January 31, 2005
Here are excerpts from Coach Billy Gillispie's weekly media luncheon at Cain Dining Hall on the Texas A&M campus:
What are your thoughts going into the Oklahoma game?
"We look forward to going up there. They're good. We know that. They're really good. They've been playing great. We just have to go and see if we can play better, and continue to get better, hopefully."
Will your guys be able to stop Taj Gray again?
"Well, we're not going to hold him scoreless again. What had more to do with him being scoreless than our defense was he got into foul trouble and didn't play that many minutes. He's a great player and I would think that he's one of the guys that will be considered for newcomer of the year in our league. He's a great player. He has really helped their team and he continues to get better. We haven't seen the best of him and he's been awfully good. He's fantastic. That's what good teams do, though. He got into foul trouble and didn't get to score as much as usual but they found it somewhere else. You can try to concentrate on a particular area but they're going to hurt you somewhere else because they are totally balanced inside and out. You can draw up anything you want to but that doesn't mean much when you try to play the game. You're trying to deal with awfully good players. They're put in awfully good positions to make plays and guys that are as good as those guys are, whether it's perimeter players or inside players, they're going to make plays. You just have to hope that they might miss a few shots or something along those lines. As far as trying to go in there and dominate them, especially with our roster the way it is right now, you just have to hope you get lucky and they miss some shots, because they've got too much talent."
"When you watched the film of that first game against them, what did you see as far as your players trying to get after their three-point shooters? What were they not doing?
"We tried hard but they executed very well. Actually, the shots that they made when we cut it to four, they weren't off double downs. They weren't off help situations. They were just their guys making great plays. They were contested shots. They weren't wide-open shots. We lost them in transition a couple times where we didn't have a hand in their face, but to those guys' credit, they executed, especially when they had to on the road. It's all credit to them. What I saw was two teams competing extremely hard for a 40-minute game and when it was over, I think both teams were exhausted. They came out on top but I think we were still successful that night. We just didn't win on the scoreboard. They made shots and they made plays. That's what great teams do."
What about Bobby Leach's performance against Baylor?
"He's been playing great for us. He's a senior, and seniors are supposed to be playing great at this point in the season. Dominique (Kirk) has been hurt for a month and hopefully he's coming back and going to be able to play a little better than he has, but he's being indoctrinated as a freshman and it's tough. It's tough as a senior, but it's extremely tough as a freshman. We need Bobby to continue to play well. I like our rotation on the perimeter. I'd like to add one more guy to it. I'd like to add two more guys to our rotation inside and we have to do that over the last nine games. We have to get some production from some other people. We have to keep Bobby producing. Antoine (Wright) needs to score a little bit more for us. Joseph (Jones) and Acie (Law) have to be at their best. We have to have Bobby playing well. He doesn't necessarily have to be scoring in double figures, unless it just works out that way."
Has anyone other than Leach and those three guys hit double digits in Big 12?
"I doubt it. Chris (Walker) took zero shots on Saturday. That's probably not going to happen if he takes zero shots. He scored four points, but he played great. We haven't had a double-figure scorer off the bench, I don't think, other than Bobby."
Are you in a situation where you don't want to change your rotation?
"I like it. I think that Dominique hasn't done anything to not start. I just like it the way it is. Our leading scorer last year (at UTEP) came off the bench. Not that Bobby is our leading scorer, but we went to the elite eight at Tulsa and our leading scorer came off the bench. He was our sixth man. I think our team has a comfort zone with each other. I think they kind of understand when they're going to be brought in most of the time, based on foul situations. I like the way it's going right now."
Are you surprised at how far has this team progressed since the first day of boot camp until now?
"It has surprised me a lot. No one could have imagined both of those freshmen playing as well as they have all year long. I wouldn't have imagined Acie Law's continued improvement. I thought they'd do it, but I didn't know they'd do it that quickly. I didn't know that Antoine Wright would be as good an alla-round player as he is, as good a leader as he is, and all those questions we had going in. They've really answered those questions in a positive way, but we're not anywhere, yet. We're 3-4 in conference. We know that every time we get a chance to taste victory, it's awfully good and you never know if you're going to get another one or not. That's the way we look at it. They've amazed me. You guys know I'm a practice guy and they amaze me in practice everyday. Ya'll come over there all the time. They didn't know what to expect because it's different. We go at it more intensely than most and only time tells if that's good or bad. It has worked for the groups that I've been around, but they've really accepted it and wanted to be coached. They want to improve. They don't like to lose. They don't like to be unsuccessful. They don't like to mess up, and I think if you have good people that are willing to sacrifice for the good of others, that are competitive like they are, then you've got a chance to be as good as you can possibly be. I think that we've been about as good as we can possibly be, so far."
How far has the program and the culture come from day one?
"I think we're in an infant stage there, too. I think that we've definitely made some strides, but I think everyone's kind of in shock because I don't think anyone really expected us to do anything, even though I'm not overstating what we've done. That's what every basketball coach wants to do. Every coach wants to make a difference. I really firmly believe in what I think we can do here, but you can't do it by yourself. You have to have everybody from your fans to your administration to your academic person to your weight training person to the people where the guys live -- everybody that comes in contact with the players -- they have to have a real commitment to trying to help them get better, and they have a responsibility, too. When coaching changes occur sometimes, everyone wants to point in one direction but really it's a community effort to whether a guy is going to be successful in building a program. It's no different with me. If we get the support, I think we'll be able to do what I think we need to do. I definitely think that everybody knows that it's headed in the right direction. I know that everybody is trying to help us right now but it's just like our team. We want to try and play for 40 minutes each game and we want to play for the entire season. How can we sustain the enthusiasm that we now have? If you forget about it for a while, or you neglect it for a while, I think we've all seen that could happen. It's a long process to building any kind of program. I do think we're on the right track, though."
You said before the season if crowds started coming that would accelerate everything about the program. The crowds have started to come. Do you think for just that reason alone you're farther along right now in a couple areas than you would have been?
"Our guys are so excited to play. They've been excited to play all year, but they really got excited to play when people showed up for the Houston game. It was an intensity that we haven't seen. I think the fans were surprised with our players and our players were surprised with our fans. I think you gain confidence from those things. The reason we won at Penn State was because of the support that we got at the Houston game and the confidence we gained. Once you do that, you can carry it over and you can play well on the road at Kansas. Then, even though you get beat, you sustain some confidence and then you put yourself in a position to win a big game at home against Texas. We played fantastic and they missed some shots. That's what happened at that game. It wasn't any secret what happened at that game but a lot of people showed up and got excited. I think they've continued to be. We have to have that throughout the rest of the conference season. You've got to win your home games in conference to have any chance to be a postseason team. That's what I think they have lacked here. The support has been fantastic but they've got to keep coming and we're going to keep on playing hard. Then it gives your team a chance to be competitive at home and be right there. If we don't have a great crowd on Saturday (against Baylor), I think it's a very difficult game for us to win. If we don't have a great crowd against Kansas State, I think it'd be very difficult to win. If we don't have a great crowd against Oklahoma -- they were dominating us even though the score might have been close -- I think the crowd kept us in the game. Hopefully it will continue but it has been great and it has come more quickly than I ever thought it would."
What difference have you noticed? At UTEP you had big crowds but not many students because it's a commuter college and the students here are really coming out. Have you really taken to that?
"Well, I had seen it at other sports on campus and now we're experiencing that with our sport. I didn't doubt that could happen but I think a lot of other people did. I'm talking about people right here on campus, probably some of you. It can happen. There are so many things you have to do when you take over a situation that has had tough luck for a while. You've got to create some enthusiasm in your team, you've got to produce, you've got to be fun to watch and you've got to give great effort. But the bottom line is you've got to win some games. I think our schedule really played into us being able to win some games. I think that it created some excitement. It created some exposure that we probably haven't gotten, whether it be positive or negative. I think our name was out there and it's just a part of a process. You could do all you want to as far as promotions and all that kind of stuff, but if you don't win some games you aren't going to have people come watch you. The fans have been great, though. The students have been especially great. The people here want to participate. We just have to do our job and give them something to support. Hopefully we're on the right track."
What's your opinion on the new NCAA regulations?
"I think it will help us. I think it will help anyone that has high academic standards. Even though those NCAA rules weren't in place, I think that some of those things -- not the exact rules -- were already here to where it's going to bring everybody else up to our level. Instead of letting people decide, based on their own particular school, what their standards are, I think the NCAA set some guidelines now that you have to adhere to or you're going to lose scholarships and potentially post season play. So, I think it will help us in the long run."
You said you want to see Antoine score a little more. Is that something you're saying point-wise, or is it just something you want to see on the court?
"I think he's playing too unselfishly right now. I think that he needs to create some more shots for himself. I think that he's neglecting that a little bit because he's trying to be such a team player because that's what I preach all the time. I'm real appreciative that he's trying to be that way and he's been that way ever since I've known him. I don't think he has a selfish bone in his body, but I think the he needs to understand his abilities as a player and try to play to those abilities as far as getting more shots. I wish he would have taken 10 three-pointers the other night instead of four. I think he was just a little bit passive because he's trying to work within the framework of the team. I'd like to see him take some more shots."