Knight Tries a Fresh Approach

For Bob Knight, whose Texas Tech team plays UCLA in a first-round game Thursday night at Tucson, the NCAA tournament is all about staying fresh.

He put that thinking to use immediately after Texas Tech lost to Oklahoma State in the Big 12 Conference tournament championship game Sunday at Kansas City, Mo. Knight and his team stayed around to watch the NCAA tournament bracket selections on television but left Kemper Arena without doing any interviews.

With the 11th-seeded Bruins (18-10) having three more days of rest than the sixth-seeded Red Raiders (20-10), Knight was not taking any chances.

“I would have just as soon rested,” Knight said about the Big 12 championship game. “Too much is made out of that kind of thing. Basketball is a game that’s played game by game.... So much is the attitude of the team to understand what they can do as well that this is a different day. Just because we caught fish yesterday does not mean that we’re going to catch fish today.”

If anyone knows about preparing a team for March Madness, it’s Knight, who will be making his 27th NCAA appearance in 39 years as a Division I coach.

He has three NCAA titles to his credit, having won it all with Indiana in 1976, 1981 and 1987, and has a .652 winning percentage in tournament games. But his recent teams have struggled.

Since leading the Hoosiers to the Sweet 16 in 1994, Knight is 3-8 in the tournament, 1-2 with Texas Tech.

Knight says the keys to tournament survival are depth, defense and taking care of the basketball.

“You have to have some depth because you are going to have games where you get into foul trouble, and there’s always an injury factor,” said Knight, who has won 852 games in his Hall of Fame career.

“A team has got to be very good defensively because there are some things that can happen at the other end of the floor that are not going to be particularly conducive to winning ... [and] the team that can limit the number of times it turns the ball over simply increases the number of opportunities that it’s going to have to score....”

Knight has a 2-1 tournament record against UCLA. After losing to the Bruins in 1973, Knight’s undefeated Hoosier championship team beat UCLA in the 1976 semifinals, then in 1992, his Indiana team defeated UCLA to reach the Final Four.

Like UCLA, the Red Raiders are a little thin in post players, but Knight likes the makeup of his team.

“Our inside kids have done a good job but [we] probably need to get a little bit more scoring from our inside game,” he said.

The Red Raiders count on the scoring of guards Ronald Ross, Jarrius Jackson and Martin Zeno.

Ross, a former walk-on, emerged as a first-team Big 12 selection. He’s Knight’s go-to scorer who led the Red Raiders at 16.8 points a game.

Jackson is an all-around player who averaged 15 points and four assists.

“He’s really worked at being a good player,” Knight said. “He has a ways to go before he develops the ability a guard needs to see the floor ... but I immensely enjoy just watching him develop and work at those things to improve.”

Zeno, a freshman who plays almost as much as Ross and Jackson, averages 13.2 points.

Another strength is Texas Tech’s free-throw shooting, the Red Raiders’ averaging 76.4%.

Texas Tech operates Knight’s traditional motion offense with a twist to take advantage of the penetration skills of Ross, Jackson and Zeno. When the Red Raiders are clicking, they are difficult to stop, but playing well for entire games has been their biggest problem.

“In the first half, we’ll play bad, and we’ll come back from it,” Ross told the Texas Tech University Daily.

“We really learned that we’ve got to just go out and play two halves of basketball.”

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Knight Games

How far teams coached by Bob Knight have advanced in the NCAA tournament:

INDIANA

*--* Season Seeding How far advanced 1972-73 National third-place game (defeated Providence, 97-79) 1974-75 Regional championship game (lost to Kentucky, 92-90) 1975-76 National championship game (defeated Michigan, 86-68) 1977-78 Regional semifinal (lost to Villanova, 103-97) 1979-80 2 Regional semifinal (lost to Purdue, 76-69) 1980-81 3 National championship game (defeated North Carolina, 63-50) 1981-82 5 Second round (lost to Alabama Birmingham, 80-70) 1982-83 2 Regional semifinal (lost to Kentucky, 64-59) 1983-84 4 Regional championship game (lost to Virginia, 50-48) 1985-86 3 First round (lost to Cleveland State, 83-79) 1986-87 1 National championship game (defeated Syracuse, 74-73) 1987-88 4 First round (lost to Richmond, 73-69) 1988-89 2 Regional semifinal (lost to Seton Hall, 78-65) 1989-90 8 First round (lost to California, 65-63) 1990-91 2 Regional semifinal (lost to Kansas, 83-65) 1991-92 2 National semifinal (lost to Duke, 81-78) 1992-93 1 Regional championship game (lost to Kansas, 83-77) 1993-94 5 Regional semifinal (lost to Boston College, 77-68) 1994-95 9 First round (lost to Missouri, 65-50) 1995-96 6 First round (lost to Boston College, 64-51) 1996-97 8 First round (lost to Colorado, 80-62) 1997-98 7 Second round (lost to Connecticut, 78-61) 1998-99 6 Second round (lost to St. John’s, 86-61) 1999-00 6 First round (lost to Pepperdine, 77-57) TEXAS TECH 2001-02 6 First round (lost to Southern Illinois, 76-68) 2003-04 8 Second round (lost to St. Joseph’s, 70-65)

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