Ever since Pat Knight played for his famous father Bob Knight at the University of Indiana back in the early 1990‘s, he has been waiting for a chance to emerge from his father’s rather immense legendary status to pave his own path in college basketball.
After several assistant coaching gigs under his father at Indiana and Texas Tech, Pat finally got the chance to make a name for himself, taking over head coaching duties at Tech from “The General” upon his retirement halfway through the ’07-’08 season.
Although Pat was able to periodically pull off what would be described as upset victories over Top 25 ranked teams like Texas and Kansas State, Knight was unceremoniously fired from Texas Tech after the 2010 season with a sub-par 50-61 record. He now is the head coach at Lamar University in the Southland Conference.
Anyone who has watched Pat Knight coach in the Big 12 during that time could easily notice that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, as he was the spitting image of his father, employing the motion offense and playing almost exclusively man-to-man defense, two staples of Bob Knight’s coaching resume that helped earn him 902 NCAA victories and 3 National Titles.
One other area Pat has been eerily similar to his father has been during press conferences and continually getting into tiffs with the officials on the sidelines. While Bob Knight will forever be remembered for the chair throwing incident and supplying the media with some of the Top Ten Soundbites of all time, Pat also has had his run-ins with officials, twice being reprimanded by the Big 12 Conference for altercations with officials, and being forced to publicly apologize for his actions.
Since taking over at Lamar University in the Southland Conference, Pat has done a remarkable job in his first season at the helm of the Cardinals, leading the club to a 17-11 overall mark, including a respectable 8-5 record in conference, good for 2nd place in the Southland East.
Surely everyone would agree that Knight has done an amazing coaching job, considering he didn’t recruit any of the current roster, and especially since the program has been marred by constant distractions due to drug arrests, suspensions, and players violating team rules.
After a recent loss to Stephen F. Austin put a dent in the Cardinals seeding for the upcoming Southland Tournament, the usually subdued coach let loose a tirade at the post-game presser that would make his dad proud, calling out players for lack of leadership and calling his senior class the “worst he’s ever been associated with.”
Watch the video as senior Mike James is cut off by coach Knight and told to get lost since “he has no clue how to win a game”… Should Pat Knight be suspended or commended for holding his players accountable for their actions?
Pat Knight Goes Off On His Seniors:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
