Conference call.(college basketball coaches Bob Knight, Paul Westphal)(Brief Article)

Bob Knight, Texas Tech

During an Oklahoma-Texas Tech game January 26, a player was replaced for ineffective play. After he returned to the bench, he was chewed out by his coach, who punctuated his displeasure by emphatically grabbing the player's leg.

On the other bench sat Bob Knight, who was rather peacefully watching his Red Raiders avenge an earlier blowout loss to Kelvin Sampson's Sooners.

Knight's hiring has been almost letter-perfect for Tech. As expected, he has created immediate buzz in a program with a shallow basketball tradition: United Spirit Arena has been brimming; TV cameras have been prevalent.

Much less expected, the Red Raiders (20-6 and No. 14 in the Ratings Percentage Index) have been winning big, and save for a minor flare-up in Houston with a Compaq Arena employee, Knight hasn't caused anyone in Tech's athletic department to blush.

Knight's persona creates passionate factions, but his supreme coaching ability should be something people can agree upon. His team lacks depth (Andre Emmett, Andy Ellis and Kasib Powell average 33-plus minutes), but those three are all averaging 15-plus points in Knight's motion offense, which lets them free-lance and go to their strengths.

Those are individual numbers, though. What Knight probably prefers is this selfless stat: Though lacking an established point guard, the Red Raiders average 19.2 assists, second in the Big 12.