NCAA: Knight’s Red Raiders have their guns up and ready

There's a new hardwood sheriff in town and he wears a Raider red vest. The double T's on his chest attest to the trust of his new townspeople. He wears a big hat, flashes twin guns and if you cross him his posse will cut you down with epithets that will turn your hair whiter than his own. Its Bobby Knight and Texas Tech against the world, and their guns are up and ready.

One of the first things Bobby Knight did at his recent Lubbock housewarming was recruit the guys in fatigues that bugged the heck out of him when last he graced the high plains with his presence. That was back in '99 when he helped his old buddy Gerald Myers and the Red Raiders inaugurate their brand new $68million United Spirit Arena with a visit by his former Indiana team.

Knight promised then he'd be back at the turn of the century. He kept that promise and now he's circling his wagons in the Llano Estacado, protected by a posse that will verbally gun down anyone making a false move towards their man.

Bob Knight needs this wind blown Big 12 Texas Tech opportunity as much as the town of Lubbock, make that all of the high plains, needs him. The Texas panhandle and its people are ready for an infusion of respectability, of recognition, and unbelievably Bobby Knight is just the man to give it to them.

Since its last visit to the NCAA “Sweet 16” five years ago Red Raider men's basketball has been retreating in the face of NCAA sanctions that have cost them nine scholarships over the last four years. That has torn the flesh from this homegrown program and left its carcass out in the hot sun for the buzzards to pick clean.

But there a few things that Bobby Knight does well and nobody can take those things away from him. One, he can run a clean NCAA program. Two, he graduates his players. And three, he can raise the visibility of a program higher than a blue Texas sky, bringing in bales of money for the likes of libraries, grants and faculty chairs. Now that's the kind of talk farmers understand.

“I'm not right all the time, but when it comes to this game, I'm right most of the time,” Knight told the howling crowd of 7,500+ in his new barn out back last week. The crowd roared when he finished with, “If they'll pay attention to it, then I think we can put a basketball team out there that you'll enjoy watching as much as the women Red Raiders.”

Tech women's basketball coach Marsha Sharpe has raised attendance of the Lady Raiders' roundball gigs to the top of the Big 12 and they rank second only to Tennessee's perennial championship program drawing an average 12,800+ per game. In Lubbock Marsha Sharpe is considered a roundball goddess and is having a freeway named after her.

It was a deft move on Bobby Knight's part to embrace the head Lady Raider as one of his own. He donned the Raider red and waxed eloquently of his respect for Sharpe and that other former basketball coach very close to his heart, his wife Karen. Knight then insinuated that if he had anything to do with it, Texas Tech would soon have two “Sweet 16” teams to follow at the end of some upcoming magical season. The hungry crowd boomed its approval.

Ever since Knight whispers began in Lubbock, Tech basketball season ticket sales had jumped dramatically and at his insistence last week they surged even further. Red and black “General's Army” camouflage gear has flown off the racks and this dusty West Texas town is suddenly mobilizing to sign up and back the “general”.

In what some may see as a pact forged in hell, Bobby Knight appears intent on giving some payback to his friend of over 30 years, Gerald Myers, hoping to rejuvenate a sinking program that his friend has dedicated a lifetime to. In return, Myers is thanking Knight for taking him under his wing when he was a fledgling Division I coach all those years ago.

Bobby Knight almost took this same Red Raider job back in '69. Two years later Myers took the Lubbock job and Knight gave Myers the time of day when no other big time NCAA coach would. He invited Myers up to visit the I. U. campus, put him up at his home and spent hours watching film with him and discussing zone defenses, motion offenses and a lot of things that ended up resulting in Myers winning 326 games in his 21-year career as head basketball coach at Texas Tech.

A powerful friendship was forged then, and now Texas Tech, the Big 12 and the whole state of Texas may be about to reap the benefits of whatever these two old friends may come together to accomplish.

These are simple people in Lubbock Texas. They know how to forgive and to forget. “I have tremendous respect for him,” said Myers of Knight. “He's one of the best coaches who has ever coached the game of basketball.”

If any one thing clinched this whole deal, it was when Knight told Tech officials he was not proud of all that had gone on before. With that one simple admission, Myers and school president David Schmidly both got the same gut feeling that this was the right thing to do, and they had to do it now. They moved to give Knight his second chance, to go for broke, making a bold move to put the Red Raiders back on the national basketball map.

Meyers and Texas Tech officials are betting that Knight's passion for academic excellence and ability to field a winning program will, in the end, outweigh any bad publicity that may come back to haunt them.

“It's a fresh start for both of us,” said Tech junior center Andy Ellis. “The past is the past.” My youngest son Jay is registered to attend Texas Tech in the fall and even he says, “With all the razz' matazz' about Bobby Knight, I still want to see him coach.” 'Nuff said for me.

Its been 31 years since this lazy West Texas cow town has been blinded by such media glare. Back then it was a killer tornado blowing through the center of town leaving a miles long, half-mile wide path of death and destruction in its wake. Well, there's a new Texas twister blowing through Lubbock, only this one plans on staying a while. Hold on to your hats, pardners! We could be in for high winds and hail!