Well, two rough nights actually. Bob Knight took his Texas Tech team to Madison Square Garden for the semifinals of the Coaches vs. Cancer classic last week, and the Big Apple was not kind to his young team. The Red Raiders were lambasted by Syracuse 81-46 in the semis, and then dropped a crushing double-overtime loss to Wake Forest in the consolation game.
Last year saw Knight enjoy his finest season since leaving Indiana, leading Tech to a fourth-place finish in the tough Big 12, reaching the final game of the conference tournament and winning a pair of NCAA games in March. This year he is playing with a very inexperienced lineup in which two freshmen are playing significant minutes, and there are no senior starters. His two key players--Jarrius Jackson and Martin Zeno--each played all 50 minutes against Wake.
Given their youth and the caliber of the coaching, I expect Knight's team to improve markedly, and the game against the Demon Deacons was virtually in hand, before a miracle three-pointer by Justin Gray tied it at the end of the first overtime. They will have a soft schedule the rest of December, save a home game with Arkansas on the 21st.
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