February 20, 2006
Head men's basketball coach Billy Gillispie met with members of the press Monday at the weekly basketball media luncheon held on the Texas A&M campus.
Click the link to the right to listen to the press conference. A transcript is posted below.
Billy Gillispie Media Luncheon Quotes
You're on a three-game winning streak. That's got to feel nice...
"It's good. I think we're gaining steam at the right time. Our guys have stuck with it. That's what we always want to try to do. We still have a quarter of the conference season to go, so again, I keep on telling them and anybody that will listen it's just now starting. It's not coming down to the end. We need to continue to play well. We have some really difficult tasks in front of us. Hopefully if we can hang around we can make a shot at the end. That's kind of been our formula so far, and those guys have really put themselves in most of the games to have a chance to do that. That's what we'll keep on trying to do."
You've got to be relieved to see some free throws go in at the end of that Baylor game...
"I've got confidence they'll make free throws. I know our percentage the last two games hasn't been that high, but they made the ones that counted the absolute most. We made five out of our last six and then got the offensive rebound on the one that we missed. Really, the miss was better than all the makes because it ended up being a basket for us. We didn't plan it that way. I have confidence that we'll make them at a little bit higher rate than we've been making them the last two games."
A couple of weeks ago you talked about everyone getting 5 percent better. Have you seen that across the board like you wanted?
"Once you get to a certain point, you want to always try to ask for more and I'll definitely do that. Some guys are really stepping up and really doing some things. I think Acie (Law) has played about as well as anybody in the league. For what we ask him to do, he's done great. He's given us a lot more than the 5 percent we asked for. Joe (Jones) has been really good. Even when he doesn't score, he demands so much attention that it really opens up things for other people. I think everybody on our team has played well. You might just look solely at numbers and maybe not think so, but I totally disagree. I think all of them are getting better and have probably exceeded the 5 percent mark. But now we're asking for more from them because that's what it takes at this time of the year."
Last year, Bobby Leach at this time did about the exact same thing, but now you're seeing contributions from several guys on the perimeter, right?
"Well, Josh (Carter) played great on Saturday. He hit two big threes when we were seven down, but made a lot of plays. He's getting more comfortable and more confident defensively. I think Chris (Walker) and Marlon (Pompey) give me a great deal of comfort defensively. We played great defense on Saturday. Anytime we had a chance to set our defense up, we were really good. We just turned the ball over, and that led to too many easy baskets for them...that's why it got as close as it did. I think our guys are really playing well defensively right now. That's what's been keeping us going."
With so many games week after week coming down to the wire, do the guys fully realize what you've been preaching about the importance of every possession?
"I think they realize it more and more all the time. They've been a good group as far as understanding the value of the ball. It's a very inexperienced team. You are talking about trying to play Martellus (Bennett) more...Antanas (Kavaliauskas) is an inexperienced guy, Josh (Carter)...and those guys are very critical. Chris (Walker) is playing a position that's not his best position. Marlon (Pompey) has been put in a more different role than he's ever been put in. Dominique Kirk has been a 'glue' guy. He didn't play well Saturday, but he's been a real good 'glue' guy and a great defensive guy. These guys understand the value of the ball. They've really taken care of the ball. They understand the value of getting a stop. They're starting to not only get stops but get defensive rebounds at the most critical times. They like to win, and they know what we think we need to do to try to win. So I guess yes, to answer your question."
What makes somebody a "glue" guy?
"I don't know. I don't know how you define it, you just know it when you see it. Dominique does everything for us. He looked really bad at the end of the half the other day, and it wasn't all his fault. We didn't help him enough, from coaches to the players out on the court. But he's been playing fantastic. He's been playing really good offensively and really good defensively against really good players. A 'glue' guy has to do a lot of the talking, has to be a great locker room guy, has to be great on and off the court. He has to be a guy people can look to when things aren't going well and know that he's going to have confidence that he's going to make a play. He's the woodwork. Whatever you have to have on a particular night he usually gives it to you."
Can you talk about going to Missouri? Obviously that's a very tough place to play...
"Yeah. I've never been to the new arena. I went there when we were at Baylor in the old place and it was very difficult. I look forward to going and seeing their arena and playing against a very talented team. That's the reason it's always been so tough to play there is because they always have a good team. It's no different this year. They have really, really, really good players. I know they're going to be eager to play. They had a tough game Saturday, and especially with Texas A&M coming it's going to mean a lot to them because I know they have a great respect for their coach. It would have to mean a little more to them, playing against us than it might at other times. We'll get their best shot and hopefully we'll be able to challenge their best shot but it'll be very difficult. They're a good enough team to beat Kansas, and Oklahoma on the road. Those guys are still the same, and their effort level will be at an all-time high I think. We'll have to play our absolute best to have a chance to win."
As a coach, when do you start looking at other scores and NCAA possibilities? Do you ever?
"I don't. You can do all that stuff, and you can listen to all the ESPN people you want and all the people that are saying NCAA Tournament things. You can spend all your time doing that and looking at RPI and who you played and at the remaining schedule. At the start of it, what you thought was, 'Well, we just need to win.' So you spend two hours doing that, and after you've analyzed everything you say, 'Man, we just need to win.' I'm concerned about all that stuff, because I think there's a lot of politicking going on out there. I'm not a guy that's going to be politicking for our team. Luckily you get a chance to play on the court. There's a lot of politicking going on unnecessarily that concerns me, but other than that, anyone could be a bracketologist if you get somebody to listen to you. I don't know. It's not coach-speak, it's the truth. Maybe I should spend more time doing that. I would rather spend my time watching two more tapes of our upcoming opponents and use my time like that, because what it comes down to is when you started, you had to win. After you spent two hours doing that, you still had to win. I just look at it differently."
Do you see anything different from Missouri in the last few games since Melvin (Watkins) has taken over?
"No...they're probably running a little more motion offense than set plays. They're changing defenses a little bit more than they were at the start, but pretty much the same. I think they're playing extremely hard, especially in the K-State game in the first time they had a chance to play at home. And the other night...I mean, Kansas was just fantastic. Nobody would have had a chance in there that night. They were fantastic. They were defending great, running transition offense and defense, they were fantastic and looking like a team that could go to the Final Four. You just didn't want to be the team that had to play Kansas that day. Unfortunately for Missouri, they did. They're a talented team. They'll play hard and play well, and it'll be a very difficult contest for us and for anybody else they'll have to play the rest of the way."
Is there ever a situation where you'd play Acie (Law) at the end of a first half with two fouls?
"Yeah, but I didn't think we needed to on Saturday. Hindsight is always 20-20. I'm really stubborn on a lot of things, but I really believe that Dominique could do what he needed to do. I don't think we helped him enough. That being said, I know they had a really good run at us at the end of the half. We were still confident going into the locker room that if we played the right way we could still...but you never want to give up a lead like we had. I was still confident that we were going to be okay."
And, you were able to overcome that and get the win without him picking up his third foul. Does that prove to you that you can sometimes stick to your guns?
"I think it just depends on the situation. We've played Joe (Jones) sometimes with two fouls. It's not a steadfast rule where if you get two fouls in the first half...basically it depends on how the game's going. Acie, and Joe too...both of those guys have really learned how to play with fouls much better than they did at one point in their careers. I trust if he'd have been in there he wouldn't have picked up another foul, but I wanted to make sure he didn't."
Will you have Eddie (Smith) back?
"He's not back yet. He's still with his family in Illinois. It's a very dire situation as far as I know, so I would doubt it. He won't travel with us. It's possible he could meet us there, but I don't know how long it's going to be. He needs to be where he is. When that works itself out it'll work itself out but our thoughts and prayers are with his family."
Physically you had that week off, did you see the benefits of that against Baylor?
"I don't know. I asked the players that after the game, and they said they felt real good. But what are they going to say? Because I was easy on them last week, if they say we didn't feel that good, then I'll just kill them in practice the whole week like I normally like to do. I thought we were pretty fresh, and they're hard to guard...they run around a lot out there, so I don't know. They said they felt good. Last year, we played Oklahoma State after the open time, and it was as hard as I've ever seen a team play. We lost, but it really paid dividends for the next four or five games, more so than it did for just that first game. So I guess in time we'll be able to judge. I know it came at a good time for us. We needed that, especially after two wins. We needed to catch our breath a little bit. I think it really helped us. We went for 1:15 on Monday and Tuesday, we were off Sunday and Wednesday, and practiced hard on Thursday and Friday to get ready. They couldn't get much more rest than they got."
A few weeks ago you said you were minus-1 from last year, one win below what you were. What's it today?
"At this time we were 5-7 last year, but we had two home games coming up. So I don't know. I guess we are ahead of where we were last year, but we'd already played some of the top teams in the league. We've got a very difficult task ahead. I think Texas Tech is playing as well as anyone in the league right now. Texas...Nebraska had a tough one but they've been doing really well. They're going to be fighting for an NCAA chance, and then going to Missouri. It's really hard."