Knight considering Texas Tech coaching job

Embattled former IU men's basketball coach Bob Knight might end up as coach of the Texas Tech program.\nJames Dickey was fired Friday as Texas Tech's basketball coach, clearing the way for the possible hiring of Knight.\nAthletics director Gerald Myers told The Associated Press the decision to drop Dickey was made a week ago and that he and school president David Schmidly met with Knight on Monday in Florida.\n"We felt it was necessary for us to talk to Bob Knight to assess his interest and also our interest," said Myers, who preceded Dickey as Tech's coach and is longtime friends with Knight.\nMyers told the AP he spoke with Knight on Friday to tell him he was making the announcement "and that we would be in touch with him in the near future to discuss the possibility of a campus visit."\n"I would say he'd be a top candidate for this job, although we're not to a point of saying who the top candidates are," Myers said.\nBut a close friend of Knight's said it's not a done deal. And people around Lubbock, Texas, might not want him.\n"I think generally a lot of people don't agree with the decision, if that's what happens," said Wallace Waits, a Lubbock native and employee at Champs Sports. "Everyone I've talked to thinks we can do better with someone else. Not necessarily a better basketball coach, but maybe someone who everyone can get along with better." \nDigger Phelps, a close friend of Knight's who spent time with him after he was dismissed from IU, told an ESPN audience Knight isn't sold on Texas Tech. Phelps indicated there was a second program that interested Knight, and said he doesn't expect a final decision in the immediate future.\nPaul Lusk, employee of Lubbock's Aroma Coffeehouse, said some customers are supporting Knight to coach at Texas Tech. But he said public opinion is scattered.\n"I've heard mixed reviews," Lusk said. "But personally, I don't care -- I'm not a big basketball fan. I've heard people say he may be good for the school."\nDickey's season ended Thursday with a 71-59 loss to Oklahoma State in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament.\nDickey, under fire as the Red Raiders went 9-19 overall and 3-13 in the Big 12, told The Associated Press he heard the reports that administrators are talking to Knight about the job, but no one talked to him about it.\n"I have not had any information at all from our administration," Dickey told The Associated Press early Thursday from his hotel room in Kansas City, before his team's loss to Oklahoma State.\nDickey learned of Knight's potential hiring from reporters and friends in Lubbock who watched the story unfold on television.\n"We have had a lot of our friends call us from Lubbock," Dickey said. "They just wondered if we knew anything and the answer is 'No, we don't.'"\nA week ago, Tech administrators said they would evaluate Dickey and his team's performance, the University Daily, Texas Tech's student newspaper, reported.\n"I am concerned about it," Schmidly told Lubbock media outlets March 1. "Hopefully, we're going to get that turned around. We're going to be reviewing that after the season. I don't want to say anything else about it until after the season."\nDickey acknowledged he has met with Schmidly and Myers, neither giving him an indication of what his future with the school might hold. \nAs part of Dickey's contract with Texas Tech, "It is agreed that neither the men's basketball team's win-loss record or attendance at men's basketball games shall constitute good cause for termination under this provision."\nAttendance has dwindled in the last two years since opening a new arena in 1999 with a game against IU and Knight.\nKnight was fired from IU Sept. 10 after violating a zero-tolerance policy imposed on him earlier by IU President Myles Brand.\nThe Associated Press contributed to this report.