Pat Knight is most definitely not his father. He's nowhere near as, um, insane, and he isn't as prone to throwing chairs. But he does seem to find interesting ways to motivate the troops, just like his dad did. Apparently last Thursday, in a game no one would have seen, Texas Tech played Stephen F. Austin. The problem for Knight was that his team was continually missing layups, something that not only drives Knight crazy, but me as well. So how do you get your team to start making those layups? Well, don't just tell them they're worse than a 12-year-old, actually get the 12-year-old to do it for you.
Knight actually picked a kid out of the stands, and during a team timeout, brought the kid into the team huddle on the sideline. Hilarity ensued:
Knight asked the boy whether he could make layups. The boy said he could.
“I was just tired of having 18- or 21-year-olds miss layups that a 12-year-old could hit, so I brought a 12-year-old in to let them know that he could hit layups,” Knight said. “He’s 12, and he can hit layups, so why can’t you when you’re 18 to 21?”
You know what, I can't disagree. There are way too many college games where I've seen players brick shots that rec league guys make on a consistent basis. Anyway, Texas Tech wound up winning, mainly because despite missing all those layups, it was Stephen F. Austin they were playing. In fact, Knight probably could have put the kid in the game, and they still would have won. Plus we also would have gotten to see if in fact a 12-year-old can make a layup against college level competition, which is something that has obviously haunted my consciousness for years on end.
Pat Knight uses small boy to teach team a valuable lesson [The Dagger]
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