NIT SEASON TIP-OFF

November 28, 2003

Bob Knight

BOBBY KNIGHT: I told our team yesterday that I was as impressed with watching Georgia Tech play in this game the other night as I have been with the team in a long time. I think they are really well put together, extremely well coached and beyond that, there's an energy there that if -- I wish I could have been a spectator tonight. I could have enjoyed the game. There's an energy there that they have when they play. I think this is a very, very good basketball team. And they have got a lot of players back from last year. They lost that kid in the middle, but I think that's maybe really helped them. These kids, it seems to me, we played them before we came out here last year in the third round of the NIT, and then again now, and they were pretty good last year. But they are very good now. It seems to me that they have developed a determination to be good, they have got good depth, unselfish. You know, all of the characteristics as a coach that you would like to see in a basketball team, they have. In my mind, as I watched the game last night, they were definitely the better team. It wasn't a matter of, hey, I don't know whether UCONN could beat them or not. At this point, I sure as hell don't think we can. But from a coaching standpoint, they are really enjoyable to watch. Anybody got a question?

BOBBY KNIGHT: No. No. He's a tough kid. He's 6-6, 225 or 230. He's just a tough kid that plays his ass off. We knew that last year. These kids are a year older, they are playing and they just -- they really are, as I said, if I hadn't been coaching, I would have really enjoyed watching them play.

BOBBY KNIGHT: You'd have to ask them. I don't know how they feel about that. Sometimes you're ranked and sometimes you aren't and sometimes -- I don't know. That's all.

BOBBY KNIGHT: Well, if that's the case, they didn't listen to anything I said, because I told them how good this team was. Who makes the ranking? You know, usually people that have no idea what basketball is all about.

BOBBY KNIGHT: I think they all played -- they just played. They have got three guys that can post, they are all over the court, they really go after things, there's no reliance on any person. They just all come to play.

BOBBY KNIGHT: Well, we were quicker than the teams we played up until this point. The four teams we played, we were quicker than all of them. So we got by defensively on quickness. This team tonight was infinitely tougher than we are. I can't even make a comparison in toughness, tonight. And every bit as quick, if not quicker. And the game that we played tonight was incredibly increased in terms of the energy confronting us, as opposed to the first four games we played. As I said, and I told our team this, we got against a team that was every bit as quick as we are and played quicker and played with more energy. So we go back, see what we can do about that.