Last laugh - Bobby Knight finds success with a new team

Sure, Bob Knight still gets fired up, his mood sometimes as dark as his black Texas Tech sweater. A coach can't turn around a college basketball team without yelling occasionally.

Still, the man with the famous temper and three national championships has behaved about as well as he's coached this season, never getting ejected, never even receiving a technical foul.

One thing has remained the same after his one-year absence from the sport: winning. The Hall of Fame coach more than doubled the Red Raiders' victories in his first season and is leading them into their first NCAA tournament since 1996.

Knight also quieted critics who thought he had already lost his touch when Indiana fired him in 2000 for a "pattern of unacceptable behavior" or that his outbursts would get him in trouble at another school.

"I doubt if he'd admit it, but it's got to feel good to get the last laugh," said his son, Pat, a Tech assistant coach.

Rather than thumb his nose -- or make any other hand gestures -- toward those who said he wouldn't even be employed this long, Knight is letting the fact his team is playing in mid-March speak for itself.

"About 250 teams are out of it and you're still in it," he said. "I think that's something that you're pleased about every year."

Pretty tame stuff for Knight. Could it be that, at 61, after enduring an ugly divorce from Indiana after 29 years, he really is mellowing?

"I don't think he's near as volatile as people make him out to be," said Andy Ellis, Tech's leader. "He's been pretty good to us."

The Red Raiders are 23-8, a huge leap from their 9-19 record last season under James Dickey. They tied for third in the Big 12, far exceeding the 10th-place prediction of league coaches.

Despite a 40-point loss to Kansas in the conference tournament semifinals, Tech was seeded sixth in the NCAAs and will play Southern Illinois (26-7) on Friday in Chicago, a short drive from Knight's old stomping grounds.

Regardless of his reception, Knight probably won't react much. He's been on his best behavior this season, for the most part.

There was a heated conversation in December with the general manager of the Compaq Center in Houston about facilities Knight said were too cramped for "four midgets." The arena official, Jerry MacDonald, said Knight cursed at him and dared him to fight. MacDonald later apologized, although he never backed down from his account of what happened.

In recent weeks, Knight has shown more of his softer side.

He rushed to close friend Bob Hammel when the writer collapsed during the Big 12 tournament. After the game, Knight went straight to the hospital to be with Hammel, who helped the coach write his upcoming biography.

A few days earlier, Knight was speaking to reporters in Lubbock, Texas, when he leaned back on a chair and it broke. He tossed it aside, then said: "That's the furthest I've thrown a chair in a long time."

Hurling a chair across the court during a game was among Knight's most infamous moments. He also once punched a police officer, kicked a chair son Pat was sitting on, was caught on videotape grabbing a player by the neck, and was frequently accused of verbal abuse.

Indiana fired him after he grabbed the arm of a student who said, "What's up, Knight?" and lectured him on manners.

After a year off, Knight came back because he liked Lubbock, considered the Big 12 a challenge and was happy to work for a longtime friend, athletic director Gerald Myers, and a supportive school president, David Schmidly.

Myers and Schmidly were accused of a publicity stunt. Others said they were lowering Tech's standards for a win-at-any-cost approach. And they were ridiculed for giving Knight a five-year contract with no escape clauses for behavior.

They insisted Knight could still coach and deserved another chance.

"Our fans didn't expect anything like this," said Myers, Tech's coach from 1971-91. "I think they thought if we'd win more than we lost it would have been a good year."

Knight laid down the law early, replacing four players shortly after taking over. Those who stayed knew they had to learn Knight's offensive system and play tight man-to-man defense -- or else.

"There's no playfulness out there," forward Kasib Powell said. "When you got out there, you've got to do your work."

Despite the success, it's been just one season. That only counts as a good start.

"It's worked out well," said Walter Schaller, a Tech professor who led a petition against Knight's hiring, "so far."