MADISON, WI. — Tobe Awaka looks like he knows a thing or two about winning wars in cold, dark alleys. So when the ripply, 250-pound Tennessee forward calls Dalton Knecht a “bad man,” the antenna perks up.
Knecht has only played two games that count, but he’s quickly made a name for himself at Tennessee. The Vols went on the road Friday to the Kohl Center, a den of horrors, and emerged with an 80-70 win over a very good Wisconsin club. Knecht had a cool 24 points against the Badgers. Tennessee also played a charity exhibition game on the road against then-No. 4 Michigan State. That game didn’t officially count, but that's when Knecht’s Tennessee legend was born. A 28-point flurry — that included a vicious poster that MSU forward Malik Hall might not have recovered from yet — launched Knecht into Vols mythology.
So where’d this “bad man” come from? "Unranked in high school to Junior College to the Big Sky to the transfer portal to the SEC" just doesn’t roll off the tongue. But how’d this happen? How’d he slip through the cracks? Everyone is “slept on” now. But who was sleeping on Knecht? Who buried this diamond for way too long?
Talk to anybody in Knecht’s past, and they’ll tell you what a tireless worker the Colorado native is. The oft-heard cliches were all right on the money. Knecht, literally, lived in the gym. His old high school coach Keith Wyatt had to kick him out of the gym well before he was a varsity star at Prairie View High School. His old coach at Northeast Junior College, Eddie Trenkle, remembers Knecht knocking down jumpers at 2 AM. When he transferred to Northern Colorado, Knecht would FaceTime his old coach at midnight from, well, you already know.
But that hard work and dedication didn’t translate in the classroom. The grades were Knecht’s bugaboo. It kept him from earning Division I offers despite averaging 21.0 points and 6.5 rebounds a game during his senior season of high school. Picking up classroom concepts wasn’t impossible but following through was not a strength. Knecht describes himself as a tried and true procrastinator.
Isn’t that life? Twists and turns. Choices and consequences. Knecht’s story is a reflection of that. It wasn’t everyone else’s fault. Part of it was on him. Knecht said he needed to mature. He says his rocky road was exactly what he needed.
The growth spurt didn’t hurt either.
***
Keith Wyatt laughs when he looks back at the old videos. He’s an assistant coach for Laramie County Community College’s women’s team in Cheyenne, Wyoming now, but he got his start as a high school coach in Henderson, Colorado, a ritzy-ish suburb just north of Denver. Nearly a decade ago, a scrawny, 5-foot-6 freshman caught his eye. He was thin. He was short. But he could really shoot it. Wyatt stands at 6-foot-3 and he towered over his protege.
That vastly undersized underclassman was Knecht.
“I know it sounds cliche and I know every coach says this, but I knew if he grew that he had everything,” Wyatt says. “His shot was so easy and pure.”
Even before his freshman season of high school basketball, Knecht already had visions of being a pro — even if his body didn’t look like one. Saying it and doing it were two different things, but Knecht became obsessed with the work. Coaching filled up Wyatt’s schedule, but Knecht wanted extra one-on-one work, and Wyatt couldn’t say no. Knecht was Wyatt’s first-ever client.
“It was always about being good enough that when the opportunity comes to be ready for it,” Wyatt said. “We were always in the damn gym.”
Knecht played on Prairie View’s C-Team as a freshman. He got some minutes with the junior varsity. Wyatt wanted to get him a taste of what varsity basketball was going to be like, so Knecht sat at the end of the bench during his freshman year and soaked up knowledge from the vets. He missed big shots in big moments of empty gyms during meaningless summer league games and got emotional about it. He vowed to earn back Wyatt’s trust which he hadn’t lost. Knecht promised the next time his number was called in the clutch, he’d be ready.
Knecht sprouted up to 6-foot-4 by his junior year, and he started throwing down some dunks and putting up eye-popping numbers. While his friends decided which college of their choice to attend, Knecht realized his dream of suiting up for the University of Colorado wasn’t going to happen because of his middling grades. His path was going to look different. Some Division II schools got involved. So did a handful of Junior Colleges.
Northeastern Junior College stuck out from the beginning.
But there was a catch.
“We knew everyone would be throwing full rides at him,” Trenkle said. “At our situation here, we didn’t have that.”
Play-for-pay? Nah. How does pay-to-play sound?
The visit to NJC was so good that Knecht wanted to sign on the spot, but his parents, Corey and Carrie, wanted him to check out all his options. Trenkle, nervously, shot Knecht a text or a call “like every day” while Knecht took a few extra visits. Knecht eventually called with the good news.
“He comes down to signing and he’s like 6-foot-4,” Trenkle said. “I thought he grew a little bit. That was in June. He gets here in August and he’s at least 6-foot-5 and pushing 6-foot-6. He’s like: ‘Yeah I grew a little bit.’”
***
It was a season of change.
Knecht was sprouting taller. His game was getting better. He was more than just a shooter, now. Knecht’s defense was miles away but that didn’t surprise Trenkle. Most players are like that in their first year in the junior college ranks. Most importantly, Knecht got his grades in order.
“Just me not procrastinating my work,” Knecht says. “Just a little bit of maturing and that’s it.”
Wyatt added: "When he turned the corner academically, he got even more confidence."
Then, the pandemic hit. NJC packed 22 games into the second semester. Every game felt like the end of the world in the chase for a scholarship. There was no margin for error. Knecht made ‘em all count. Knecht erupted for 23.9 points per game while shooting 39.5% from downtown. In the process, he became one of the coveted players in the junior college ranks.
That dream of playing for Colorado didn’t go away. After a big sophomore season at NJC, Knecht started to garner interest from Tad Boyle and Co. The Buffs were fresh off a 23-win season that ended in the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament. CU legend McKinley Wright was moving on, and there was an opening in Colorado’s backcourt. Knecht’s childhood dream was so close to coming true.
During the pandemic, recruiting visits were shut down and everything was done over Zoom. Knecht didn’t get the bells and whistles of an official visit to Colorado. When Boyle opted to take point guard Julian Hammond III, Knecht’s spot was gone.
Georgia was another potential option, but Tom Crean got axed after a 6-26 season. The coaching change wiped another high-major program off Knecht’s list. That forced his camp to reconsider.
“I think if CU would’ve done it all over again, they would’ve brought him in and got him,” Trenkle said. “But it didn’t work out. I walked in and went: ‘Why don’t you be a big fish in a small pond and go put up great numbers and if it works out, the COVID year, the extra year, maybe after two years, you get a mid or high-major, Division I offer.' COVID is probably the biggest reason he wasn’t a Power-5 kid straight out of here. He put up the numbers and if enough guys saw him, they would’ve taken a chance on him”
Colorado’s loss was Northern Colorado’s gain.
“We were crossing our fingers that we’d be able to sign him,” Northern Colorado coach Steve Smiley said.
Knecht averaged a respectable 8.9 points and 3.6 rebounds per game during Year 1 at Northern Colorado. He shot 35% from downtown, but a knee injury and a stacked roster kept Knecht under wraps. But the signs were there that special things were on the way. Northern Colorado fell in the Big Sky Tournament championship game to Montana State. Smiley’s dreams of a NCAA Tournament appearance were over, but the Bears accepted a bid to the CBI. In the first round, Knecht hit a big bucket late in regulation to help Northern Colorado knock off Florida Atlantic 74-71. The same Owls team with a host of familiar names would advance to the Final Four the following season.
Knecht entered 2022-23 ready to earn an expanded role. His tireless work ethic in the gym had paid off in a big way, but Northern Colorado was still Daylen Kountz’s team. The 6-foot-4 senior ranked 10th in the country in scoring in 2021-22 and was primed to do it again. But Knecht was too good. Way, way, way too good.
“When he was cooking, it’s ‘Damn, this kid is really good,’” Smiley said. “We morphed and changed into giving him the ball late in the shot clock. With Dalton’s size, you knew he could get a shot off.”
Knecht led the Big Sky in scoring. When he came to watch Knecht in person, Trenkle had to scoop his jaw off the ground.
“His time in the Big Sky really helped him progress,” Trenkle said. “He was a totally different player than when he played for me. He was more mature. He handled the ball like a point guard. He could make plays that other guys couldn’t at 6-foot-7. There was no question in my mind that he was the Big Sky Player of the Year but because Northern Colorado didn’t have a great year, he didn’t get it.”
Knecht entered the offseason needing to make hard decisions. Originally, the plan was to either return to Northern Colorado for his fifth season or go pro. But well-intentioned plans changed. Knecht entered the transfer portal on March 23 and Trenkle’s phone exploded with calls from coaches. Colorado tried again for Knecht. Surely, this would be the time. Colorado even tried to enlist Wyatt to help keep Knecht home.
It wasn’t meant to be.
“I just didn’t fit their play style so it’s all good,” Knecht said. “I love it there. We all respect each other. I love it there as much as they loved me.”
Knecht was rated by 247Sports as the No. 13-rated player in the 2023 transfer portal cycle. It quickly became a big-game hunt. Oregon and Indiana threw haymakers.
“I mean, he had every blue blood program in the country recruiting him,” Smiley said. “That’s all true.”
247Sports’ national basketball analyst Travis Branham added: “I was definitely higher on him than nearly everyone. To the point, a coach said ranking him as high as I did was 'fireable'. And then about two weeks before the season I got a call: ‘Hey man, you know when you ranked Knecht as the top wing in the portal? You were actually right.’”
When Tennessee initially got involved, some in Knecht’s camp got nervous.
Knecht is a bucket. Tennessee ain’t known for buckets under Rick Barnes.
Would Barnes eviscerate him for not being up to snuff?
Will the SEC be too significant of a leap?
But now, it seems as though the SEC better prepare for Knecht and not the other way around.
It’s early, but Knecht looks like the Connect (get it?) that Tennessee just hasn’t had. Tennessee’s half-court offense has transformed from a weakness to a strength. Knecht still has some learning to do on the defensive end, but he doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb.
“He knows he's gotta get better,” Barnes told reporters after the Wisconsin win. “As soon as he walked in, guys congratulated him. He said: 'Look, I gotta get better defensively.' As long as he’ll keep that attitude, he’ll be fine.”
Knecht has evolved and changed. He obviously isn't 5-foot-6 anymore. He doesn’t have Awaka-like biceps, but it’s clear Knecht has spent oodles of time in the weight room.
And yet, Knecht is still so much the same.
He's got the same hunger and fire as that 5-foot-6 freshman who basically lived in a lonely high school gym. That same desperate desire to not be the guy who scored 27 but gave up 29 as he did when he was by himself in a junior college gym. He's got that same burning zeal to be a true three-level scorer as he did during those late nights in a quiet Big Sky gym.
Awaka knew Tennessee might have uncovered something special when Knecht stayed in Tennessee's sparkling facility repeatedly after practice, swishing jumper after jumper. Tennessee fifth-year senior Josiah-Jordan James calls him a “true hooper" and a "bucket.” JJJ has been around the block. So what he says goes.
It stings a little bit for Smiley to see his former player tearing it up in another uniform, but there aren’t any hard feelings now. Smiley remembers betting on himself when he left to become a head coach at Sheridan College, a national junior college heavyweight in Sheridan, Wyoming. Smiley left something safe and familiar (his alma mater, Northern State) for something scary and different. It catapulted his career.
Knecht is doing the same thing.
The smartest men learn from other people's mistakes. Knecht didn't do that initially, but those life lessons have shaped, built and molded him for this moment.
Junior college is a course less traversed. Knecht might not be here right now without it.
“A lot of people think JUCO and go, ‘I don’t want to do that,’” Wyatt said. “I can tell the story of the proof of it and show people. He can inspire a lot of people too. You can make it out of JUCO and sometimes it’s the best decision.”
The days of procrastinating are over. Knecht's time is right now. And that's something, he's thankful for.
“I wouldn’t take back anything that happened because it led me right here,” Knecht said.