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Saturday, January 31, 2009
Bob Knight interested in UGA job
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you are one of those Bulldogs deeply distressed about the course of basketball at the University of Georgia, I have promising news for you. How would you like to have Bob Knight coaching your team?
This is the man who won 902 games, most in college history, then decided it was time to find life outside Lubbock, Texas. Nothing wrong with Lubbock, but when he went to Texas Tech about six years ago, it was like setting up shop in a desert, as college basketball goes. When he suddenly quit about a year ago, he thought he’d had enough. Georgia offers another kind of chance in a highly visible conference.
It can be done, but as you’d imagine, only if done his way. His way:
“He doesn’t want it to look as if he’s pursuing the job. He’d like to be offered it, and if offered, he’d take it,” said a mutual friend, who did not want to be named but was willing for this columnist to report Knight’s interest.
“He doesn’t want it to look as if he’s looking for work, but I can assure you that he’d like to have the job. It’s the idea of coaching a team in the Southeastern Conference that appeals to him. There are just so many things he could do for Georgia basketball. This would be his last stop, and he likes that.”
Knight, 68, left Texas Tech in the middle of the 2008 season, and the question arises — why? (“If I had hit 62 home runs, I’d thought I’d accomplished something,” he said when he broke Dean Smith’s victory record.)
“It occurred to him that he had done all he could there. His son, Patrick, his assistant, was ready and it was time for Patrick to take over and time for him to move on,” the friend said.
On the Jay Leno show, in his first interview after leaving Texas Tech, Knight said, “I thought I’d had enough.”
“Are we ever going to see you back on the floor?” Leno asked.
“Well, I don’t think you can never say never,” Knight replied.
Not until the Georgia job came open had he expressed any interest in a return to coaching, his friend said. When he arrived at Texas Tech, the Raiders had won only l4 games in the Big 12 the previous four years. In Knight’s time, they won 43.
Knight left Indiana on the toe of president Myles Brand’s shoe, a move heavily laden with controversy. Brand has since become president of the NCAA and only recently announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer. Oddly enough, Brand and Dr. Michael Adams, president of UGA, are close friends, whatever effect that relationship might have on the hiring of Knight.
The next move, whatever it might be, would be up to Damon Evans, the director of athletics.
• Photos: Bobby Knight’s career • Possible UGA coaching candidates
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