When former athletic director Gerald Myers made the bold stroke to bring Bob Knight to Lubbock in 2001, it instantly took the Texas Tech basketball program from irrelevance to prominence. Suddenly, a program coming off of four-straight losing seasons was the talk of the nation but not everyone was on board with the move.
Just six months prior, the 3-time national championship head coach was fired by Indiana for what the school said was a “pattern of unacceptable behavior.” Thus, some Red Raider fans and boosters were not keen on the idea of entrusting the program to one of the most controversial figures in the game, one who had recently been accused of choking a former player during practice and putting his hands on another Indiana student to cap off what was a laundry list of unpleasant incidences during his legendary career.