Kansas St.-Texas Tech Preview

2/12/2008 3:35 PM

By DAN PIERINGER
STATS Writer

Bob Knight resigned from Texas Tech with more career wins than any other coach in Division I history. His son and successor, Pat, is still looking for his first.

Getting that elusive victory could be a challenge on Wednesday when Knight's Red Raiders host freshman phenom Michael Beasley and 18th-ranked Kansas State in a Big 12 matchup.

Bob Knight won three national championships and a Division I record 902 career games while coaching 42 seasons with three programs, including the last seven at Texas Tech. The 67-year-old Knight was under contract through the 2011-12 season, but abruptly resigned last Monday.

He left the Red Raiders (12-10, 3-5) in the hands of Texas Tech assistant Pat Knight, who was appointed his father's successor in 2005.

Pat's first career head coaching job hasn't started out as well as he hoped. He lost his debut 80-74 at Baylor two days after taking over the job, then fell 73-62 at Nebraska on Saturday.

"I kind of got baptized by fire," Knight said. "But the only bad thing is, I come off the road and now I've got to go face Michael Beasley. So it's still not getting any easier."

Beasley is in the nation's top five in scoring (25.2 points per game) and rebounding (12.3 rpg). The 19-year-old freshman has led the Wildcats (17-5, 7-1) to the best conference record in the Big 12.

Kansas State's lone conference loss was at Missouri on Feb. 2, but the Wildcats have beaten then-No. 10 Texas A&M and then-No. 2 Kansas during their best Big 12 start since the conference was created before the 1996-97 season.

"That's basically what we're doing, we're coming together as a team," freshman point guard Jacob Pullen said. "We're just focusing and we are all clicking, we know where everyone is at."

Beasley had 23 points and 13 rebounds for his school-record 19th double-double as Kansas State overcame its season-low 38.7 percent shooting to beat Oklahoma State 82-61 on Saturday.

Though they struggled from the field, the Wildcats made up for it by grabbing a season-high 29 offensive rebounds. Five of those were by Beasley, who needs three more double-doubles to match Carmelo Anthony's NCAA freshman record set with Syracuse in 2002-03.

More importantly, Beasley and the Wildcats appear poised for a strong finish and perhaps a deep run in their first NCAA tournament since 1996.

"I think we can do it, I think we can be champions," Beasley said. "I think we can win (the Big 12) tournament and the next one. We just got to keep playing like we are playing."

Kansas State snapped a five-game losing streak against Texas Tech with a 66-45 win in the 2007 Big 12 tournament quarterfinals. That victory evened the series between these teams at 11.

The Red Raiders have a 6-4 advantage against the Wildcats in Lubbock, where they're 10-1 this season. They'll go for their seventh straight win there as they try to avoid their first three-game skid of the season.

Extending that home win streak will likely require better accuracy from the field. The Red Raiders are shooting 46.2 percent on the season, but have connected on only 40.5 percent in Knight's first two games at the helm.

"Look how many close shots we missed," Knight said after Saturday's loss. "We have to score. We have to put the ball in the bucket."