Bobby Knight is taking his combustible act from the sidelines to a place where it may be more acceptable — television.
Knight, who recently resigned from Texas Tech, will join ESPN as a college basketball analyst next month. Knight will begin on March 12, and will contribute to ESPN studio coverage of Championship Week and the NCAA Tournament.
In an ESPN press release, Knight said he was “[looking] forward to working with some of [ESPN’s] people who I have known a long time.” While Knight has had notable run-ins with some ESPN personalities — notably Jeremy Schaap and Fran Fraschilla — the volatile coach has been a sort of fascination for the Worldwide Leader in Sports.
In 2002, the network aired its first television movie, A Season on the Brink, about the Knight-led 1985-86 Indiana Hoosiers. Brian Dennehy was cast as Knight, in a role that required “over twenty” expletives. In 2005, ESPN aired a reality show called Knight School, in which students at Texas Tech attempted to make Knight’s basketball team as walk-ons.
