March 24, 2004
Quotes from Billy Gillispie's press conference on Wednesday at Reed Arena introducing him as the new men's basketball coach at Texas A&M...
Opening statement...
"Howdy. They tell me that is tradition here, and I knew that already. I grew up saying 'howdy' We didn't talk very well, or the right way where I from. I am from the small town of Graford, Texas, with a population of 495 people. I am really happy to be from there, and I am really happy to be here today. I really appreciate everyone having confidence in me to name me the head basketball coach at Texas A&M. I am a native Texan and I have only lived outside of the state for a short time in my life. I am really glad to be at this institution. I never had a chance to coach at a place like this with the tradition that you have and with the academic reputation that you have. As a head coach, I have been at a lot of places that have had unbelievable academics, but none any better than they have here at Texas A&M University. "I am a guy who 16 months ago took the job at the University of Texas-El Paso in an impossible situation. We turned the impossible into a storybook season. This is not an impossible situation -- it is an unbelievable opportunity. I so greatly appreciate these players coming to support me at this time. We are going to start making things happen. There is a lot of work to be done, and we are going to get it done. The only way I know how to do things is this: We are going to show up on time and work hard. That is what I expect from everyone I am around. And when you get tired of working you are going to keep working some more, and when you get tired again, keep working some more.
"We treat everyone we come in contact with the way we like to be treated. We like to observe the Golden Rule, and that is the way we are going to do it. I think it works pretty well in life, and I know it works pretty well in basketball. I can't wait to get started. I appreciate everyone coming here, and I want to apologize to too many of you for not returning phone calls. I am the absolute best at returning phone calls. I had about a hundred phone calls from people in this room that I did not return, and I think you understand the reasons why. I will return them in the future, and please continue to support us because we are going to hit the ground running and swing for the fences and we are going to see what we can do. Thank you for being here."
Why did you decide to leave UTEP and take the A&M job?
"I loved where I was. I had a great place. I had an unbelievable team that was really hard to leave and they should be even better next year. Everybody in that town was loving us. It was an unbelievable story. It was a very hard decision for me because it was so good and people loved us so much there, but for me this is the perfect time to coach at Texas A&M. You talk about tradition and there is none better than Texas A&M University. There is nobody that has more tradition. We are going to build this thing from inside the campus. We are going to start right in the middle of that campus. We are going to use those traditions to help us. We are going to go from inside the campus to inside the city. We are going to go from inside the city to inside the state, and we are going to build it from inside out. It is going to be done. There is a lot of hard work here to do, but there is a lot of hard work left to do in El Paso, there is a lot of hard work to do at Duke, and there is a lot of hard work to do at Illinois where I used to be. You can only work 24 hours a day, and we will push that to the max. Our players are going to work hard, and I am going to work hard, our staff will work hard, and I am going to have to have everyone in this room to work hard for us to make it happen. This is not an impossible situation. This is a possible situation. It is not a dream, we are going to turn dreams into reality. It is not going to take as long as people think."
What kind of questions did you have for Bill Byrne before taking the job?
"What kind of questions did I have? I said, 'Would you let me be your coach?' That was the question. I said I have a heck of a situation (at UTEP), but would you let me be your coach? I read a lot of stuff that people said I had questions about this place. This place wants to win in basketball, this place needs to win in basketball, this place will win in basketball. They have the people in place, the resources in place, the facilities in place and they have good players here. We are going to add to that mix. I never really had any questions. What I wanted to know is, 'do you want to win?' The answer was yes and that was about the end of the conversation. I read in so many places that I had questions about academic issues. I have no academic issue questions. I love what they stand for here academically. The tougher the standards the better. There are fair standards here. If you are a qualifier in the NCAA, you are ready to roll. I don't have any questions. This place is not any more demanding as far as athletes being able to perform than any other place I have been. What more could you ask for as a coach. I love it. The better you are, the better the degree you get when you get done. We are going to win basketball games and are going to produce guys with degrees before they leave here. When you get a degree from Texas A&M it means something. Not only for right after you get out, but for the rest of your life. I really didn't have any questions, but I read that I had a lot in various newspapers."
What makes you think you can succeed when so many of your predecessors didn't?
"I don't think my predecessors didn't succeed. I think everyone had varying degrees of success. We are not worried about what happened in the past. We are worried about what is ahead for us in the future. You can look at my track record. I have been with some really good coaches. Bill Self has been the most influential in my life as far as a basketball coach. We will pattern what he has done at Tulsa, Illinois, and what he is doing right now at Kansas. Rick Barnes has done a great job over there (at Texas) and we are going to take his blueprint and work from it. They are supposed to be a competitor, but we are going to steal from what Rick has done and his ideas and those kind of things. Bobby Knight has done a great job out there (at Texas Tech). They are doing a great job at Baylor. We are going to take everybody's ideas and build on those. There is no reason, there is absolutely no reason, that we are not going to win here. It is going to happen, it is just going to take a little time. We have a lot of work to do, but no matter what job you are doing, you have to work hard. No one is going to out work us."
What about your recruiting philosophy?
"We will get the best players that we can that will be the best fit for our team. Whether it be high school or junior college, or we might have an occasional transfer, we are going to recruit great student-athletes. We have some great players right over here in this room, and we are going to help those guys continue to get better. One misconception about that at UTEP is that we had four junior college transfers, two were high school qualifiers that just didn't get recruited like they wanted to, the other one was the male student-athlete of the year. He was the player of the year in junior college, and also the male student-athlete of the year in junior college. The other one had an unbelievable grade point average, well above a 3.0. Typically people try to stereotype junior college players as not being good students and that's not even close to being the case. Those guys were definitely at the top of the scale."
Can you believe how quickly all this has happened?
"It is hard to believe because you just don't think things happen that quickly. When you have a dream, and you have the work ethic, and you have the ability to get people to follow you, I think there is a lot to be said for that. We had unbelievable character qualities in our men out there (at UTEP). That is what we will recruit here, and from what I understand we already have here. We are going to add to that. Those character qualities are real important to us. There are a lot of basketball players out there but we are going to get the best young men that we can who can play basketball. We are going to demand a ton from them. Academically, they are not going to miss class. They are going to be great student athletes. They are going to be students first and we are going to prepare them for life. We are going to use basketball to prepare them for life. That is what we have always done. Nobody is going to care more for our players than me, and nobody is going to care more about me than our players. It is going to be an unbelievable family. I am not just talking. I am getting excited right now, as you can tell. I am going to tell you something, it is going to be an unbelievable family. This year, no one believed (at UTEP). We had the shortest, slowest, weakest, and smallest team that you could ever see, and their hearts were all so big. They gave of themselves. They thought of others before themselves. I have been around people who have the ability to do that, and that is the way we are going to approach it here. When you do that, your dreams do become reality."
You were still recruiting for UTEP as late as Sunday...
"I have got a job to do wherever I am at. I have got a one-track mind. I am not smart enough to get going in two directions. My mind was on UTEP, and recruiting for UTEP. This thing was finalized this morning, and so right now I am concentrating on making it happen right here at Texas A&M."
What will it take to be competitive in the Big 12?
"I was there when were just starting out at Baylor, but our first year in the Big 12 we won six games. I think that is the most that they have won in the Big 12 since that time. What it takes to win in any conference, it makes no difference if you are in the WAC, the Big 12, or the Big 10 -- those are the conferences that I have been in -- it takes really good players, and we are going to recruit really good players. It takes unselfish players and we have got what I understand to be unselfish players who are going to think of others first before themselves. It will take hard work and discipline. It is no secret. Basketball is not rocket science. Basketball is a game. We are going to put this thing together. We don't worry about yesterday, and we don't worry about tomorrow. We are concerned about tomorrow and we are going to change tomorrow. What they did last year, what they did fifteen years ago, none of that means anything. We are going to get going right now, and start winning games next year."
How do you plan to increase interest in the program?
"First of all, nobody has more alumni than we do, and we are going to get those alumni over here to watch us play. We are going to play a great schedule, and we are going to get people out here to watch us play. The way that you do that is that you give an honest day's work. And that is what we are going to do. People are going to come and watch us and they are going to support us, because we are going to play hard, we are going to play smart and we are going to play together. Sometimes we are going to win, and sometimes we are going to lose, But I know that the people here are very knowledgeable about sports. And they are going to definitely appreciate how we play. And they are going to applaud the way we play. And they are going to come back. I guarantee it."
How are you going to go about assembling your staff?
"I am going to start with the guys who are here. I am going to visit with those guys and see exactly where everything stands from there. Then we will see exactly what happens back at my old school and some of those guys who have been a part of my family. And then we will go from there. There won't be any shortage of people who want to come and work here."
You previously recruited Joseph Jones, who A&M signed in november...
"So what you are saying is that we recruited him and lost him. I am glad that you didn't talk to these guys before you hired me. I saw Joseph Jones play after his freshman year. I thought he reminded me of a couple of players in the state of Texas in the past 25 years. I have seen them all and I know them all. There was a guy named Anthony Leaf from Tyler John Tyler, an unbelievable talent. There was a guy named Shaquille O'Neal who was pretty good. And I thought that Joseph Jones had the talent at that time to be that kind of player. I thought that he was going to grow a little bit more, but he has continued to impress. I saw him in the state championship, and I am really looking forward to coaching him as well as all the new recruits. He has a chance to come in and really help this team. Everybody that we have, as you can see, we have got seven guys in the room here, we are going to definitely have to add some guys. We will do that in a number of ways. We will get guys who want to come here to Texas A&M University as walk-on guys who are going to definitely get an opportunity to play and will be outstanding guys. We are really looking forward to Joseph Jones and all the other guys that we have coming in."
How soon will you talk to A&M's early signees?
"As soon as possible. As soon as I get a chance to hustle over to Dallas, California, and Normangee."
Talk about your team this year at UTEP and your coaching philosophy...
"Well, first of all, I think that Mr. Byrne came to three games and we lost two of them. We only lost eight all year. I really wish somebody would have told me that he was coming to the games because that is 25 percent of our losses if my math is correct. I had an unbelievable group to coach. I really enjoyed coaching those guys and I am really looking forward to coaching these players. As far as balance or whatever, our leading scorer was our sixth man. He averaged about 15 points a game for us. I really believe in sharing the basketball. What our philosophy will be is play as fast possible. Not for just the sake of playing fast, but for playing the right way. We want to play hard, play smart, and play together. That is the way we want to do it. We want to attack the other team offensively and defensively. And hopefully that is going to be good enough to win on that particular night."
What did you learn in your years as an assistant?
"You definitely learn a lot of things. If you are not learning you are not paying attention. I think all of us have to learn every single day. You definitely learn a lot. You see the size of the players, you see the style of play, the home court advantage, you see the lack of home court advantage, you see a lot of things, so I think you are constantly learning if you want to get to the top of your profession."
Did you talk to Bill Self about the A&M job?
"About every single day we talk at least once, a lot of times more than once. He is about my best friend in the world. He gave me a great opportunity at Tulsa, and we made the most of it and enjoyed our time together. We talk all the time. He definitely thinks this is an unbelievable situation, and a great opportunity for me."
How valuable will your Texas ties be in recruiting?
"I think you would be crazy to not recruit Texas players. There are too many good players in Houston and Dallas and everything. I don't think that every single player on your roster needs to be or has to be from this state. There are a ton of good players here and that is definitely where we are going to start. We are going to try to get the best student athletes we can. Like I said, we are going to try to build this program from the tradition inside this campus and build it outward. We are going to engage everybody on campus, everybody is going to know me. Professors are going to know me, I promise you every person in town is going to know me, and they are going to know our guys because we are going to be in the community. They are going to know our assistant coaches. All the high school coaches pretty much already know me because I have been around a long time. Whatever staff we put together, they may or may not know them yet, but they will know them. We are going to start inside and work outward. We are going to go back and recruit where some of these guys came from. We have a lot of guys from out of this state. These guys are going to have great success here. We are going to go back because they are great success stories. That is going to allow us to recruit their high schools, their prep schools or junior colleges. We are going to build relationships that haven't been built. We are going to depend on relationships to get this program to go where we want it to go."
How long do you think it will take to build this program?
"I don't know. Everybody asks about a two-year plan, a five-year plan, whatever. I have a one-day plan everyday. I don't like getting beat, I don't like getting beat at all. I am not a very good guy when the score doesn't say you won. I am not very much fun. We are planning on taking it one day at a time and try to get better. That is what we did this past year, and that is what Coach Self's teams have always done. Let's try to get better tomorrow, and see exactly what that brings us. We will add up our wins and losses at the end of the year. Success won't always be determined by the scoreboard, success won't always be determined by wins and losses. We are gong to play the game right, we are going to represent ourselves, our university, our city, and our state. We are going to represent it unbelievably well. Whatever happens, we will be able to live with that."
How big a day is this for you personally?
"It is a really big day for me. I have been lucky and we have had a lot of great days. I would never have imagined that I would be sitting here. I always knew that I could do the job that we are about to embark upon. But sometimes you just don't ever get that chance. Luckily some people have taken chances with me and given me a first high school head coaching job, they gave me a junior college assistant job, the gave me an assistant job at a major college, they gave me a head coaching job at a college, and every single one of them I think we have proven to them that they made a pretty good decision. And I don't think there is any question that is going to pan out like that here."