January 03, 2005
Following are excerpts from Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie's weekly luncheon with state and local media members on Monday at Rudy's Barbeque:
Opening Statement:
"It was a good win for us yesterday at Penn State and also last week against Houston. They are by far the best two teams we've played and they were very quality wins for us. I think we are taking steps in the right direction to continually get better. We've got a long way to go and we know where we are in the landscape of college basketball. We understand the challenge the Big 12 will give us and we're not confused as to where we are or what we need to be doing. But I do think we are taking baby steps in the right direction and I know we've got a lot of guys who are happy about the way things are going. They are really accepting the way that we are going about it, and that's what has made our improvement possible -- the character quality that our guys have."
Could you talk about what Bill Self has meant to your coaching career, and how it is to start off your conference season against him? What does that means to you?
"He's my best friend, he's number one. I shouldn't get emotional, but I do. I wouldn't have any opportunity without coach (Self). I have a great situation right now because of him and I just love him. But when we play, we will try to beat them and they will try to beat us. I think he feels good about me. I love him and his family. He's meant everything to me."
Every coach has his own identity, but he also takes something from the people he has worked with. What have you taken from Coach Self that you maybe see in yourself?
"He's a lot better than me in every aspect, but hopefully, someday, we will have some of the things he's done. Coach didn't know me very well when he hired me and I didn't know him. We had met one time briefly, but he hired me. And when we started practicing and recruiting, our philosophies were basically a perfect match. Those philosophies were: Work extremely hard, be extremely honest, correct people when they need correcting, coach your best, recruit as hard as you can, try to get the best guys as you can, fundamentally teach guys how to pass, catch and shoot and play defense, and do all those little bitty things that people take for granted. Our philosophies were just a perfect match because that's what everyone that I had been around thought, and you know, that's what I really believed in as a high school coach. When I first went to Tulsa and we started practicing, the drills that we were doing were the same drills as when I was at Killeen High School as an assistant coach under Bo (Burgess). He asked me to do a junior high notebook for our junior high coaches and the drills we were doing at Tulsa at the college level, playing for very high stakes, were a lot of the same drills that we put in a junior high notebook. So our philosophies about the game were very, very similar. He's the best guy in the country at dealing with the media. He's genuine, he's caring - I learned everything from him. He's a great recruiter, he's a great coach and he's great with the media. Not too many people are great with all three of those things. I just felt lucky every single day to watch him interact with people, interact with players and coach. I've taken everything from coach."
How did he discover you and hire you as an assistant?
"Because of Doc Sadler (now head coach at UTEP) and Bob Marlin, who is the coach at Sam Houston State. He probably wanted somebody else to recruit Texas but they probably weren't available are something like that. Those guys said 'hey, here's a guy you need to consider.' We talked and he hired me over the phone. Basically, he said 'you need to come see the school.' I just went up there and we had a lot of fun."
It's almost unreal to think that your first game as a Big 12 Conference coach is against him at Allen Fieldhouse because of all the things that had to happen...
"Yeah, it's amazing. Three years ago, I was very, very happy. I had some chances to be a coach and I was totally happy about not giving up the relationship we had, not only with him but with Norm Roberts and the other assistant coaches because all of us were so tight. We really enjoyed working together and we had so much fun. To be able to go from being an assistant coach, going to UTEP and having success, and being at A&M and playing against him, it happened quickly. I'm just grateful for the opportunity."
Has he talked with you about it yet?
"We talked last night (Sunday). We talk all the time. Coach is great and he says we will never let competition come between anything, whether it's recruiting or whatever. We know where we are we're not confused, but it doesn't mean that we're not going to compete. We have unbelievable respect for everyone, but we don't have a great deal of fear for anybody. That's what we're trying to teach our guys right now. They've got great player, great traditions and a great coach. But if we went up there and didn't compete and try to win, coach (Self) would be very disappointed."
Has your schedule played out well for you, just the way you've gotten better then the way you have played two pretty good teams?
"I think we have played more that two pretty good teams, in my opinion. There are good players everywhere. That's what people forget. People don't give these teams enough respect. In my opinion, our schedule has been perfect. If we didn't have our schedule the way it was, I think we would have a very difficult time having the confidence and the tenacity to beat Houston at home the other night, because if you blink, if you took one step backward, they're going to knock you out. If we hadn't won all our games, I think we would have had a very difficult time of getting 17 down on the road and winning yesterday. I really believe that. For this particular team, our schedule has played out perfectly. How else would you try to prepare your team? People just want you to get beat because you have been beaten in the past and that makes everyone feel better. I'm worried about the guys in that locker room, that's who I'm concerned about. Those guys deserve to win. When you work as hard as our guys work, they deserve to win. We're going to continue, hopefully, on the right path to building a basketball program that's going to be around for a long time."
Did you get more out of the non-conference schedule than you expected or is the team about where you hoped they would be at this point?
"I didn't know that some of our guys would improve as quickly as they have. To be totally honest, I didn't know that Acie Law was going to turn out like he has this quickly -- and he's not there yet -- and I had no idea Joseph Jones could be this good this quick. Antoine is having a bounce-back year and I didn't know he would be the kind of leader and the kind of teammate that he has become this quickly. Chris Walker is a perfect guy for me because he just battles everyday. Dominique Kirk is much better. Our guys have been much better than I would have ever imagined. I would have changed some things had we known they were going to be this far long this quickly. Again, we have a long, long, long way to go. But they done it more quickly than I though they would."
What would you have changed?
"I would have changed our schedule. It would have been tougher, but I'm glad it's played out like it has."
Did the schedule help some of that growth maybe?
"I think so because what I want to do is be able to practice hard everyday. For a new coach coming into a situation where they haven't had a great deal of success, for us to be as good as we can get this season, or any particular season with a new coach, you have to have confidence. The only way you get confidence is in practice. If you're getting beat all the time, people don't buy in as quickly. If they are not bought in mentally, then you're not going to practice as well as your going to need to. I wanted to win games so that we could practice better and it's worked out that way. But I wouldn't have thought we would have won all our non-conference games."