Some observations on new Kentucky hoops mentor Billy G. ....
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From most, if not all, indications, Billy Gillispie - with his dynamic and down-to-earth personality - has already energized the rabid UK fan base. Just like what coach Bruce Pearl is doing at Tennessee.
And, as you probably have heard, Billy G.'s work habits are legendary.
“People talked consistently about how he doesn't sleep, how he works 24 hours a day,” said Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne. “He always looked well-rested to me, but there's no doubt he's married to basketball.”
A sportswriter for Texas A&M's hometown newspaper, Bryan-College Station Eagle, said Kentucky will be pleased with Billy G., who is divorced with no children.
“Considering they obviously couldn't get the other guys they wanted then I think this is a good hire,” journalist Richard Croome wrote in an e-mail. “Billy Gillispie is truly a basketball coach and that is all. His family is his players and staff. He is the epitome of the saying ‘tough love.' He can say things to the players and assistants that you wonder how they put up with it and yet as time goes on they gain the utmost respect for him. He had 21 players and they were all treated the same - whether they played one minute every five games or averaged 30 minutes a game. They bought into his philosophy and his way.”
Croome, who covers Aggie basketball games for the Eagle, also pointed out that Billy G.'s relationship with Texas A&M fans were great.
“He has that small-town, shucks, kind of personality and yet he's a very confident, brash kind of guy,” said Croome. “He respects everyone at least with his words.”
What about his relationship with the news media in Texas?
“Relationship with the media is a tougher call,” Croome said. “He is very accessible. Of course, at A&M, he was looking for attention, especially at first. At Kentucky I'm sure that won't be a problem. He also gives his players freedom to talk to the media if it doesn't get in the way of other responsibilities.
“He is very complimentary of his players. You can do an interview pertaining to a player he just rode the whole practice and he'll turn around and make you think that player is the reason they will be successful. He will say what they need to get better at but he always adds that there is no reason they can't get to that point.
“However, he can be sarcastic. Sometimes he likes to throw your question right back at you. Sort of poor man's Bobby Knight in that sense. He will answer questions after a loss but he's kind of surly. (Just like many coaches,) he's not the best to be around when things don't go well, especially if it pertains to something he believes it shouldn't have gone that way. He says he's thick-skinned and is ready for all the second guessing and such, but that's the one thing we (the reporters in Texas) really believe he might have trouble with.
“Overall much, much more good than bad as far as covering him. He's also quite funny, although much of it is at others' expense, in a picking-on-your-friend kind of way.”
Interestingly, Billy G. - popularly called “Billy Clyde” in Texas - has very similar head coaching experience in the collegiate ranks (five years, including three at Texas A&M) when compared with the newly-hired Kentucky coaches in the past.
Hired to direct the UK program in 1972, Joe B. Hall, who was the top assistant to legendary Adolph Rupp, had once served as the head coach at Denver's Regis College (five years) and Central Missouri State College (one year).
Rick Pitino, hired in 1989, had six years of head coaching. He spent two years at Boston University, two years at Providence (where he led the 1987 Friars and Billy Dononvan to the Final Four), and two years with NBA's New York Knicks.
Tubby Smith, hired in 1997, had six years of head coaching experience at Tulsa and Georgia.
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In Monday's column by Robert Cessna, appearing in the Bryan-College Station Eagle, he wrote that Billy G. is now living the American dream despite the unfortunate fact that some Aggies are hopeful that he would fail at UK.
“Sure, he could have stayed at Texas A&M, where he already was a legend,” Cessna wrote in the newspaper. “But no matter what he accomplished at Aggieland, there'd have been a little voice inside wondering what he could have done at Kentucky.
“It would have been un-American for Gillispie not to go to Kentucky.”
Cessna said that the Texas-born UK coach, who is a former eight-year high school coach (at four schools), will get a lot of support from prep coaches in the Lone Star country in terms of recruiting.
“He'll take plenty of support with him. Thousands of high school basketball coaches in Texas will be rooting hard for Gillispie, because he's one of them, always has been, always will be,” Cessna wrote. “Trading maroon for blue won't change that. ....
“Gillispie has remained a Texas high school coach at heart, which is why coaches from Fort Worth to Laredo will consider it an honor to send a player to Kentucky.”
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Ex-UK athletic director C.M. Newton, who brought Rick Pitino and later Tubby Smith to Kentucky, was really surprised on the school's decision to select Billy G. as the new roundball boss.
According to a column by Kevin Scarbinsky in the Birmingham News, Newton - who had hoped Florida's Billy Donovan would take the post - said one surprising factor is Billy G.'s brief stint of five years as the head coach (at Texas-El Paso and Texas A&M).
“I thought,” Newton told the newspaper, “if you're going to roll the dice, you would go with a Travis Ford or a John Pelphrey, a Kentucky guy who knows the territory.”
Newton, however, is optimistic that the new coach can get the job done and commented, “I'm going to support the guy 100 percent. He's our coach at Kentucky. But I was surprised by the hire.”
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.
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