Players find coach's sense of humor, deadpan pretty funny

Published: Friday, March 15, 2002

CHICAGO — Will Chavis likes to describe his coach as funny.

Not funny as in weird, Chavis said. It's more like funny as in laugh out loud with Texas Tech head coach Bob Knight.

The trick is trying to figure out when he's joking. Sometimes you've got to guess, like some reporters did Thursday.

"His sense of humor is funny," said Chavis, Tech's starting point guard. "He has a sense of humor that a lot of people don't have. Sometimes you don't know if he's serious, and that's what's so funny about it."

Case in point came in Thursday's pre-game press conference at the NCAA Tournament East Regional. Knight's team takes on Southern Illinois at 6:50 p.m. today in a first-round game.

Here's a smorgasbord from Thursday's exchange with reporters:

• A reporter asked Knight if this might be his most fulfilling season in 36 years as a college head coach. Knight replied quickly that "32-0 is pretty hard to beat," drawing laughter.

"I mean that's a tough act to try and beat, but looking at it in other regards, I think in questions relative to learning and working, it's been great, as much as any year I've ever coached."

Knight's Indiana team finished 32-0 in 1976. No team has gone undefeated since.

• Knight repeated a popular storyline of his about how his wife, Karen, once told him that nobody would understand him more than the people in West Texas and Lubbock.

A reporter then asked him how he interpreted that statement from his wife.

"I don't question my wife," Knight said. "I'm the most obedient husband in the world. When she said that, I just said, 'That's great.' I don't interpret my wife. If you do, you probably don't get along as well with yours as I get along with mine."

• A reporter asked a two-part question: "At what point did you think Texas Tech is right for you, and also do you think there will be a point where you look back and say it was the right thing for Indiana, too?"

Knight responded with his answer about his wife's comment about West Texas but didn't answer the part about Indiana. At the end of the 15-minute press conference, the reporter asked him to answer the second part of his original question.

As he got from the table where he was sitting, Knight lightly slapped it a couple times and said, "If I wanted to answer the second part of your question, I would have when you asked it. It's been nice being with you here today."

End of show.

In other news Thursday at the United Center:

• Because of production problems, ESPN decided not to air a new 30-minute edition of Sports Century featuring Knight. The program was supposed to debut Wednesday night but didn't. It is now being put on hold indefinitely. A network official described the problem as a production issue pertaining to the technical quality of the tape.

• Players and Knight were asked about the ESPN movie "A Season on the Brink" featuring actor Brian Dennehy as Knight.

Tech senior Andy Ellis said, "I saw how bad it was made and turned it off."

Knight said he didn't watch it.

• Knight is apparently a fan of SIU.

"From a coaching standpoint, I would enjoy watching Southern Illinois play," Knight said. "They have very good movement. They play hard, disciplined and are well-coached. They're a kind of basketball team that as a coach, if I were going to watch a team play, they'd be a team I'd enjoy watching play."

• The Salukis were 13-0 at home this year. If it goes the way they hope, their fans will help make today's game seem like home by driving upstate from Carbondale, Ill.

"I guess we have a lot of fans coming up," SIU center Rolan Roberts said. "It's in-state, only five hours away. There are a lot of fans looking forward to coming up and supporting us." 766-8733