Lubbock, Texas ? A hint of danger filled the air when the Texas Tech student body stormed and completely filled the court so quickly and with so little resistance from anybody after the Red Raiders defeated Kansas University, yet when asked about that red mob, danger was the last thing on Tech coach Bob Knight’s mind.
“The most important thing today was the turnout of the students, I think,” Knight said. “It was the largest student turnout (4,150) we’ve ever had for basketball. We’ve played away with that atmosphere, which we do a lot, which is great. Playing here to it is far better. We hope those kids understand how important they were to the game today.”
The crowd helped to spur the Red Raiders to a pair of 12-point leads, the final one with 3:42 remaining. Kansas went on a 13-1 run to tie it.
“One thing that’s been a problem all year long has been losing leads, and we didn’t break our string today,” Knight said. “I don’t think very often we just make one out of four free throws, which was what we did at a time when we had to make free throws. : The thing that I liked least about our game is we lost I think four opportunities to score in the last six or seven minutes with poor ballhandling. You just can’t do that. You’ve just got to be better with the ball than we were at the end. It’s obviously a really good game for us compared to the last team that we played, a very good game for us against a very good team.”
Knight didn’t put all the blame on his team for losing the lead.
“They did a great job coming back into the game,” Knight said of Kansas. “You can’t fault that in any way. They got themselves back in.”
It often has been said that if Knight has a full week to prepare his team for a game, it’s usually bad news for the opponent. The game was played one week after Tech lost, 73-70, at Baylor.
A home game Wednesday against Texas A&M is next up for the Red Raiders. How can he make the victory over Kansas carry into that game?
“Who knows? Maybe you can’t,” Knight said. “I don’t know. How well and how tough did we play at Kansas State (a 10-point victory)? We played really hard and really tough and made some really good plays down the wire and didn’t carry over (to Waco). So you never know. You’d like to do that, but you’re not dealing with robots, you’re dealing with kids, and kids are a tough proposition.”
Not as tough a proposition as snow in West Texas. Before the game, a worker commissioned to clearing the sidewalks was attempting to do so, without much luck, by using a leaf blower.
“People in Texas have got to understand that snow, you drive through it,” Knight said. “I mean, they’re selling out grocery stores. I told everybody it isn’t going to snow 16 inches in Lubbock (from now to) the year 3,000. That’s not gonna happen. And ice, it’s going to melt. I mean, guys tell me: ‘Now coach, we’re going to go hunting Saturday and it’s going to be cold.’ I told them: ‘Cold my (foot). You don’t know what cold is. People down here have no concept of cold. I think I’m gonna buy a store and start rumors on snowfall.”
