Bye Bye General

5:49 PM CST:

More to come later - Coach Knight tenders his resignation and Pat will coach the rest of the season.

A not-so-surprising event IMO...

Lubbock A-J


Thanks for all you've done for Tech, coach. The mark you have left here extends far beyond the hardwood.



7:00 PM CST:

ESPN News' Matt Winer breaks the story to the MSM crowd:




7:18 PM CST:

Not two hours before the resignation story hit the wires, Doug Tucker with the Kansas City Star published this great story about the cooperation between Coach Bob & Pat Knight who were in cooperation with The Dark Side and Coach Rick Barnes...

A fantastic read - here's a clip:

Red Raiders coach Bob Knight and his son, assistant coach and head coach-designate Pat Knight, went to the Longhorns last year for advice on improving their team's conditioning and strength.

After talking with their good friend, Texas coach Rick Barnes, they hired Chris Braden, the Longhorns' assistant strength and conditioning coach for men's and women's basketball. With Braden in charge of conditioning for the Red Raiders, facilities and players have all been upgraded.

"To be honest, we thought there was a guy at LSU, Auburn, that we needed to talk to," Pat Knight said Monday. "And Rick told my dad, 'If it was anybody else but you, I'd give you a different name.' But he actually told us, 'Hire our top assistant.'"

Wow - deals with the devil and then a resignation...coincidence? I think not.

Linky doo

7:58PM CST (for DT!) - the original Lubbock A-J article was updated at 7:18PM to add Coach Knight's comments:

“It was always a problem for me as to just what would be the most effective way in this transition, to make this transition. And with all the thought that I put into it, that’s exactly how I felt that it should be.”

Knight said he informed the team prior to practice Monday. The Red Raiders (12-8, 3-3) will play at Baylor on Wednesday.

Myers was in a similar situation more than three decades ago when he took over the Red Raiders’ program mid-season. He said he was surprised when Knight told him Monday he was stepping down, but he also understood Knight’s reasoning.

“I think I do understand why he decided to do it at this particular time,” said Myers, who took over as head coach in January, 1971, before coaching 20 more years at Tech. “He felt it was the right time for him to step down and I’ll miss him. He’s done an outstanding job for this basketball program of building it up. He brought more recognition to the program, to the university and to the city of Lubbock than anybody, in my opinion. It was great to have him on our staff and he was great to work with.”

Knight said this is not a health issue, though he said, “I feel better today than I did on Saturday.”

I'm just glad he indicates his health is not the reason for him stepping down - that's great news.


8:03 PM CST:

Bill Raftery and Jay Bilas were working the Louisville/Marquette game when the news broke - their reaction follows the announcement...



8:06 PM CST:

Pat Forde was just interviewed on ESPN News saying that Bob Knight is a hypocrite for stepping down mid-season. That he'll be writing an article to that effect. I hope so. I hope he does it so that we Red Raiders and Knight-backers can rip him for being an idiot.

If Pat Forde would just do himself the favor of reading Coach Knight's own comments on the situation I would THINK that he would see Knight has the best interests of the program in mind.