LEXINGTON - Billy D. would have been a perfect choice to revive UK's somewhat-stagnant basketball program with his glowing resume of three NCAA Final Four trips and two back-to-back championships.
As you know, Kentucky instead came up with a guy from Texas yesterday when Billy G. was introduced as the school's new coach at a pep rally and a news conference.
Athletic director Mitch Barnhart is gambling that Billy Gillispie, 47, is the right one who can restore the glory back to the program with his exciting brand of up-tempo and winning basketball. Both men had spent the previous night at the home of Barnhart.
A former assistant under Bill Self (now the head coach at Kansas) at Tulsa and Illinois, Billy G. has shown that he can do the job. He has successfully turned around the downtrodden programs at Texas-El Paso and Texas A&M in his five years as the boss and made them winners.
Billy G. is a three-time Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year.
His last two Aggie teams posted a combined 49-16 record, including 23-9 in Big 12 Conference action. This past season Billy G. guided Texas A&M (27-7) to two NCAA tournament victories, including a 72-69 win over Louisville at Rupp Arena, and a final No. 9 ranking.
He also has developed a reputation as one of the nation's top recruiters. And he leaves his Texas A&M squad with five highly-regarded recruits, including 7-footer DeAndre Jordan, a Top 10 prepster. Jordan picked Texas A&M over Florida, LSU and Louisville, among others.
“Such national recognition and accomplishments don't come without hard work, and I will say that you won't find anybody who will out-work this gentleman (Billy G.),” UK president Dr. Lee Todd beamed at a press conference held at the new basketball facility, Joe Craft Center. “I'm confident that he really, really wanted to be here, and that was impressive to me.”
Interestingly, Billy G.'s boss for three years at Texas A&M was school president Robert Gates, who has since moved on to become the U.S. Secretary of Defense.
It was just a week ago that Billy G. had verbally agreed to a new long-term contract at Texas A&M that was worth around $1.75 million a year until March 2015. In addition, he was slated to get a $1 million bonus if he was still at the university in 2012.
His seven-year contract at Kentucky, by the way, will pay around $2.3 million a year plus incentives.
Gillispie, who also was targeted by coach-less Arkansas, said his players will determine the flow of the game.
“Any coach would like to have a particular style but the players are going to determine what style you are going to play,” said Billy G. “Our perfect style would be to play pressure, full-court man-to-man defense. I love to run at every opportunity, miss and makes. I like to cause points off the defense with an aggressive style of play.
“(But) we are not going to play any particular style, just for style's sake. We are going to play the style that gives us the best chance to win. We have had different teams every year that play differently and it is our job to utilize the abilities of the players to make sure you have a chance to win every game and it won't be the same every time.
“Players like to play fast, players like to play aggressively, and it has always been our style to play as aggressively as possible.”
Senior-to-be guard Ramel Bradley is excited about the new coach, who likes to call himself “an ole country boy.”
“It sounds good,” said Bradley of Billy G.'s style. “I'm looking forward to his style, to stay aggressive, and put up some shots. Sounds like we'll run a little more and you know I like that.”
Guard Joe Crawford, who will be a senior next season, agrees.
“I like that he talked about aggressiveness on both offense and defense,” said Crawford, who was the team's second-leading scorer with 14.0 points this past season. “His style should work here with the guys we already have here. It will be more exciting, and I'm excited for the new start.”
* * *
Some Billy G. tidbits.....
- The former Aggie coach also had to discuss his personal mistakes - a couple of traffic-related charges, including drunk-driving - in the past before arriving at Texas A&M in 2004. He said he wasn't proud of them and his UK bosses are confident that the problems have been taken care of.
- His 74-year-old mother, Wimpy Gillispie, was in Lexington last month for the NCAA tournament when her son coached the Aggies. She still lives in Graford, a small town in Texas with a population of less than 600, and works as a clerk at a grocery store.
- Billy G., a divorcee with the nickname “College Station's Most Eligible Bachelor,” is the middle of five children and the only boy. He also has no children.
- His mother said her son's vibrant personality comes from his daddy.
- Billy G. is a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. “He's a Christian young man,” his mother was quoted as saying in Bryan-College Station newspaper in 2004. “I just let God take care of his decisions that he makes.”
Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of four books about UK basketball. He is currently a professor at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro and can be reached by e-mail at CatsUpClose@yahoo.com.
Post a Comment
