"People were on my (butt) last year about giving up so many points, like I didn't work on defense," Knight said on Thursday during Big 12 Media Day at the Sprint Center. "We worked on defense two hours a day. We just didn't have the personnel to guard anybody.
"We had guys, if you get by one, the next guy was probably just as easy or easier to get by. It wasn't from a lack of my staff and not trying to coach it."
Knight, who is beginning his second full season at Texas Tech, said there is no secret to coaching.
"You've got to have the personnel.," he said. "I just didn't think we had it last year. Now we have it. Now we're able to be in the pass lane.
We're able to be on the help-side. We guard the ball."
The Red Raiders, who were 0-11 on the road last season, welcome five new faces to the squad this season, including immediate help from the junior college ranks.
"I really believe that to compete at this level, one of the top conferences, you've got to be nine or 10 deep," Knight said. "We're there now, you know.
"I think we'll have a problem now just trying to figure out who our nine or 10 are because we have probably 12 we can choose from, I think, and at least compete at this level of the Big 12."
The aftermath at Kansas
The battle royale between University of Kansas basketball players and football players last month in Lawrence just won't completely go away.
It was the first question heaved in the direction of Kansas head coach Bill Self -- inquiring how the incident has impacted the program's image.
"You know, for a short term, I do think it probably hit us from an image standpoint, especially with the fight," he said. "But from a long-term standpoint, I don't think it's going hurt us from an image standpoint.
"I think it's one of those things that people deal with and move forward, as long as you don't have major hits after it. You look around the country
and all programs have had something at some point in time."
It was, in Self's mind, an off-season issue and now with the season underway, the Jayhawks are off to a fresh start.
"I'm not real happy with our guys for those events that took place," Self said. "But if we were that undisciplined and irresponsible that selfish motives could get in the way of something so insignificant as that at that point in time, then we weren't obviously disciplined or responsible enough to win big."
