Final Four Notebook | Knight refuses to say he won't coach again

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Bob Knight wouldn't rule out the possibility of one day returning to coaching.

Joining former President George H.W. Bush at a forum Wednesday, Knight was noncommittal when announcer Jim Nantz asked if he'd ever consider coaching again.

"I don't know," Knight said. "I enjoyed coaching [but] I like fishing. I like helping my wife around the house ... nobody could have enjoyed coaching and the people I've gotten to know more than I have."

Knight, who resigned from Texas Tech in February as the winningest coach in NCAA Division I history with 902 victories, joined Nantz and commentator Billy Packer at the event billed as a "Final Four Forum."

Knight has recently been working as a commentator for ESPN. He and the other two panelists talked plenty about basketball in general but didn't address the Final Four much in the hour-long program at the Bush presidential library on the campus of Texas A&M.

The group answered questions from audience members in a packed auditorium that included the Texas A&M men's and women's basketball teams.

When asked who they liked to win the tournament this weekend, they all avoided a direct answer, instead musing on leadership and concentration and sharing anecdotes of Knight's Final Four teams.

Knight won three championships at Indiana. Memphis, UCLA, Kansas and North Carolina are in the Final Four this year.

"I just think that in this setting concentration is the most important thing," Knight said. "The team that wins will not make a lot of great plays, but it won't make many mistakes."

Packer will call his 34th consecutive Final Four this weekend, and the semifinal game will mark his 100th Final Four game. Nantz has joined him since 1991.

Knight does have some thoughts about the makeup of the tournament and proposed upping the number of teams that qualify for it to 128 to ensure the best teams are included.

"I think 128 is perfect," he said. "Extend it a week if you have to."

Notes

• The Rev. Jesse Jackson gave the Memphis Tigers a personal history lesson before the team left for the Final Four.

Jackson is in Memphis for the 40th anniversary commemoration of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. He met with the Tigers before they flew to San Antonio to face UCLA on Saturday and watched some of practice.

"I think Dr. King would find this a source of joy," Jackson told reporters. "After all, this couldn't have happened 40 years ago in Memphis. Now we see the flowering and the blossoming of Dr. King coming here 40 years ago."

• Memphis reserve G Andre Allen has been suspended for violating team rules, two television stations reported. WMC and WREG reported on their Web sites that Allen didn't make the trip to San Antonio for the Tigers' NCAA semifinal game Saturday against UCLA.