By Marlen Garcia, USA TODAY
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Between his ultra-short haircut that keeps every strand in place and his talk of team building and unity, Billy Gillispie almost comes off like a military man. The Kentucky men's basketball coach, in his first season with the Wildcats, is all about effort.
"We're going to work hard, absolutely," Gillispie says with a Texas drawl. "You can't attain the success we've had — going to places that weren't winning and start winning immediately — without working hard. What do you want to do? Have a country club? Is that what you're supposed to do? If you're not going to have high demands, you're going to get what you ask for."
A relentless work ethic brought Gillispie here to one of the most storied programs in college basketball to replace Tubby Smith last spring. Smith departed for Minnesota amid mounting discontent from restless fans. He led Kentucky to an NCAA title in his first season, in 1998, but the Wildcats have been in a Final Four drought since.
With go-getting flair and competitiveness, Gillispie is shaking up the culture of Kentucky basketball. Growing pains are part of the process, Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart says.
"There have been bumps," he says. "There may be more."
By its standards, Kentucky (4-3) is struggling, evident in the Wildcats' 70-51 loss at Indiana on Saturday and the 84-68 upset loss at home Nov. 7 to lightly regarded Gardner-Webb in perhaps the biggest stunner of the season. Injuries are a factor, most notably to sophomore guards Jodie Meeks (recovering from a stress fracture in his pelvis) and Derrick Jasper (microfracture knee surgery in June).
In addition, talented freshman guard Alex Legion, from the Detroit area, quit last week to seek a transfer. He later asked Gillispie to reinstate him, but team spokesman Scott Stricklin said Tuesday that Legion has been released from his scholarship. Legion, a top-50 recruit according to Rivals.com, averaged 6.7 points and 17.5 minutes.
It can take time to warm up to Gillispie, who paid his dues coming up through humble ranks coaching at the high school and junior college levels. That could be why, whether he's working with a McDonald's All-American or an unknown walk-on, he doesn't compromise his coaching principles. The 48-year-old native of small-town Graford, Texas (an hour northwest of Fort Worth), has been a head coach for only five years, but his standards are set in stone.
"He'll never question what he does," says Florida International coach Sergio Rouco, a friend and assistant to Gillispie at Texas-El Paso. "He's not going to change."
When he's not coaching, Gillispie is consumed by recruiting, another area in which he excels. "Our fans enjoy that as much as the game itself," Barnhart says.
Fans were elated that shortly after coming to Kentucky, Gillispie secured the arrival of Patrick Patterson, who has the makings of an All-American. The 6-8 forward from Huntington, W.Va., is second on the team in scoring with a 16.1-point average and first in rebounding (8.3).
Last month his diligence paid off when Gillispie signed two top-35 recruits for 2008: 6-6 forward Darius Miller of Maysville (Ky.), an hour northeast of campus, and 6-6 guard DeAndre Liggins of Chicago.
Yet not every blue-chip prospect can handle playing for Gillispie, Rouco says.
"You better be a grinder to play for him, a blue-collar guy," Rouco says. "He's not Disney World. He's Possum Kingdom Lake." The latter is the best Graford has to offer, beautiful in its own right but far from glitzy and glamorous.
Gillispie is known as a workaholic and demands similar dedication from others. "He's a bear to work with," Rouco says. "He wants you to keep pace with him."
Details, details
His players — two seniors, one junior, the rest freshmen and sophomores — are adjusting to tough practices, even on game days. "I wouldn't say it's a bad thing, but it's something we needed to get used to," says senior point guard Ramel Bradley, who is averaging 12.7 points and 3.1 assists.
They are learning that every detail related to the game counts, that lapses in judgment won't go unpunished. Bradley had started 39 games in a row until Dec. 1, when Gillispie brought him off the bench in an 86-77 loss to North Carolina, then ranked No. 2 and now No. 1. Without elaborating, Bradley said he had been selfish during practice earlier in the week.
During a 62-52 win against Stony Brook on Nov. 27, Gillispie benched 6-8 freshman forward A.J. Stewart and had him face reporters to explain why he didn't play. Stewart said he had fallen asleep during a team meeting. Asked about it later, Gillispie said only, "You don't need to humiliate him anymore." He had done so sufficiently by making the player accountable publicly.
Accounts from players, past and present, offer two sides to Gillispie: the relaxed guy who has players come by the office every day for small talk, and a side full of intensity — a bull in a china shop.
"I prefer him off the court," Patterson says. "On the court he's really strict. He's the type of guy that wants to get it done the right way more so than get it done the wrong way and win."
Patterson is still trying to figure out "the right way" by Gillispie's definition. "I don't know," he says. "I'm so curious about that."
Can always be better
In an 83-35 rout of Texas Southern on Nov. 24, Kentucky gave up only five second-half baskets. Gillispie noted four could have been prevented with better defense.
He's looking for perfection, no doubt a reason he sleeps only two to three hours a night. But is it realistic to try to win 76-0? Gillispie says every effort should be made.
"Who said it's impossible?" he asks. "Just because you win by 48 points — giving up a basket when you didn't perform well, it's supposed to be OK? Then you lose next week by one point. You gave up the same basket. The scoreboard doesn't indicate whether you're successful or not."
These are the principles that elevated Gillispie from coaching high school to junior college to becoming a Division I assistant at Baylor, Tulsa and Illinois. He got his first head coaching job in 2002 at Texas-El Paso, where he followed a forgettable 6-24 rookie season with a 24-8 record and an NCAA tournament berth. That launched his rise that took him to Texas A&M, where in three seasons he built a Sweet 16 team.
Making sacrifices
Gillispie has been handsomely rewarded for his efforts. About five years ago, as an assistant to then-Illinois coach Bill Self, Gillispie was making $98,880 annually. As Kentucky's coach, he'll earn $2.3 million.
"If someone deserves the money he's making, it's Billy," Rouco says. "He's busted his tail. He sacrificed having a family."
Gillispie is uncomfortable talking about his personal life, including a divorce several years ago. He is single with no children.
"Every coach sacrifices a tremendous amount," he says. "Every player sacrifices a lot. That's what team building is all about, sacrifice for the benefit of others. That's what makes you successful" in coaching.
For many fans, everything about Kentucky basketball is personal. Retired teachers Joe and Linda Heagen of Middletown, Ohio, 30 miles north of Cincinnati, camp out in tents for four days before the ticket release of season-opening Midnight Madness practice to be up close and personal with players and coaches who stop by.
"You get to know them," Linda says.
When Gillispie bought a 12,000-square-foot house with six bedrooms and eight bathrooms for $1.45 million in August, as reported in the Lexington Herald- Leader, it was news. "Whatever," Gillispie says. "It's not like people aren't going to know where the coach lives in a town the size of Lexington," which, according to the U.S. Census Bureau estimate in 2005, had a population of almost 270,000.
Like his players, he also must adjust to the demands on a high-profile coach.
In October, his assistant for scheduling declined the local Rotary Club's invitations to address 380 members. The group includes several business leaders who had been phoning and e-mailing the executive director, Nell Main, because they didn't want to miss the coach's preseason talk.
That's a tradition Main says began during the era of Adolph Rupp, a Kentucky icon who coached from 1930 to 1972 and won 876 games and four NCAA titles.
"He's probably snowed under with things to do," Main says of Gillispie.
She's right. Gillispie says he has a lot of work to do. "We've got a long ways to go," he says. "A long ways to go."
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Between his ultra-short haircut that keeps every strand in place and his talk of team building and unity, Billy Gillispie almost comes off like a military man. The Kentucky men's basketball coach, in his first season with the Wildcats, is all about effort.
"We're going to work hard, absolutely," Gillispie says with a Texas drawl. "You can't attain the success we've had — going to places that weren't winning and start winning immediately — without working hard. What do you want to do? Have a country club? Is that what you're supposed to do? If you're not going to have high demands, you're going to get what you ask for."
A relentless work ethic brought Gillispie here to one of the most storied programs in college basketball to replace Tubby Smith last spring. Smith departed for Minnesota amid mounting discontent from restless fans. He led Kentucky to an NCAA title in his first season, in 1998, but the Wildcats have been in a Final Four drought since.
With go-getting flair and competitiveness, Gillispie is shaking up the culture of Kentucky basketball. Growing pains are part of the process, Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart says.
"There have been bumps," he says. "There may be more."
By its standards, Kentucky (4-3) is struggling, evident in the Wildcats' 70-51 loss at Indiana on Saturday and the 84-68 upset loss at home Nov. 7 to lightly regarded Gardner-Webb in perhaps the biggest stunner of the season. Injuries are a factor, most notably to sophomore guards Jodie Meeks (recovering from a stress fracture in his pelvis) and Derrick Jasper (microfracture knee surgery in June).
In addition, talented freshman guard Alex Legion, from the Detroit area, quit last week to seek a transfer. He later asked Gillispie to reinstate him, but team spokesman Scott Stricklin said Tuesday that Legion has been released from his scholarship. Legion, a top-50 recruit according to Rivals.com, averaged 6.7 points and 17.5 minutes.
It can take time to warm up to Gillispie, who paid his dues coming up through humble ranks coaching at the high school and junior college levels. That could be why, whether he's working with a McDonald's All-American or an unknown walk-on, he doesn't compromise his coaching principles. The 48-year-old native of small-town Graford, Texas (an hour northwest of Fort Worth), has been a head coach for only five years, but his standards are set in stone.
"He'll never question what he does," says Florida International coach Sergio Rouco, a friend and assistant to Gillispie at Texas-El Paso. "He's not going to change."
When he's not coaching, Gillispie is consumed by recruiting, another area in which he excels. "Our fans enjoy that as much as the game itself," Barnhart says.
Fans were elated that shortly after coming to Kentucky, Gillispie secured the arrival of Patrick Patterson, who has the makings of an All-American. The 6-8 forward from Huntington, W.Va., is second on the team in scoring with a 16.1-point average and first in rebounding (8.3).
Last month his diligence paid off when Gillispie signed two top-35 recruits for 2008: 6-6 forward Darius Miller of Maysville (Ky.), an hour northeast of campus, and 6-6 guard DeAndre Liggins of Chicago.
Yet not every blue-chip prospect can handle playing for Gillispie, Rouco says.
"You better be a grinder to play for him, a blue-collar guy," Rouco says. "He's not Disney World. He's Possum Kingdom Lake." The latter is the best Graford has to offer, beautiful in its own right but far from glitzy and glamorous.
Gillispie is known as a workaholic and demands similar dedication from others. "He's a bear to work with," Rouco says. "He wants you to keep pace with him."
Details, details
His players — two seniors, one junior, the rest freshmen and sophomores — are adjusting to tough practices, even on game days. "I wouldn't say it's a bad thing, but it's something we needed to get used to," says senior point guard Ramel Bradley, who is averaging 12.7 points and 3.1 assists.
They are learning that every detail related to the game counts, that lapses in judgment won't go unpunished. Bradley had started 39 games in a row until Dec. 1, when Gillispie brought him off the bench in an 86-77 loss to North Carolina, then ranked No. 2 and now No. 1. Without elaborating, Bradley said he had been selfish during practice earlier in the week.
During a 62-52 win against Stony Brook on Nov. 27, Gillispie benched 6-8 freshman forward A.J. Stewart and had him face reporters to explain why he didn't play. Stewart said he had fallen asleep during a team meeting. Asked about it later, Gillispie said only, "You don't need to humiliate him anymore." He had done so sufficiently by making the player accountable publicly.
Accounts from players, past and present, offer two sides to Gillispie: the relaxed guy who has players come by the office every day for small talk, and a side full of intensity — a bull in a china shop.
"I prefer him off the court," Patterson says. "On the court he's really strict. He's the type of guy that wants to get it done the right way more so than get it done the wrong way and win."
Patterson is still trying to figure out "the right way" by Gillispie's definition. "I don't know," he says. "I'm so curious about that."
Can always be better
In an 83-35 rout of Texas Southern on Nov. 24, Kentucky gave up only five second-half baskets. Gillispie noted four could have been prevented with better defense.
He's looking for perfection, no doubt a reason he sleeps only two to three hours a night. But is it realistic to try to win 76-0? Gillispie says every effort should be made.
"Who said it's impossible?" he asks. "Just because you win by 48 points — giving up a basket when you didn't perform well, it's supposed to be OK? Then you lose next week by one point. You gave up the same basket. The scoreboard doesn't indicate whether you're successful or not."
These are the principles that elevated Gillispie from coaching high school to junior college to becoming a Division I assistant at Baylor, Tulsa and Illinois. He got his first head coaching job in 2002 at Texas-El Paso, where he followed a forgettable 6-24 rookie season with a 24-8 record and an NCAA tournament berth. That launched his rise that took him to Texas A&M, where in three seasons he built a Sweet 16 team.
Making sacrifices
Gillispie has been handsomely rewarded for his efforts. About five years ago, as an assistant to then-Illinois coach Bill Self, Gillispie was making $98,880 annually. As Kentucky's coach, he'll earn $2.3 million.
"If someone deserves the money he's making, it's Billy," Rouco says. "He's busted his tail. He sacrificed having a family."
Gillispie is uncomfortable talking about his personal life, including a divorce several years ago. He is single with no children.
"Every coach sacrifices a tremendous amount," he says. "Every player sacrifices a lot. That's what team building is all about, sacrifice for the benefit of others. That's what makes you successful" in coaching.
For many fans, everything about Kentucky basketball is personal. Retired teachers Joe and Linda Heagen of Middletown, Ohio, 30 miles north of Cincinnati, camp out in tents for four days before the ticket release of season-opening Midnight Madness practice to be up close and personal with players and coaches who stop by.
"You get to know them," Linda says.
When Gillispie bought a 12,000-square-foot house with six bedrooms and eight bathrooms for $1.45 million in August, as reported in the Lexington Herald- Leader, it was news. "Whatever," Gillispie says. "It's not like people aren't going to know where the coach lives in a town the size of Lexington," which, according to the U.S. Census Bureau estimate in 2005, had a population of almost 270,000.
Like his players, he also must adjust to the demands on a high-profile coach.
In October, his assistant for scheduling declined the local Rotary Club's invitations to address 380 members. The group includes several business leaders who had been phoning and e-mailing the executive director, Nell Main, because they didn't want to miss the coach's preseason talk.
That's a tradition Main says began during the era of Adolph Rupp, a Kentucky icon who coached from 1930 to 1972 and won 876 games and four NCAA titles.
"He's probably snowed under with things to do," Main says of Gillispie.
She's right. Gillispie says he has a lot of work to do. "We've got a long ways to go," he says. "A long ways to go."
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