HE WON more games than any coach in Division I history. He was the youngest head coach in D-I history. He was a backup player on one of the great college teams in history. He was like nobody in college basketball history.
Very quietly, Bob Knight's resignation from Texas Tech was first reported in the local Lubbock, Texas, paper yesterday evening. His son Pat, a Red Raiders assistant, will take over immediately, putting into place the succession plan that had been announced in 2005.
"There's a transition that's going to take place here from me to Pat and I've dwelt on this all year long . . . how it would be best for him and for the team and for what we can do in the long run to make this the best thing for Texas Tech," Knight told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. He told athletic officials of his decision around noon yesterday.
On his weekly radio show, Pat Knight said: "He's ready. He's tired."
Knight was as complicated as he was successful, as cantankerous as he was brilliant. He always should have been remembered just for his coaching. He surely will be remembered for that. And he also will be remembered for all the rest of it.
Knight played for the legendary Ohio State team that won the championship in 1960 and lost to Cincinnati in the 1961 and 1962 championship games, the teams with Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek. Knight never played much, but he learned the game from legendary coach Fred Taylor.
Knight had hardly left Columbus before he was named head coach at Army. At West Point, he learned the military way. It was the perfect marriage of man and philosophy. Knight built his philosophy on discipline, which applied to everyone whoever played for him, but, sadly, he often forgot to apply it to himself.
His Army teams were a joy to watch. They always played better than their talent. And Knight himself, a wonderful student of basketball history, often said they were his favorite teams.
His teams at Indiana were his best teams and some of the best teams that ever played. His 1975 team may very well have been his best, but an injury to Scott May almost certainly kept those Hoosiers from the Final Four.
Nothing was keeping the 1976 Hoosiers from their destiny. They started winning and never stopped - through the Big Ten, through the NCAA Tournament, right to the Spectrum, where they beat Michigan for the national title, completing a perfect season.
