November 15, 2004
a new coach, new attitude and new sense of purpose |
 New Head Coach Billy Gillispie |
When school started in September, some players began to quiz transfer Josh Johnston, who followed Gillispie from UTEP, about what to expect from the new coach. He told them about Gillispie's boot camp, a grueling series of two-a-day 45-minute workouts that run for two weeks prior to the start of fall practice. The first workout is at 6:30 a.m. and late-comers are not allowed.
When Gillispie was an assistant at Tulsa and Illinois, he helped develop the arduous workouts and was impressed not only with the physical conditioning, but also with the dramatic improvements in team chemistry that resulted.
"Everything is about winning and every day is about getting better," Wright said. "And if you don't get better, there are consequences. This is the closest I've ever been with my teammates. Teams that trust each other know what the others are going to do at the end of a game. They know that this guy is going to take the charge if we need it, or that guy is going to be tough enough to fight through a screen and not get beat. If you watch the good teams in the Big 12, those are the teams that win."
The boot camp helped the Aggies' six returning players mesh with the seven newcomers. Gillispie's first A&M team will be extremely young with only one senior to offset the inexperience of four true freshmen and three other first-year players. Only Wright has been in an A&M jersey for more than one year.
In addition, the Aggies are going to be relatively small, with no player taller than 6-foot-9. Consequently, Gillispie intends to play an up-tempo style to take full advantage of the Aggies' biggest asset, quickness.
"We are going to be short," Gillispie said. "And we'll have some challenges as far as ball-handling, rebounding and where the inside scoring is going to come from. I do think we'll have an enthusiastic, hard-working group, so I can live with that. We'll probably try to play relatively fast because of our lack of size, but the biggest concern for me is lack of experience. It's hard to jump into a league like the Big 12 with inexperienced players."
The Returnees
A&M lost three starters and eight lettermen from last year's team, including six of its top eight scorers and its top two rebounders. But Gillispie firmly believes that the team's obvious weaknesses could develop into strengths.
"Sometimes a lack of experience can be a strength because of their exuberance for playing," he said. "Everybody knows they will have a chance to get a great amount of playing time because there aren't many minutes spoken for. That will be a good motivator for everyone going into practice and games."
The Aggies return two starters in junior (6'7") and sophomore (6'3"). The team's most experienced player, Wright started in 26 of 28 games last year and earned honorable mention All-Big 12 honors.
He led the team in scoring with a 13.5 average and ranked third in rebounding at 4.1. Wright needs 215 points to become the 26th A&M player to reach 1,000 in a career. He could again emerge as one of the Big 12's top players this season.
 Junior Antoine Wright led the Aggies last season with 13.5 points per game. |
"Antoine had a great summer and has a fire that is burning pretty brightly," Gillispie said. "He wants to improve on his performance from last season and he wants this team to win. He's been a really good leader on and off the court.
"I look forward to Antoine bouncing back," he added. "He has to do everything for us. He'll have to be a great defender, ball handler, leader - he has to be rock solid in every aspect and I have no question that he can do that."
Law emerged as one of the rising young talents in the conference last year, playing in 27 games and starting in 12. He started in 10 of the last 11 games, averaging 7.5 points and a team-high 3.9 assists. Law led all Big 12 freshmen in assists-to-turnovers ratio and scored in double figures in 10 games, including a career-high 19 points at Tennessee.
"Acie has a chance to be a great player for us and in the Big 12," Gillispie said. "He could become one of the better players in the league as he matures. He can play two spots, has leadership qualities, shoots the ball well and has a great deal of confidence."
The team's lone senior is (6'0"), who played in 27 games and started in 15 as a junior college transfer. Leach averaged 3.5 points and ranked second on the team in assists with 2.8 per game.
"Bobby came in here highly-regarded last year and probably didn't play as well as he wanted," Gillispie said. "He's a tough competitor and also gives us some experience. He should have a lot of influence on our younger players."
The others returning players are junior (6'8") and sophomores (6'8") and (6'4").
Clemente starred on the Aggies' 2003 summer tour of Italy, but struggled last season after sitting out the previous year. He appeared in 25 games, including 14 Big 12 contests, averaging 2.6 points and 1.8 rebounds. He exhibited good shooting touch as a sophomore and gained needed strength in the offseason.
"Luis is an unbelievable person and has the type of character qualities we want in our program," Gillispie said. "He needs to build his body and continue to get stronger. We'll use him in a screen-and-roll situation on offense because he can shoot."
Pompey is a gifted athlete, but missed much of his freshman year with an injury. He played in just 12 games, averaging 0.7 points and 1.7 rebounds. He connected on 8-of-11 from the field and scored seven points against Nebraska.
"Marlon is a very powerful athlete, but he's still developing," Gillispie said. "As he gains experience, he could shock a lot of people. He could be a great offensive rebounder and have a great impact on the team."
A good long-range shooter, Loewe played in just four games, averaging 0.5 points per contest.
"Justin has a good attitude, is a hard worker and also has good outside shooting ability," Gillispie said. "If he continues to work hard and keeps trying to improve his game, he could help us somewhere down the line."
The Newcomers
Junior (6'7") and sophomore (6'0") will be counted on to offer immediate contributions after stellar junior college careers.
Green is a physically imposing player who showed in the JUCO ranks the ability to dominate the boards. As a sophomore at Temple College, Green averaged 19.7 points and ranked second nationally with 14.7 rebounds per game. As a senior at Spring High School, he ranked second in rebounding in the Greater Houston area behind Emeka Okafor and just ahead of Lawrence Roberts.
"Edjuan is a producer," Gillispie said. "He knows how to play and get to the ball before his opponent does and gets the ball in the basket. I'm thrilled about the character he brings in addition to what he can do on the court."
McIntosh earned honorable mention All-America honors last year at Northeastern Junior College in his native Colorado, one of only six freshmen in the country to receive the honor. He averaged 12.6 points for a team that was ranked as high as No. 12 nationally.
"Marcus is a great wing defender," Gillispie said. "He makes a ton of plays on the defensive end and is very adequate offensively. He can play a number of positions and should be able to help us immediately."
Gillispie welcomes an accomplished freshman class and all four are products of Texas high schools. (6'3") and (6'1") were two of the top Class 5A players in Dallas, while (6'9") and (6'9") were both highly-recruited out of small towns.
Kirk was the only Class 5A player in Dallas to average at least 16 points (16.2), 9 rebounds (9.2) and six assists (6.9), and added 83 steals. He posted five triple-doubles and was named his district's co-offensive player of the year with White. He surprised most observers with a 20-point performance at the state high school all-star game.
"Dominique is in constant motion," Gillispie said. "He's a guy who can do a little bit of everything. He'll bring a lot of enthusiasm, work ethic and intensity to our team, and is a really fierce competitor."
Nicknamed "Red," White ranked second in scoring among Class 5A players in Dallas a senior with 23.8 points per game after leading the area as a junior with a gaudy 28.6 average. He set a state record as a junior with 411 free throw attempts and had 16 games with 30 or more points.
 Freshman Kenneth "Red" White averaged almost 24 points per game last season at Molina High School in Dallas. |
"Red is a tough competitor as well as a great shooter and scorer," Gillispie said. "Sometimes, he'll initiate our offense and other times he'll be the recipient of a lot of screens because he loves to score."
Jones was one of the country's most hotly-recruited prep big men and was rated among the top 100 prospects in the country by Hoop Scoop. He led Normangee High School, located 30 miles from A&M, to the Class A state championship, averaging 22.4 points and 15.1 rebounds per game. He was selected to the 2004 USA Basketball Junior National Select Team that played at the Nike Hoops Summit at the Final Four in San Antonio.
"The sky is the limit for Joseph," Gillispie said. "He has a chance to be an outstanding player before he's done here. He can run as well as anyone his size and has great hands and athletic ability. He's also a good person who is fun to be around."
Weishuhn had an outstanding career at Class 2A Wall High School near San Angelo and was picked for the state high school all-star game. He averaged 20.2 points, 11.8 rebounds and 8.2 blocked shots as a senior and also dropped in 26 three-pointers.
"Slade is a tall guy with great skill who can shoot the ball," Gillispie said. "Right now, he lacks strength but he's a guy who will definitely get better down the road. He's going to be a face-up guy who can shoot the three."
A player who could surprise is junior (6'5"), a walk-on who played the 2001-02 season at the University of Texas-Dallas, an NCAA Division III school where he was named conference freshman of the year. As a senior at Grapevine High School, he earned his district's offensive player of the year honors.
"Chris chose to come to A&M for academic reasons and approached us a week after school started," Gillispie said. "His high school coach is a friend of mine and asked us to take a look. We liked what we saw and we think he can help our team."
Two players will sit out this season under NCAA rules after transferring from other Division I schools - (UTEP) and (Hawai'i).
Johnston (6'2") played in 12 games as a sophomore at UTEP after transferring from Lon Morris Junior College. Lee started in 26 games last year for Hawai'i, which won a pair of NIT games, including a victory against Nebraska. Lee averaged 4.2 points and a team-best 3.6 assists.
"Josh is a guy who can help you win and that's what it's all about," Gillispie said. "He has an incredible heart, is unbelievably unselfish and has great leadership qualities. We're awfully glad he chose to follow us to A&M.
"Logan played in every game for Hawai'i last year and also is a strong leader," Gillispie added. "He's a very skilled and unselfish player and we're fortunate to have him. No one has a guy like him sitting out this year."
Gillispie is intent on instilling a "team first" attitude and it appears the current players have bought into that ideal.
"Everybody is a part of the team," Gillispie said. "The head coach isn't the only guy responsible for winning. He's the guy who either gets the praise or gets blamed for losses -- and I gladly accept that responsibility -- but that's only a small part of it. Everybody has their role and if they perform that role within the framework of a team, we'll have a chance to win. We try to take baby steps; we don't always try to hit a homerun. We try to do what our responsibilities require and hopefully that adds up to a victory."
The Schedule
Gillispie acknowledges that the Big 12, one of the most competitive leagues in college basketball, is a tough place to try to improve, but he's ready for the challenge.
"The Big 12 is the best," he said. "No conference has done better the past five or six years. This is a tough league with great coaches, traditions and universities. It's a hard league to get better in."
Gillispie predicts that defending champion Oklahoma State again will be the team to beat, while perennial powers Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma could challenge the Cowboys for the top spot, along with possibly Texas Tech. He said the rest of the league also should be improved, making the Aggies' task that much tougher.
"In other words, it'll be just like most other years," he said. "It'll be nearly impossible to win games and you just have to somehow figure out a way to win them."
The Aggies play a school-record 18 home games this season, not even including a pair of preseason exhibitions. The previous record was 15 home games at G. Rollie White Coliseum in 1991-92. The Aggies play their first 10 non-conference games at home, starting with North Carolina A&T on Nov. 19. The home stand concludes with a game against Houston on Nov. 29. A&M plays its lone non-conference road game on Jan. 2 against Penn State in University Park, Pa.
The Aggies will play Big 12 South Division opponents Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Baylor twice each on a home-and-home basis. A&M faces North Division teams Kansas State, Missouri and Iowa State at home and Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado on the road.
The Big 12 Tournament returns to Kemper Arena March 10-13 in Kansas City. The first six Big 12 Tournament were played at Kemper before moving to the American Airlines Center in Dallas the last two years.
"We're pleased with our schedule, although it's not exactly what we were shooting for," Gillispie said. "We were trying to get into a tournament, but that fell through in late August, so we had to add a couple of non-Division I schools (Trinity and UT-Permian Basin). We're happy with it, but it's not the schedule we hope to have in the future.
"You always want to play a schedule that will best prepare you for conference play," he continued. "A bad schedule can kill you. It's a delicate deal and you have to set it up just right. In a perfect world, when we have the roster we want and the fan support we need, I will play a very demanding non-conference schedule. I would like to bring some teams in here that the fans can relate to and will look forward to seeing."
The Goals
Gillispie said his goals for his first team at A&M are simple, and he hopes the fans buy into the concept.
"We just want to improve, play hard every game, practice hard every day, and learn to really like and care for each other," he said. "I don't really have any tangible goals. I want us to get better every day and I want our fans to get better every day. One of the biggest things we can achieve is for our guys to play hard and together. If that happens, we'll like the results at the end of the year as far as wins and losses."
Last year at UTEP, Gillispie not only engineered one of the biggest single-season turnarounds in college basketball history, but the Miners also led the nation in increased attendance from the previous year. He wants to accomplish the same thing at A&M.
"The fans are totally important," Gillispie said. "The fans have to be here physically and can't just wait around. If people start showing up to games and we average about 10,000 fans, which is not asking too much, the basketball program will be built. People have to get into Reed Arena and they have to come even if we get beat. If that happens, then I guarantee we'll be successful.
"We need some faith on the part of the students and fans." he added. "Everybody needs to jump on board and say 'let's do this and see if what this guy is saying is right.' If they do that, we can get it going and they won't be able to wait until the season starts. If people come and dedicate themselves to showing up every time, they will be amazed how fast positive results can be shown."
The style of play employed by Gillispie's teams should help attract crowds. last year at UTEP, the Miners ranked among the top scoring teams in the country.
"I think it's more fun for the players to play fast," Gillispie said. "I like to watch fast games and I think the fans do as well, but we won't play fast for the sake of playing fast. We will also try to adjust and adapt. The thing is that coaches in the Big 12 won't let you do what you want to do, so if you want to do something you've got to be really, really good at it or it's going to be taken away from you."