Knight gets support

LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech coach Bob Knight said there were times he was wrong when his hot temper got the best of him on a basketball court. Not this time, however.

This time, everyone from the player he confronted to the player’s mother and school officials say what Knight did was no big deal.

It all started Monday night when Knight went after Michael Prince, forcefully pushing his chin upward and telling him to look him in the eye, during a timeout late in the Red Raiders’ 86-74 victory over Gardner-Webb.

Athletic director Gerald Myers defended Knight on Tuesday, saying he did nothing wrong when he “quickly lifted” Prince’s chin. The president of the school’s faculty senate, James H. Smith, said Knight’s action was not “physical abuse or violence.”

Knight, with a history of chair throwing, referee baiting and run-ins with school officials, was not available for comment to The Associated Press before Tuesday night’s home game against Arkansas-Little Rock.

“I’m sure there were some cases where I have been wrong, but (Monday night) wasn’t one of them,” Knight told ESPN.com. “I was trying to help a kid, and I think I did.

“I flipped his chin up and told him to look me right in the eye so he could do the job we want. I said, ‘Can you?’ And he said, ‘Yes,’ and I said, ‘OK, sit down and let’s go.’ If that’s an issue, then I’m living in the wrong country.”

Prince told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal after Monday’s game that what happened with the coach “was nothing.”

“He was trying to teach me and I had my head down, so he raised my chin up,” said Prince, who was seen moving his jaw around as he sat on the bench after the confrontation. “He was telling me to go out there and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. He said I was being too hard on myself.”