Can Pat Knight Survive At Texas Tech?

When Pat Knight took over for his father Bobby at Texas Tech in the middle of the 2007-08 season, many wondered how long he could last. Pat seems like a nice guy and has a solid basketball mind, but he’s not a dynamic coach and the Big 12 is a very tough basketball conference.

As recently as nine days ago, Knight’s Texas Tech team was 8-11 on the season and 0-4 in the Big 12. Since then the Red Raiders have won three straight, with home victories over Nebraska and Oklahoma State sandwiched around a road win over Iowa State.

The problem for Knight is an upcoming stretch against No. 6 Kansas, No. 8 Texas, No. 11 Texas A&M and No. 13 Missouri over the next four games. If the Raiders can’t get a win out of one of those games Knight’s seat could start to heat up.

Texas Tech had a four-game Big 12 losing streak already this season, when it dropped consecutive games to Baylor, Texas, Kansas State and Oklahoma. That immediately preceded the team’s current three-game winning streak. Another four-game losing streak would be tough to take, but that might be inevitable.

That would put the Red Raiders at 11-15 and 3-8, in the Big 12 and firmly out of postseason contention.

In Knight’s first year the Raiders finished 4-7 and didn’t make a tournament. In 2008-09 he guided them to a 14-19 mark and again, missed the postseason. Last year the Raiders reached the NIT Quarterfinals and finished with a 19-16 record. So far in Lubbock, Knight has a 48-53 record, and is just 14-35 in Big 12 games.

Unless the Raiders continue their run of solid play, these could be the end of the Knight Dynasty at Texas Tech.