Knight meets his match

Texas Tech head coach Bob Knight talks with his son and head coach designate Pat Knight, left, during practice for the NCAA East Regional basketball tournament Wednesday, March 14, 2007, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Texas Tech will play Boston College Thursday.

March 14, 2007

By Michael Vega, Boston Globe Staff

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. --Texas Tech coach Bob Knight, in addition to being the winningest NCAA Division 1 men's basketball coach, is also something of a performance artist, especially when it comes to holding court at NCAA Tournament press conferences at which he has been known to brow beat the media.

But Knight seemed to meet his match when he went head-to-head with our man, Bob Ryan, who in addition to being a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame is also a consummate baseball man, with an amazing encyclopedic knowledge of the game and equally amazing recall of every game he's ever watched and/or covered for the Globe, and then some.

So when Ryan raised his hand to ask Knight, ``Coach what do you most like about the make up of this team and what concerns you about it?'' Knight playfully pointed out, ``Where did you get that tan?''

``Florida, spring training,'' Ryan replied, ``hanging out with your buddy [Tony] La Russa, among others. So what do you you like about your team . . .?''

Knight, looking to throw Ryan off his game, replied, ``What do you like most about the Cardinals?''

It was a softball serve Ryan was only too happy to bat out of the ballpark when he shot back, ``Albert Pujols.''

In what had to rank as an NCAA Tournament first, Knight was momentarily silenced at his press conference, if not stumped.

``That's a brilliant answer for a writer, I want to tell you,'' Knight said, in a laudatory tone. ``I'm not kidding you, that is really good. I mean you kind of stuck it to me with that answer, I can tell you. I didn't think you could come up with an answer that good; that is REALLY good.''

Knight then proceeded to thoughtfully answer Ryan's original query.

At the conclusion of his press conference, Knight metaphorically doffed his cap (Cardinals, we presume) at Ryan, saying before he arose from the dais, ``Pujols! Pujols! I'll be laying, taking my dying breath, and my wife will say, `What are you thinking about? I'll look up at her and say, `Karen, you cannot believe that sonofabitch Ryan came up with Pujols.' ''