Yahoo Sports Even in his twilight, Bob Knight looms over NCAA title game
MINNEAPOLIS — Two days ago and nearly 600 miles away, there was a sighting of a divisive legend on a golf cart at the Indiana University campus. The images of former IU coach Bob Knight in Bloomington were greeted with the fanfare of Big Foot in a national park, a buckshot of reactions that range from shock to glee to dismay.
Such is the aura of Knight, whose mere presence on the Indiana University campus nearly two decades after his explosive dismissal prompted national headlines and kicked off a breathless cycle of local news coverage. It included this passage in a local paper: “In a text message to the IndyStar, IU athletic director Fred Glass said that he didn’t speak to Knight.”
Knight, 78, reportedly showed some memory lapses in a public appearance earlier in the week. His son, Pat Knight, told Yahoo Sports this week that his father is dealing with some of the issues inherent to aging.
“He’s 78 and dealing with being old, man,” Pat Knight said in a phone interview this week “He’s not dying. His health is good. It’s just getting old and slowing down. We try and be careful in what he does. The guy will still fish and hunt all day.”
Here at the Final Four, Knight’s last great protégé from his prolific coaching tree is on the cusp of winning a national championship. Chris Beard, 46, worked at Texas Tech as an assistant coach for 10 years under both Bob and Pat Knight. After Bob Knight gave Beard his big break, hiring him from Seminole State junior college, Beard went on to siphon Knight’s tactical genius and put his own quirky and homespun twist on it.
There’s an unmistakable Bob Knight flair to this Texas Tech team. They are the rare college basketball team that runs a pure motion offense, which Knight orchestrated with Chopin-like panache during his career. Beard’s Red Raiders play man-to-man defense with a demonic zeal and with enough toughness that they out-Izzoed Michigan State in the national semifinal on Saturday night.
“They’re not sexy, but they play hard every game, which is hard especially with the way players are nowadays,” said Pat Knight, who is a pro scout for the Indiana Pacers. “He gets them to play hard and defend, which is hard coaching-wise because no players get notoriety for defending.”
It would be cuddly and convenient to say that Bob Knight, who still lives in Lubbock, follows Beard’s every coaching move and has reveled in his success. But little about Knight is cuddly and convenient. Knight genuinely respects and likes Beard, but Pat Knight said that his father has drifted away from the sport in general. He’ll get updates and likes to hear of Beard’s success — and those of his many former players and assistants — as he did when Pat called his dad about Beard reaching the Final Four last week. (Bob Knight was also happy that Mark Few made the Final Four at Gonzaga two years ago).
“He doesn’t watch basketball anymore,” said Pat Knight. “He went to all Chris’ home games when he first got there. He’ll turn on a game here and there. He’ll call him and tell him they need more action on the weak side. But he doesn’t follow it as much as he used to. It’s all new coaches [compared to his era]. He’ll ask about [Beard]. He follows them as well as he can. But he’s not sitting and watching every game. He’s fishing and hunting and travels.”
Beard’s road to the national title game has wound through just about every level of basketball, from alphabet-soup professional levels to junior college to Division II. Beard had been a head coach at eight different places by the age of 44. He’s genuinely appreciative of his first big break at Texas Tech, which came when Knight got the Texas Tech job in 2001. Beard’s affable and outgoing personality were part of the reason he ended up on the Tech staff. But Pat Knight brushed off the notion that Beard was some rube who knew nothing about basketball that the Knights hired for a player.
“He had everything,” Pat Knight said. “It’s not like we found this guy that didn’t know anything. Everyone is trying to be too cute about this. He could coach when he got the job. I couldn’t hire a mute that can’t coach to work for my dad. You had to be personable and couldn’t be a yes man.”
Beard reveled working for both Knights, as this week he gave credit to Bob Knight as “my mentor” and Pat Knight for believing in him and becoming a close friend. He credited Bob Knight as one of the greatest defensive coaches in the history of basketball. He said Knight philosophies like “respect every opponent” still filter into the program so much that his girlfriend said that the Gonzaga game in the NCAA tournament felt the same as the Incarnate Word game to open the season.
“Just so many things with Coach Knight, literally,” Beard said. He added: “Most aspects of our program today, he influences in some way.”
Beard’s affability and charisma, however, won’t ever be compared to the famously bombastic Knight. Beard made an impassioned argument this week that Pop-Tarts are not desserts, as he’d given up sweets as his “sacrifice” for the season. “It's a breakfast,” he insisted. “I’ve eaten a lot of Pop-Tarts, man, since October.”
He also revealed that if he had a son, he’d name him Hondo, told a long story about not getting a trophy at a Texas Tech camp as a high school player and referenced his ADD, Billy Ray Cyrus and begged former Tech star Patrick Mahomes to join his “Fireside Chat” show. Along the way, he fashioned himself as an everyman hero in charge of a high-end team.
“Why not us?” Beard said. “We've got good players. We've got a great university. We play in arguably the best league in the country. We won the Big 12 regular-season title. We're a good team.”
The most recognizable tactical carryover from the Knights to Beard comes with his pure motion offense. Few run it in college basketball anymore, although the Warriors and some others do some in the NBA. It’s based on spacing, off-ball screens and, of course, constant motion that keeps the lane unclogged. Coaches say it’s difficult to prepare for, especially in a one-day-prep, because the offense is read-based, as players let the defense dictate where they go.
“He talks about from Day 1, this is the offense that was good enough to win Olympics and national championships,” said former Tech assistant Chris Ogden, now the head coach at UT Arlington. “This is how you win in March.”
After reaching the Elite Eight last season and hanging around with Villanova better than any Final Four team did, Tech is back winning in March. It has served as a reminder of the tactical mastery and prolific coaching tree of Bobby Knight, as Beard has put in motion his own legend to remind us of the best parts of Knight’s. And Beard’s three seasons in Lubbock have shown us clearly that he’s capable of casting his own long shadow over the game.
More from Yahoo Sports:
