Time hasn't healed Knight-Sampson rivalry
Texas Tech coach still ticked off about clock errors
01:47 AM CST on Monday, January 19, 2004
By BRIAN DAVIS / The Dallas Morning News
LUBBOCK ? The rhetoric cooled last spring, but there's still a touch of resentment in Bob Knight's voice when the topic turns toward Oklahoma.
Two timing errors helped OU defeat Tech, 69-64, in overtime last January in Norman. The Big 12 determined that human error was the culprit. Knight acted as if he assumed Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson would forfeit the game, which he didn't, and whatever relationship the two coaches had suddenly disappeared.
No. 22 Texas Tech and No. 11 Oklahoma meet for the first time this season tonight at United Spirit Arena. Both coaches said the clock issue is dead, yet there are enough smoldering coals to ignite an intense rivalry between the two men and their players.
Tech (14-2, 2-0 Big 12) enters the ESPN "Big Monday" matchup on a roll, having won 10 in a row. Oklahoma (10-3, 0-2) is trying to avoid its first four-game losing streak since January 1999.
"We played them again after what happened up there last year twice," Knight said Saturday. "I feel just like I did then."
Also Saturday, Sampson said: "I've got nothing to say about none of that."
Before the controversial finish, Knight and Sampson appeared to be buddy-buddy. Knight came out of the locker room and playfully loosened Sampson's necktie, and the two exchanged smiles and side hugs. It was the polar opposite afterward.
"It's a game I'll consider that we won because of what happened," Knight said leading up to the Tech-OU rematch in Lubbock last Feb. 15. "It's a shame there's not enough integrity in college athletics. What they did or didn't do up there has disturbed me more than anything I've experienced in college athletics."
Sampson said his integrity was beyond reproach during a news conference after OU won that game, 63-58.
"Say what you want, but don't ever question this program's integrity," he said.
Since the controversial finish, the Big 12 has implemented new equipment from Precision Timing. The company produces small switches roughly the size of a pager that officials wear on their waist to start and stop the clock.
Tech athletic director Gerald Myers said the Tech-OU clock situation did not come up for major discussion at the last round of Big 12 meetings.
When Tech played Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla., Knight was firing away again.
"That crap at Oklahoma and the way Oklahoma handled it," he said, "I think really had an effect on us for a little bit. That's a huge thing taken away from us there."
The Sooners defeated the Raiders a third time last season at the Big 12 tournament, 67-60. Knight and Sampson looked like two silent ships passing in the night on a stairwell that led in and out of a news conference.
Now, they talk about each other in distant, detached tones. Yet as long as the two are in the same league, the clock issue will always be at the forefront when their teams meet.
"What difference does it make?" Sampson said when asked to discuss his relationship with Knight. "He's a Hall of Fame coach. He doesn't need to get along with me."
Knight said: "He's not a guy in coaching that I know particularly well."
Staff Writers Rick Alonzo and Keith Whitmire contributed to this report.
E-mail
brdavis@dallasnews.com
FALTERING AGAINST OU
Bob Knight is 1-4 against Oklahoma since becoming Texas Tech's coach in the 2001-02 season. Below is a look at Knight's record against the Sooners, along with Oklahoma's Associated Press ranking at the time of each game:
Date OU's AP rank Result
1/12/02 5th L, 98-72
1/26/02 6th W, 92-79
1/20/03 7th L, 69-64 OT
2/15/03 5th L, 63-58
3/15/03 6th L, 67-60 OT
No. 11 Oklahoma (10-3, 0-2) at No. 22 Texas Tech (14-2, 2-0), 8 p.m. tonight, United Spirit Arena, Lubbock (ESPN)
