The Texas Tech University Red Raiders basketball team competes in the highly competitive Big 12 Conference alongside powerful timeless programs like the University of Kansas and the University of Texas. While the Big 12 is known predominantly across the country as a soccer conference, the grouping of 12 teams from seven states (Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas) consistently sends 5-6 teams to the NCAA tournament every March. . In many respects, the success of the Big 12 in American football (having appeared in 7 of the last 10 national championship games) overshadows the achievements on the field where each season teams like the Texas Tech Red Raiders step up. and they have a significant impact on college. basketball landscape
Located in the West Texas city of Lubbock, the Texas Tech Red Raiders and its 30,000 students (24,000 undergraduate and 6,000 graduate) are typically associated with its soccer program despite the fact that basketball has had a similar level of success. Over the years, the Red Raiders have won 5 conference tournaments and 6 regular season championships during their time in the now-defunct Southwest Conference (dissolved in May 1996). The Texas Tech program has 14 impressive NCAA tournament appearances under its belt and has had the distinction of sending a dozen players to play professional basketball in the NBA.
Pat Knight leads current Texas Tech University Red Raiders (February 2010). Pat is the son of former Red Raiders coach and basketball Hall of Famer Bob Knight. To the surprise of college basketball fans, Pat Knight assumed head coaching responsibilities at Texas Tech for his father mid-season in 2008. Coach Pat Knight first joined the Red Raiders in 2000 as an assistant. In March 2001, Pat’s father, legendary coach Bob Knight, was hired to replace James Dickey as Texas Tech’s head coach. Although Pat was chosen in 2005 to be the heir apparent when his father resigned from the The moment of Bobby Knight’s midseason retirement on February 4, 2008, still took much of the nation by surprise.
Before retirement, Bob Knight had a successful coaching season at Texas Tech University that ended with a 138-82 record for 7 seasons. Although Bobby Knight did not experience the same level of success that he had previously in his coaching career, while with Indiana, where he won multiple national championships, his impact on the Texas Tech Red Raiders program was undoubtedly positive. During his time in Lubbock, Coach Knight reached record milestones that brought an unprecedented amount of attention to the Texas Tech basketball program during a time when the school likely would have been off the radar of most major college basketball stories. . On New Years Day 2007, Bob Knight surpassed Dean Smith for sole possession of the most coaching victories of all time with 880 to his name. Just over a year later, on January 16, 2008, Knight became the first men’s college basketball coach to reach the 900-win mark.
Texas Tech University’s Red Raiders basketball program has had its fair share of high and low seasons during its long existence dating back to 1925. Fans close to the program are optimistic that Pat Knight will return the beloved program to national prominence in the last years. come.