Ken Davis

With so much attention focused on Texas Tech coach Bob Knight’s Division I record for career coaching victories, the time seems right for a brief refresher course.

We’re not talking about X’s and O’s. There are plenty of testimonials from coaches confessing to copying Knight’s motion offense and his principles of man-to-man defense. And we won’t attempt to settle the debate over Knight’s legacy and how much it has been tarnished by his boorish behavior.

This is a refresher course on Indiana basketball and what Knight meant to an entire state. Knight was fired by Indiana University in 2000 for his violation of a zero-tolerance behavior policy. Now in his sixth season at Texas Tech, it seems Knight’s impact on the Hoosier state is getting lost in the shuffle.

To understand that important part of basketball history and explain it to outsiders, we sought out a 42-year-old college basketball coach.

He’s the son of a former Indiana high school coach, spent his ch

ildhood years just 15 minutes from Bloomington and then moved to New Castle, where he earned Indiana’s prestigious Mr. Basketball Award. He started attending Knight’s camps in third grade and can’t remember a season when he didn’t attend at least two Indiana games in person. He went on to play for Knight, helped the Hoosiers win a national championship in 1987, and was named to the Big Ten Conference Silver Anniversary team in 2004.

Steve Alford understands Bob Knight — and his place in Indiana sports lore — as well as anybody.

“I’ve experienced it maybe more so than anybody else,” said Alford, in his eighth season as coach at Iowa. “There was nobody I followed more than Coach Knight or his teams. I can remember going to church on Sunday and we drove as fast as we could to get home to watch his TV show at noon.”

Can’t you just picture little Hoosiers all over Indiana practicing that same religious ritual?                            

Now Knight has 880 victories . The celebration took place in Lubbock, Texas, a location not commonly associated with basketball tradition.

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Alford was able to attend Texas Tech's game against UNLV. Other former players and members of the Indiana basketball family journeyed to Lubbock to share the moment with Knight.

“He and I both agree that (the record) is not important except that our players think it’s important,” said Smith, who passed Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp when North Carolina beat Colorado 73-56 in the 1997 NCAA Tournament. “Our players were so excited when I so happened to come up with it.”

FREE VIDEO 'Reflection on everybody' Dec. 23: Texas Tech coach Bobby Knight talks about tying Dean Smith's victories record. NBC News Channel

Texas Tech fans certainly haven’t shown much interest in history to this point. When Knight moved past Rupp with a 98-64 victory over Centenary, only 8,645 of the 15,098 seats in the United Spirit Arena were occupied. That’s just another example of why this all feels so wrong.

John Feinstein, who spent an entire season with Knight and then authored the landmark book A Season On The Brink, says The General should have been looking forward to retiring from Indiana when he reached this milestone. And Indiana should have been unveiling a statue of Knight just outside Assembly Hall in Bloomington.

Special feature on Bobby Knight Highs, lows of legend’s coaching career

“The record should have been broken against Ohio State (Knight’s alma mater) in Assembly Hall,” he said. “Let’s face it, that’s the way it should have happened.”

Feinstein gets asked all the time about Knight’s temper, the chair throwing, and the incidents with players and officials. People want to know if Knight will eventually exit after a “Woody Hayes moment” — a reference to the legendary Ohio State football coach who was fired for punching Clemson linebacker Charlie Bauman during the 1978 Gator Bowl.

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