Bob Knight is interested in taking the Georgia coaching job, according to Furman Bisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“He doesn’t want it to look as if he’s pursuing the job. He’d like to be offered it, and if offered, he’d take it,” a source told Fisher, a mutual friend of him and Coach Knight.
“He doesn’t want it to look as if he’s looking for work, but I can assure you that he’d like to have the job. It’s the idea of coaching a team in the Southeastern Conference that appeals to him. There are just so many things he could do for Georgia basketball. This would be his last stop, and he likes that.”
Georgia fired Dennis Felton last Thursday after the Bulldogs (9-12 overall, 0-6 SEC) got off to an 0-5 start in the conference. Associate coach Pete Herrmann was named interim coach for the remainder of the season.
“I’d like to play for Coach Knight —- as long as he doesn’t hit me,” freshman forward Trey Thompkins told the AJC in a story in Monday’s edition.
Thompkins added that he was “just kidding” about the hitting part, a reference to Knight’s famously fiery temper.
“Coach Knight is a legend,” Thompkins said. “I’d love to have him coach here, and I feel like he’d make me even better than I am now.
“That would honestly be a tremendous thing to me. I’d be really happy.”
Georgia President Michael Adams declined to comment on Knight to the AJC but said Georgia is “looking right now at everybody in the country who might be available” and is committed to spending what is required to hire a “proven entity” who has had success leading a major program.
Adams said he’ll “stay out of it” until the field is narrowed to two or three finalists.
