Knight agrees to contract extension

LUBBOCK, Texas -- Bob Knight agreed to a three-year contract extension that will keep the basketball coach at Texas Tech until 2009.\nAthletic director Gerald Myers told The Associated Press Wednesday the agreement probably will be signed next week. Knight's contract pays him $250,000 a year and runs through May 2006.\nKnight needs 48 victories to overtake Dean Smith (879) as the winningest coach in Division I. He has led Texas Tech to three consecutive seasons of at least 20 wins and taken the Red Raiders to postseason play each year.\n"I'm pleased with the direction our program," Myers said. "He's done a great job turning everything around. I think the future really looks good for us."\nKnight is on vacation in Canada and was unavailable to comment Wednesday.\n"I look forward to doing this a long time," he said in Wednesday's Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. "This is the best possible situation for me as long as I coach."\nHe will begin his fourth season at Tech -- his 39th overall -- with 832 wins. He is the victory leader among active coaches following the retirement of Jimmy Phelan of Mount St. Mary's in 2003.\nKnight was hired by Texas Tech in 2001, six months after he was fired by IU for what then-school President Myles Brand called his "pattern of unacceptable behavior"