MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- West Virginia got a piece of Bob Knight when it hired Dan Dakich on Thursday.

Dakich spent 16 seasons as a player and assistant coach under Knight at Indiana before going on his own the last five seasons as coach at Bowling Green.

Much like Knight, Dakich's practices are intense. He storms the sidelines during games and he preaches defense.

"We're going to develop a toughness here that enables you to win games and championships," Dakich said at a news conference on the floor of the WVU Coliseum. "I like having a really good time, and part of a good time, occasionally, is yelling and screaming on the sidelines at refs. That's part of life as a coach.

"I don't stand here without Bob Knight. He's a person to me that is special."

Dakich's style of offense, however, is his own. Bowling Green ranked near the top of the Mid-American Conference in scoring each season.

"There's a perception when you come from Indiana with Coach Knight that you play slow," Dakich said. "I can't stand playing slow and I cannot stand being boring and being around mopey people. As a basketball program, we will play very, very fast."

He'll try to rebuild a team that set records for losses in two of the past four seasons and was racked with discipline problems.

Part of West Virginia's attraction to Dakich was his graduation success. Seven of nine players finished school in his first four seasons, as will four of the five current seniors.

He invited his newest players to go to class and develop a better work ethic.

"If they have a strong interest in that, then it will be a great situation for them. If it isn't, it will be a miserable experience for them," Dakich said. "I'm not going to sit up here and lie to you.

"We're going to treat kids right, but they're going to work. I like work. I'm looking forward to it."

So do his players.

"He said he wants to work on defense, and that's what we needed last year," guard Drew Schifino said. "We were near the bottom of the Big East and we weren't very good. That's going to have to improve."

Dakich was 89-57 at Bowling Green, but failed to make a trip to the NCAA Tournament. The Falcons went 24-9 this season -- the school's most victories in more than half a century -- and played in the NIT for the second time in three years.

Dakich, 39, signed a five-year, $2.5 million contract. His annual package is $200,000 more than that earned by Gale Catlett, who retired in February after 24 seasons with the Mountaineers and a school-record 565 wins.

Dakich can earn an additional $135,000 per year from summer camps and competitive incentives, such as graduation rates, NCAA Tournament appearances and season-ticket sales.

Dakich plans to bring three assistant coaches with him from Bowling Green. He'll review West Virginia's players before deciding on the makeup of next year's team. He said he doesn't believe any Bowling Green players will follow him to West Virginia.

West Virginia originally pursued Bob Huggins, an alumnus, but the coach said March 25 that he would stay at Cincinnati.

Kent State's Stan Heath then visited Morgantown, but he took the job at Arkansas the next day. Tennessee Tech's Jeff Lebo removed his name from contention Saturday, and Southern Illinois coach Bruce Weber withdrew Monday.