No Cell Phones When Bob Knight Is Around

It should come as no great surprise that Texas Tech basketball coach Bob Knight doesn't like cell phones going off when he's talking. This is not a man known for his patience and understanding.

But Knight's hatred of cell phones going off almost cost Texas Tech a star recruit ... in football. That recruit, wide receiver Michael Crabtree, played both football and basketball in high school, and when he was considering Texas Tech, he had a meeting with both Knight and a Tech football assistant. Thayer Evans of the New York Times writes that the meeting got interesting:

the cellphone that belonged to Sonny Dykes, who was then the co-offensive coordinator of the football team and is now Arizona's offensive coordinator, rang several times.
"He was screaming at him and I was like, 'Man, I don't think I should come here,'" Crabtree said. "He was giving him hell about his cellphone."

Knight's anger only got worse when Dykes's cellphone kept ringing, Crabtree said.

"I think it went off like three times and he said if it goes off again, he was going to break it," Crabtree said.

I actually agree with Knight that it's pretty rude to have your cell phone go off multiple times during a meeting. But if Knight's anger gets to the point when a great high school athlete is thinking, "I don't think I should come here," maybe Knight needs to rein in his anger just a bit.