Bob Knight Gets Wins Record

Passes Dean Smith For Winningest College Basketball Coach

(AP) 
"I think it was fun at the beginning of the season," Pat Knight said. "These last two weeks have been nerve-racking for him. Same for the team. Now that we've got it over with, it's a great accomplishment, and we can get back to playing basketball."

Already a Hall of Famer, Knight's overall record is 880-354 with three national championships, including a perfect season in 1976 that has yet to be duplicated. Of course, he's just as well known for his run-ins with players, bosses, officials and others. He punched a policeman in Puerto Rico and sent a chair tumbling across a court in protest of a referee's call.

Only the color of his sweater has changed since moving to this college basketball outpost in 2001.

The chin-jerking of Prince is proof he hasn't mellowed with age. The locals don't seem to mind, not with his motion offense and man-to-man defense bringing unprecedented success, starting with his first season.

Knight has felt so at home that he's talked about settling down here permanently once he's done coaching - whenever that is.

Although Tech put in writing last year that Pat will be the program's next coach, the 66-year-old Knight is in no hurry to retire. He recently agreed to a contract extension through the
2010-11 season.

That doesn't bode well for anyone hoping to overtake Knight on the wins list.

Arizona's Lute Olson is second among active coaches with 772 wins. But at 72, and also under contract through 2011, he is not likely to make up enough ground.

Krzyzewski has 765 wins and is 59. However, Coach K would be 64 in 2011 and might still be 100 wins behind.

Even if Knight only bumps the mark to 900, it would take 45 years of 20 wins per season to match that. At the unlikely rate of 25 wins per season, it would take 36 years.

Knight had the advantage of breaking into the business at Army when he was only 24. Hence his nickname, "The General."

While the mark is impressive, Knight admits it's a byproduct of longevity. The ultimate standard of college basketball coaching excellence is the 10 national titles won by UCLA's John Wooden, all in a 12-year span.

Also worth noting: Tennessee women's coach Pat Summitt has won the most NCAA games, 925; and Harry Statham of NAIA McKendree College in Lebanon, Ill., has won the most men's games at a four-year college, 925.

[bluestardad]

Way to go General! The Academics at Indiana University and the NCAA can pound it up their back sides. They are nothing and will never be anything. No one knows their names! You are the greatest coach of all time.

[jhindson1]

Knight should have been banned a long time ago.
He is a horrible role model, and a bully.

[dirtyharry02]

This guy reminds me of my father-in-law.... an ***.

Congrats, ***.

[reader42]

Passes Dean Smith For Winningest College Basketball Coach????

Jeez. A little precision (and fact-checking) wouldn't go amiss. Knight is now the winningest coach for MEN'S basketball. But for overall wins, Tennessee's Pat Summitt was at 913 when this season started.