Bob Knight, a Living Legend for Texas Tech Red Raiders
If we are talking about the 2007-2008 NCAA College Basketball Season, the name Bob Knight, coach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders, is synonymous with greatness and winning. Coach Bob Knight is one of the greatest coaches ever to walk onto a basketball court, who has more wins than any Division I-A head coach (891).
Looking at Coach Bob Knight’s coaching career since he was hired by the Texas Tech Red Raiders. In his first year, Texas Tech Red Raiders went from 11th in the Big 12 Conference to a tie for third and posted a +14-victory margin (9-19 in 2000-2001 to 23-9 in 2001-2002).
In Coach Bob Knight’s second season, it marked his eighth National Invitational Tournament appearance and the 34th time in his 37 years of coaching that his teams had played in post-season tournaments. By his third season with the Texas Tech Raiders coach Bob Knight was at the helm of another unqualified success. Overall, the squad won 23 games marking the first time in the school’s history that the Red Raiders won at least 20 games in three consecutive seasons.
In 2005-2006, the Texas Tech Red Raiders were 15-17, only the second time in forty years a Bob Knight team has been under .500 for a season. As the 2006-2007 season approached, Bob Knight had 869 career wins and was poised to pass Adolph Rupp (876) and Dean Smith (879) to become the all-time career wins leader.
As a testament to his dedication as a teacher and his love of the game, coupled with an intense work ethic, Bob Knight had averaged nearly 22 wins and less than 9 losses each season for 40 seasons - and he was doing what a legendary coach does: preparing his next group of student-athletes for the upcoming season.
Now, that we all know that coach Bob Knight would get the Texas Tech Red Raiders back to its winning ways, the question still remains when Texas Tech Red Raiders will win the most coveted prize in the NCAA College Basketball.
Is coach Bob Knight too much for the players of Texas Tech Red Raiders? For me, the answer is YES! One of the most important factors in winning a title is a team must have a good coach if not the best. We can say that you have all the best college basketball players in your team but on the contrary, the team lacks discipline, chemistry, dedication, etc. What will happen? The team loses. Coach Bob Knight is his own man, one who represents high principles, expectations and demands for his players, his coaching staff and, most of all, himself.
Let’s wait and see until when will Coach Bob Knight endure the suffering of not winning a championship in the 2007-2008 NCAA College Basketball with the team like Texas Tech Red Raiders.
