Kolpack: The night Bob Knight body slammed my question

The first order of business when entering the basketball arena at Texas Tech was to find press row. In hoops, that’s usually not a big deal since it’s usually somewhere close to the court if not at a table on the court.

Wandering around, I asked a nice gentleman where the media from the visiting team, North Dakota State, is sitting.

“Up there,” was his response.

“Where?” I asked.

“Up there, in the corner,” he replied.

It was like way up in the corner, the highest and farthest point possible from the court. Welcome to the world of Bob Knight vs. The Media.

Knight, who died Wednesday at the age of 83, was in his sixth year as the Red Raiders head coach and one of his first orders of business when he took the job in 2001, one season after getting fired at Indiana, apparently, was to move the media that covers the team from courtside to a table so far away that binoculars were required.

Thankfully, because it was still football season, I had a pair in my backpack. This treatment of the media was all explained to me by the Red Raiders beat writer, who didn’t really seem to be enjoying his job.

The game was going the way most people thought, with the Red Raiders taking a nine-point lead at halftime. The star for Tech was guard Jarrius Jackson, who had 13 points in the first half.

But the Bison didn’t go away. This was the Ben Woodside, Brett Winkelman, Mike Nelson, Andre Smith team that, after Smith graduated, eventually would take NDSU to its first NCAA basketball tournament in 2009.

Nelson kept the Bison in the game with 14 points in the first 20 minutes, before the others took over. Woodside heated up. Jackson cooled off, hitting just 1 of 5 field goals in the second half although he did hit key free throws late, including two with 12 seconds remaining to make it a four-point game.

Tech held the Bison off to take an 85-81 win. Afterward, it was hoofing it down many flights of stairs to the postgame press conference.

It was our first glimpse of The General in action. I was struck how big the guy was, 6-foot-5, and the bullying presence that he commanded. No swear word was off the table.

Also interesting: A reporter from Sports Illustrated was one of the first to ask questions. Apparently, the only way the SI writer could get to Knight about a story he was doing on the Knight-Mike Krzyzewski days was to go to the NDSU game and ask afterward.

Coach K played for Knight when he was the head coach at Army. I don’t recall what the story was about, but it’s no secret Coach K distanced himself from the old school coaching ways of Knight over the years.

The reporter threw a few questions at The General. The last one didn’t get answered.

“Haven’t I (bleepin) given you (bleepin) enough?” Knight sternly asked him.

On to the game. Thankfully, I had a story to do. It was my turn and my question went something like this: “Coach, Jarrius Jackson was 1 of 5 in …. “

The General piped in, rather sternly.

“JACKSON DIDN’T PLAY WELL, NEXT QUESTION!!!”

Boom, stomped in my place by The General.

Man, what a tough guy to play for. Jackson may have struggled from the field but he was a cool cucumber down the stretch finishing 11 of 12 from the free throw line. I’m guessing that’s where I was going with my question.

Knight did, it should be noted, give NDSU several props, saying the Bison should have won the game. He went into the NDSU locker room after the game and congratulated the visitors on how they played.

“They outhustled us, they outplayed us, they outfought us,” he said to reporters. “You know, it was really a shame that we won the game from the standpoint of somebody watching basketball. Those kids came down here … and just had their minds made up that they were really going to play.”

Evidently, they played harder than Jarrius Jackson.