I’ve got news for him.

It is.

The main reason, of course, is because Knight’s old buddy – Johnny Orr – is hitting golf balls in Florida instead of trying to win basketball games at Hilton Coliseum.

Knight was asked this morning what went into the scheduling of his previous games against Iowa State.

One answer.

Johnny Orr.

"We scheduled those games because Johnny Orr was there," Knight said.

Gee, I thought it was because Knight wanted to have lunch with Floyd Manwiller so he could find out what was new in Iowa State’s forestry department.

"We’ve always been good friends," Knight said of his relationship with Orr, not Manwiller. "I’ve always enjoyed him and enjoyed playing his teams. We’ve been good friends as long as we’ve known one another."

But time marches on.

Orr left Michigan on his own terms. Knight left Indiana because he was told to leave.

Orr, who thought he was underpaid at Michigan, left to coach at Iowa State. After being fired by Indiana, Knight took the Texas Tech job.

I’ve written a number of times about how much Knight admired Orr. When Johnny brought his act to Ames, I was living another writing life and Knight called to ask if he could author a guest column for me.

I figured I could use a day off, so I let Knight write the column. He did all right. He even spelled most of the words correctly.

I had gotten to know Knight a few years earlier. He liked something I had written about him, called me at home and said we should have dinner at The Lark in Tiffin the next time he was in Iowa City for a game against Iowa.

The dinner was good, Knight was entertaining.

I had to skip dinner with my old writing buddy, Marc Hansen, that night. But I think he understood. He said whenever a guy gets the chance to dine with The General, go for it.

Since then, lots of things have changed. The Lark has burned down. Knight has moved to Lubbock, Texas. Tim Floyd replaced Orr as Iowa State’s coach. Larry Eustachy replaced Floyd. The Chicago Bulls fired Floyd. Sellouts are a thing of the past at Hilton Coliseum. Hilton Magic is a thing of the past, too. Hansen doesn’t have to worry about deadlines in Iowa City, Ames or Ann Arbor. My life has gotten a hell of a lot simpler, too.

To further show how much Knight thought of Orr when he was still at Indiana, Knight agreed to play some games against Iowa State. Knight won all four of them—one by the score of 115-66. No wonder he likes Johnny so much.

Knight’s break-in season at Texas Tech produced records of 23-9 overall and 10-6 in the Big 12. One of the victories was over Iowa State, 69-43.

The Red Raiders are 13-6 overall and only 3-5 in the Big 12, and it’s going to be difficult for them to make the NCAA tournament. They have eight regular-season games, plus the Big 12 tournament, remaining.

My guess is they’ll lose six of those regular-season games—to Iowa State, Oklahoma, Texas twice, Oklahoma State and Kansas.

They’ll beat Texas A&M and Baylor, leaving them with a 5-11 Big 12 record. Their only chance to get into the Big Dance will be to win the Big 12 tournament—something Knight would prefer not to even play in.

The subject of postseason tournaments was another that came up with Knight this morning. Eustachy was a no-show on the Big 12 coaches’ call, so nobody could ask him about it.

But I can answer for him. Eustachy had better be glad the Big 12 has a tournament. He’ll need to win it in order to have any chance of staying out of the Little Dance, otherwise known as the NIT.

"I’ve always been very much in favor of not having a conference tournament," Knight said. "You play all year to determine a conference champion over how many games a conference plays—14, 16 or 18, whatever it is. I’ve always felt the conference championship was a great championship, but it becomes diluted with a tournament.

"Then the team that wins the conference tournament through three games thinks it’s the champion instead of the team that won it in the regular season…."