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 Bob Knight did things his way for more than four decades as a head coach. Now Pat Knight, after a lifetime of preparation, gets the chance to do things the way he wants as his father's successor at Texas Tech
-- and show if he's really that much different.
"We're all different when we're assistants," said former Akron coach Dan Hipsher, the only college coach who has been Pat Knight's boss other than his father. "He may have a little more similarities now that Pat has it on his shoulders."
Two days after the sudden resignation of Bob Knight following 902 victories and three NCAA championships over 42 years, the younger Knight takes the first step out from under the shadow of his father when the Red Raiders (12-8, 3-3 Big 12) play Wednesday night at Baylor.
"He's learned under, to me, the greatest coach of all time," Hipsher said. "Pat has had enough personal tutoring."
The younger Knight isn't the only coach in the Big 12 who got that kind of training. He is the third second-generation coach now in the conference whose first significant head coaching job came succeeding his father.
(Pat Knight's only previous seasons as a head coach were one each in the United States Basketball League and the International Basketball Association before joining his father's staff at Indiana in 1998.)
Sean Sutton took over at Oklahoma State when his father, Eddie, resigned after the 2005-06 season. Before coming to Baylor five years ago, Scott Drew won 20 games in his only season as head coach at Valparaiso after succeeding his father, Homer, who then returned to the bench after his son moved up to the Big 12.
"People who know Pat know he knows the game," Scott Drew said. "And he does a great job of relating with his players."
Drew said his transition at Valpo was easy because his father gave him space to learn on his own while also being there when needed.
"I assume Coach Knight will be the same way," Drew said.
Bob Knight is not expected to be in Waco for his son's college coaching debut. The elder Knight instead planned to watch the game on television from his Lubbock home.
Still, Pat Knight certainly won't mind when his father, who he played for at Indiana and the winningest coach in men's Division I history, decides to attend games or offer advice.
"I'm not stupid. I don't have an ego. I want him around, plus I enjoy having him around," Pat Knight said on his weekly radio show Monday night. "He can really help with recruiting. He can help analyze your team. When your father's a Hall of Fame coach you want him around."
Pat Knight was absent for his first news conference Tuesday, too busy getting ready for his first game to take time to talk to a dozen or so reporters on the Lubbock campus.
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Texas Tech players found out about the coaching change before practice Monday, when Bob Knight told them. Pat Knight then addressed the team before leading them through practice, like he had done so often before as an assistant.
"(Pat Knight) just told us coach didn't quit on us. ... When he stepped up and said that, we felt good and comfortable about the situation," senior Martin Zeno said Tuesday.
Zeno and his teammates don't expect many immediate changes, at least on the court and how they will be expected to play.
"It's the same approach, just a different type coach," said Zeno, Tech's leading scorer. "He's an up-tempo type coach. He's not as intense, but he played, so he knows what to expect."
Pat Knight was tabbed Texas Tech's head coach designate before the 2005-06 season, but it seemed the wait would be longer when in September his father signed a three-year extension through the 2011-12 season. Now Pat Knight has a five-year deal that calls for a total financial compensation package equal to the median of the rest of the Big 12 coaches.
While Drew suspects that the Red Raiders could play a faster tempo game and use more zone defense over time as Pat Knight establishes his own philosophy, the coaching switch didn't change the way Baylor (16-4, 4-2) prepared for this game.
"Philosophically, we'll see the difference over time," Drew said. "We expect them to play the way Tech teams always have; fundamentally sound and smart."
In a decade as a college assistant, the only season Pat Knight wasn't with his father was the only season his father wasn't coaching
-- between the elder Knight's departure from Indiana and being hired at Tech. That was 2000-01 at Akron for Hipsher.
"He was great on the floor, great with kids and had a good mind for the game," said Hipsher, now an assistant at South Florida. "His game preps were excellent, his work in practice, his skill development with the kids. He was charismatic."
[Associated Press; By STEPHEN HAWKINS]
Associated Press writer Schuyler Dixon contributed to this report from Lubbock, Texas.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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