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March 23, 2007
A basketball school?
Now really. When Texas A&M hired new coaches for its football and basketball programs four years ago or so, who among you thought that it would be the basketball program that by this time would be regularly competing at the elite level of big-time college athletics?
Well, despite a heartbreaking one-point loss to Memphis last night in the Sweet Sixteen phase of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, Aggie basketball coach Billy Clyde Gillispie is the toast of Aggieland and he is getting noticed nationwide. This NY Times profile does a good job of describing this somewhat peculiar character -- a pure Texas gym rat basketball coach in the middle of football country. Although Kentucky is now looking for a new coach, my sense is that they need not bother calling Gillispie, who appears to be quite comfortable in Aggieland:
“In the state of Texas, if Billy doesn’t know you, he knows your aunt, uncle and cousin and the truck driver that lives in your neighborhood,” said St. John’s Coach Norm Roberts, who worked with Gillispie at Illinois. “Everyone in Texas knows Billy Clyde.” [. . .]Gillispie said he feels more adjusted in College Station than he did in El Paso [he previously coached at UTEP], where his life was so unbalanced that his house was barely furnished. When he held a Selection Sunday gathering in March at his house in El Paso, the Christmas tree was still up. Still, he knows he spends more nights dissecting film than hanging out with friends.
“I probably neglect myself socially,” Gillispie said. “But I’m the happiest guy in the world. What my being requires for happiness is totally different. I understand, I’m a different person. I know it’s not as healthy as it should be.”
By the way, speaking of the Kentucky coaching job, folks with interest in the UT basketball program might want to read the end of this article.
Posted by Tom at March 23, 2007 4:10 AM
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