Dissatisfied Knight declines $250,000 salary

LUBBOCK, Texas -- Bob Knight told Texas Tech he wouldn't accept his $250,000 coaching salary this year because his team failed to live up to his expectations -- and so did he.\n"He has standards," Texas Tech men's basketball spokesman Randy Farley said Monday. "He just didn't meet his standards, and so he said, 'I don't think I should be paid for that.'"\nTech (16-10, 6-10 Big 12) is the No. 7 seed in the Big 12 conference tournament in Dallas and plays Baylor on Thursday night.\nKnight was not available for comment late Monday, but he told the Dallas Morning News that he was taking the blame.\n"I'm just not at all satisfied with what transpired with our team in terms of our fundamental execution. I don't think it's anybody's fault but mine," Knight told the newspaper for its online edition.\n"You heard me talk after games all season long about missed opportunities and how we didn't see things (on the court). Those are things that have got to be taught. Learning those things is just as much a responsibility of the teacher as the ones learning those things," he was quoted as saying.\nLast season, Knight led the team to a 23-9 record and to the NCAA tournament. Before his arrival in March 2001, Tech hadn't had a winning season in four years.\nThis year could be Knight's first without 20 wins since 1995, when Indiana went 19-12.\nTech will probably need to win the conference tournament to make the NCAA field for the second straight year. Knight has said his team would accept an NIT bid if offered.\nIn his 29 years at Indiana, Knight won three NCAA national championships and had just seven seasons in which his teams failed to win 20 games.\nHis five-year contract is worth $4.5 million. He makes $250,000 in base pay, $150,000 in deferred annual income and $500,000 in guaranteed outside income through May 2006.\nKnight told Tech athletic director Gerald Myers last week that he was planning on giving up his salary this season.\nMyers said he tried to dissuade Knight, but it didn't work. "This is what he made up his mind to do. I think he's too hard on himself," Myers said. "I think he's done a great job these last two years, all the things he's done for this program, this university. There's no question that he earns his salary and more every day"