Wednesday Night Basketball Notes

Texas Tech will face off against UNLV, Thursday night at 8:00 p.m.  The game will be televised on ESPN.  

AP's Betsy Blaney has had an article or two about Knight before, has another article about Coach Knight, with a little different twist.  For those of us who are Tech fans, we know that Knight does more than just coach the basketball team, he is an avid supporter of Lubbock itself and an avid supporter of the University.  The article is a good read, for the folks who are not as familiar with Knight and how he's embraced Lubbock and the University.

Fox Sports Ian O'Connor has a fairly pointed piece about Coach Knight and believes that he will not be remembered for the good, but instead, for all of the "lifetime's worth of flagrant fouls".  Honestly, I'm tired of this article, I know that you may hate him or despise what he's done, but at some point, you've got to let it go.  

SEN's Mike Finger also thinks that Knight really hasn't done all that much at Tech, and points to the lackluster attendance and less than stellar results.  

1. On December 16, 2006, UT played Texas State and OU played UT Arlington.  Texas had a turnstile count of 6,292 and OU had estimated attendance of 4,515.  Does this mean that the students at UT and OU are completely apathetic about the basketball program?  No, it's just really hard for schools to get their students to go to games during exams and the holiday season.
2. Knight's career winning percentage at Indiana was .735, at Texas Tech where it is much more difficult to recruit .713.  Last year was the only year since 1971 when he was coaching at Army where he did not have a winning record.  That's pretty damn good by anyone's standards.
3. Knight graduates 98% of his 4 year players and he's never cheated.  I know that these points have been played out in the media, but that's more impressive than the winning percentage.  I taught high school English for a year before going to law school and I had 92% of my kids pass the statewide test (I think it was called the TAKS at the time).  I for one know that it's really hard to get kids to do something at a very high rate and I can imagine that it's even more difficult with players who are children when they come into the program and leave as adults.

I know the type of article that Finger wrote sells papers and I think it's interesting that the note at the top of the article states that Finger's article was edited, but he's really reaching here.  I think people really do care about Knight, and for those of us who are passionate, we all can't live in Lubbock, most of us live in the DFW or Houston area and going to games just isn't as easy as heading down I-35 for a game and then coming back home.  

I also understand that it's also real easy to take shots at Knight, he's an easy target, but he's done a ton of good for the school and the program.  Finger's generalization that people don't care is just not accurate.