. 10 Texas A&M, 68-53, on Wednesday night, the Hall of Fame coach’s 900th career victory.
After the game, fans chanted Knight’s name as he walked off the court to a thunderous ovation.
“You folks being here, seats being full for a change, really made a difference tonight,” Knight told the crowd before leaving the court.
Like when Knight surpassed former North Carolina coach Dean Smith on the Division I career list with win No. 880, he got his 900th on his second try.
The win was Tech’s third straight over an Aggies team ranked in the top 10. Last season the Red Raiders beat A&M twice by a combined four points. The Aggies were ranked No. 6 going into each game and were on nine- and five-game winning streaks, respectively.
The Aggies (15-2, 1-1 Big 12) looked frazzled and out of sync most of the game. A&M went 18-for-53 from the field in its worst shooting performance (34 percent) of the season, and they turned the ball over a season-high 20 times.
Martin Zeno scored 19 points, and Trevor Cook added a career-high 14 for Texas Tech (10-6, 1-1).
The Aggies used a 14-4 run to whittle the Red Raiders’ lead to 39-31 with about 16 minutes remaining.
But Tech stiffened and went on a 20-4 run to go up 56-35 with 7:45 remaining. The run included two three-pointers by Trevor Cook and one by Alan Voskuil. A&M never threatened after that.
Josh Carter and Joseph Jones scored 11 points each to lead the Aggies.
Knight, in his seventh season at Tech, has never opened Big 12 play with consecutive losses. The victory kept that record in tact.
The 67-year-old Knight has been a head coach for 42 years at three Division I schools. He got his 100th victory at Army, then moved to Indiana, where his Hoosiers went 662-239 and won three national championships from 1971-00. His first NCAA title came in 1976 when Indiana went undefeated, a feat no team has done since. In 1984, he coached the U.S. Olympic team to a gold medal in Los Angeles.
Iowa State 72, Missouri 67
Ames, Iowa – Wesley Johnson tied a season high with 20 points, Jiri Hubalek added 17 points, and Iowa State never trailed in beating Missouri.
Rahshon Clark added a season-high 16 points for the Cyclones, who held the high-flying Tigers 16 points below their season average.