Robert Montgomery Knight aka "The General" reached his 900th career victory last night as the Texas Tech Red Raiders defeated 10th ranked Texas A&M. Knight, being his usual candid self had this to say about the achievement.

"This thing never entered my mind, I could care less about this. I'm just happy to get it over with."

To tell you the truth, I believe his statement. I really don't think Knight has been thinking about or pondering this achievement in his career. He's always been more interested in the task at hand and doesn't like to deal with the hoopla of his actions, good or bad. 

In Knight's 42 years on the sidelines, he has compiled many great achievements, most of them while at IU. As an IU fan it has been somewhat disconcerting to see Knight compile these relatively huge achievements while not wearing the Crimson sweater on the sidelines of Assembly Hall. It took me a while to get over his zero tolerance firing/departure in 2000. The Mike Davis era did nothing to dissuade those thoughts. Sure, the 2002 Final Four team was nice, but the overarching feeling during that time was that these were Knight's players, not Mike Davis'. Davis was not dealt a fair hand while at IU, but regardless was still not a very good coach in my opinion and needed to go. However, I don't think any coach would have been truly accepted by the fans after directly following the legendary Bob Knight. Luckily, it seems that the IU fans have mostly embraced Kelvin Sampson despite his off-court misgivings. It helps that he has brought back some of the hard nose play that Hoosier fans were accustomed to under Knight.

While Knight hasn't won a National Championship since the '86-87' season he has still be racking up the wins year by year. During his tenure at IU he won 662 games and became a legend, winning 3 National Championships. Since taking over at Texas Tech in 2001, he has turned the laughable Red Raiders into a respectable program winning 126 games while making four NCAA Tournament appearances in his six seasons as coach. 

I grew up watching the Hoosiers with Knight at the helm. I was able to see a lot of his positives and a lot of his negatives in that span.He was a great coach who emphasized team ball in a growing individualistic game. It was sad to see him leave IU, but it was probably his time to go. The relationships with key IU administrators, boosters and fans was growing stale as was his dictator like coaching style. He needed a fresh start and that's what he received at the relatively anonymous Texas Tech.

Knight will surely go down as one of the greatest college coaches in history. However, despite his standing as the winningest coach in history, I don't think he will ever be called the singular greatest coach. That distinguished title will remain with Dean Smith or will be passed on to Mike Krzyzewski due to Knight's many controversies and the fact that they were viewed as less abrasive. It would have been nice for Knight to reach these milestones while at IU, but you can't live in the past. Bobby Knight surely doesn't and neither should we.

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