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Texas Tech faculty athletic representative Robert Baker recently proclaimed basketball coach Bob Knight's short tenure at the school as having "raised the school's visibility nationwide."
This week wasn't what Baker had in mind.
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Tech's athletic department put to bed Tuesday the latest controversy involving Knight, a profanity-filled tirade during an interview aired nationwide by ESPN on Monday.
Former college basketball coach Fran Fraschilla, an ESPN analyst, interviewed
Knight and his former Indiana player, Steve Alford before Texas Tech met Alford's
Iowa team Monday night. Texas Tech won, 65-59.
Fraschilla asked Alford if media perception of a strained relationship between
he and Knight was true or not.
Knight jumped in before Alford could answer, sprinkling expletives in his answer
and ending with, "All you media people can go ... yourself when it comes
to something like that."
Knight issued an apology Tuesday during his weekly television show, and athletic
director Gerald Myers issued only a prepared statement. "Neither the university
nor the athletic department in any way condones the use of profanity in coach
Knight's description of his feelings about the media," Myers said. "He
apologized, and that's it."
But what about the next time?
"I'll be real surprised if there's not some problem [with what Knight says]
in the future, but I'll be surprised if it's as bad as this one," Baker
said. "He's living in the Bible belt, and there are a lot of people who
are terribly offended by that. But there's an awful lot of people who use profanity,
too."
Myers did not return calls to his cellphone Wednesday. Baker, who holds status
as a Horn professor, a rare, high honor given to tenured Tech educators, said
he was not privy to discussions between Knight and Myers or other athletic department
officials.
Baker said he can't predict what Myers or the school will do if a similar Knight
tirade goes public in the future. He said he saw the interview when it aired
and said, "Oh, no."
"I wish he'd not been profane," said Baker, who was quick to point
out that Knight's players are model citizens who stay eligible and graduate.
"If I could, it would be the top two or three things I'd correct, my language
and then his. I hope it doesn't happen again."