Anybody covered Bob Knight?

I've never actually met someone who has covered Bob Knight on a regular basis, and I'm curious what it's like. It seems like total hell, a point driven home when he brought his grandson onto the podium and did that demeaning press conference and not one person laughed.
Anyway, I guess I'm just seeking general thoughts. It seems like (very) occasionally, he's great, and then becomes an uber-asshole 99 percent of the rest of the time.
How do you cover Texas Tech? How do you write anything remotely interesting? Do you just give up? Do you rip him? Does anybody ever challenge him? Do you just hope he dies?

 

I covered him in college. He is not as bad as everyone says he is. I always looked forward to his press conferences win or lose.

 

Did you ever ask him any questions at the press conferences?

 

All the Time

 

Did he make fun of the question? He does that a lot to reporters to try to intimidate them, it seems to me.

 

My very first question to him he fired back at me..and yes..it scared the shit out of me..But once you show him you're not scared to talk to him he is just like any other coach. If you make him laugh..you're in.

He is very tough on the visiting media. He toys with them a lot. He knows exactly what he is doing, and the hometown media loves to watch him mess with them.

He hates TV journalists for the obvious reason---they ask dumb questions. 90% of the time he turns away from their questions.

 

"Media" is plural. Conjugate accordingly (sorry, that's a major pet peeve of mine).

 

Wow, that sounds real professional.

 

One of my pet peeves is reporters who don't ask questions at press conferences, so I am glad you are not deterred by Bob Knight, tex.

He is one of those hate-him or love-him guys.

 

The one thing he did which was completely bush league was when he made up a European player who was supposedly a recruit. Maybe the people at the press conference couldn't question that immediately, but there are any number of people who know European players. Maybe he tried to make the reporters look like a fool, but he ended up a fool.

It is noteworthy that he is setting coaching records in Lubbock, Texas, far off any serious basketball crossroad. That is a definition of purgatory.

 

I know several guys who have covered him and the consensus is that he makes you great at your job because you have to be on your toes at all times and think out every question very, very carefully...

He's also never boring, which counts for a lot...

 

I asked him a question last year, after a first-round loss in the NCAA tournament. It was a total BS question, forced on me because the publisher insisted I write something about a kid who played for TT, who had played one season at a local high school here.
He handled it fine, and was somewhat genuine in his answer.