Billy Gillispie
Billy Clyde Gillispie, also known by his initials BCG and Billy Clyde, is an American college basketball and current men's basketball coach at Tarleton State. Gillispie had previously been head coach at UTEP, Texas A&M, Kentucky, and Texas Tech.
After leading both UTEP and Texas A&M to postseason appearances one year after poor seasons, Gillispie became the only college basketball coach to be in charge of the National Collegiate Athletic Association program with the biggest turnaround in two consecutive seasons. Gillispie was known as an excellent recruiter who managed to put together four straight top-25 recruiting classes. In his three seasons at Texas A&M, the Aggies achieved three consecutive 20-win seasons for the first time in the program's history.
Early years
Gillispie was born November 7, 1959, in Abilene, Texas, the middle child and only boy among five children of Clyde, a cattle truck driver, and Winifred Gillispie. He grew up in Graford, Texas, a town of 494 people located about 65 miles west of Fort Worth. As a child, Gillispie worked as a paperboy, delivering copies of The Fort Worth Press. At Graford High School, Gillispie played point guard for the basketball team and was a standout athlete in his graduating class of 20 students. He attended Ranger College, playing basketball and baseball for them from 1978 to 1980, before transferring to Sam Houston State University to work as a student assistant for their basketball team under coach Bob Derryberry, a former classmate of Gillispie's father. Derryberry moved to Southwest Texas State University the following year, and Gillispie accompanied him, spending three years as a graduate assistant. Gillispie received his degree in education from Southwest Texas State in 1983.Coaching career
Early positions
Gillispie spent the next few years building a coaching resume, spending two years as an assistant high school basketball coach before becoming a head coach at Copperas Cove High School in 1987. From 1987 to 1993, Gillispie held three high school head coaching positions. He was nominated for Texas Association of Basketball Coaches high school coach of the year for his 1992–1993 season with Ellison High School in Killeen, Texas, which set school records for winning percentage and points scored and ended the season ranked 4th in the state.After a year as an assistant coach at South Plains College, in 1994, Gillispie moved to Division I college basketball as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Baylor University under head coach Harry Miller. Miller and Gillispie had coached against each other in the same high school district as late as two years earlier, with Miller at Temple High School. The Baylor Bears' 1996 recruiting class was ranked as high as number six in the nation. After three years at Baylor, Gillispie moved to the University of Tulsa to be an assistant coach under Bill Self. Tulsa reached the elite 8 in the 2000 season. When Self moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Gillispie followed, working as an assistant there for the next two years. During those two seasons, Fighting Illini won back-to-back Big Ten Conference titles for the first time in 50 years, advancing to the Elite Eight in the 2001 NCAA Tournament and to the Sweet 16 in the 2002 NCAA Tournament. With Gillispie's assistance, Illinois landed a top 10 recruiting class in 2002.
Through Gillispie's eight years as an assistant, he was a member of coaching staffs that won five conference championships in six years. As part of Bill Self's staff, he was a member of the only coaching staff in NCAA history to lead two different schools to the Elite Eight in successive seasons.
UTEP
Gillispie was hired as the head coach of the men's basketball team at the University of Texas at El Paso in 2002.2002–2003
In his first season as a head coach, the UTEP Miners finished a dismal 6–24. Despite the poor showing, Gillispie put his recruiting expertise to work so that his first recruiting class ranked in the top 25 in the country and included Filiberto Rivera, the 2003 National Junior College Player of the Year, and Omar Thomas, the all-time leading scorer in junior college basketball.2003–2004
In the exhibition games preceding the 2003–04 season, Gillispie's UTEP Miners defeated the Harlem Globetrotters 89–88, after the Globetrotters had already defeated many college teams including the then-defending national champion, Syracuse Orange. It was the first defeat the Harlem Globetrotters had suffered in 289 games.Although the Miners were predicted to finish ninth in the Western Athletic Conference for the 2003–04 season, UTEP instead captured their first conference title in 12 years. The team finished 24–8 and received a bid to the 2004 NCAA tournament. The 18-win improvement was the best in Division I basketball that season, and one of the best in Division I history. As a result of their success, the Miners built a huge home following, ranking first in the NCAA in increased attendance. After his second season with the Miners, Gillispie was named Texas coach of the Year by the TABC and was a finalist for National Coach of the Year honors.
Texas A&M
After two years at UTEP, Gillispie was approached to interview for the head coach position at Texas A&M University, vacant after the forced resignation of Melvin Watkins, whose team had gone 7–21 and failed to win a Big 12 Conference game in the 2003–04 season. Athletic Director Bill Byrne needed to revitalize the program, which had only one winning season in the previous eleven years, and desired a new head coach with the ability to "recruit the heck out of Texas". Gillispie agreed to take the job only after he was sure that the predominantly football-focused school was actually committed to winning, becoming the first native Texan to be the head basketball coach at Texas A&M since J. B. Reid was hired in 1930.2004–2005
Gillispie asked for a budget large enough to allow them to play confidence-building non-conference schedules, rarely venturing out of Reed Arena in the first two seasons. Using the padded non-conference schedule to their advantage, the Aggies won the first eleven games of Gillispie's debut season before finishing the season 21–10, a fourteen-game improvement over the previous season. Although the Aggies were picked to finish last in the Big 12 Conference, they finished 8–8 in conference play, winning games against the number 9 Texas Longhorns and number 25 Texas Tech Red Raiders on their way to becoming only the third college team to ever finish.500 in league play after being winless the previous season. For the first time in eleven years, the team received a postseason bid. The Aggies' two wins in the National Invitation Tournament were their first postseason wins in 23 seasons. With the best first-season record of any head basketball coach in Texas A&M history, the Aggies had the most season wins since the 1979–80 team had won 26 games. The Aggies were named the country's most improved team, making Gillispie the only coach in history to lead the most improved team in consecutive seasons. As a result of his success, he was the consensus selection for Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year. and was selected to serve as a court coach at the 2005 USA Men's World University Games Team Trials.2005–2006
Although the Aggies lost Antoine Wright to the NBA draft following the 2004–05 season, the team did not suffer the predicted drop-off, and actually broke a streak of twenty-five years without being ranked in the poll. The Aggies finished the regular season with a 21–8 record, including a 10–6 conference record and a fourth-place finish in the Big 12, the best finish and most wins for Texas A&M since the formation of the conference in 1996. For the first time since 1987, Texas A&M received a bid to the NCAA tournament. As a twelfth-seeded team, the Aggies upset the Big East Conference champion Syracuse Orange in the first round of the tournament but then lost in the second round to eventual Final Four participant, the LSU Tigers, by the score of 58–57 on a three-pointer that LSU made in the final seconds of the game. Following the season, Gillispie was named the Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year by several major newspapers and was named the Texas College Coach of the Year by the TABC.2006–2007
The Aggies began the 2006–07 season deemed capable of contending with the Kansas Jayhawks for the Big 12 Conference regular-season crown and were picked to finish second in the Big 12 media and coaches' polls. In their twelfth attempt, on February 3, 2007, Texas A&M became the first Big 12 Conference team in the South Division to beat the Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse, moving them into sole possession of first place in the conference standing. Less than forty-eight hours later the Aggies defeated their archrivals, the #25 ranked Texas Longhorns, marking their 21st straight win at home.The 2006–07 Aggies ended the regular season ranked #7 by the Associated Press and #6 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' poll. The Aggies set a school record for most consecutive weeks in the top 25, reaching a school high number 6 ranking. On March 4, 2007, Gillispie was awarded his second Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year award for leading the Aggies to a 13–3 conference record and a second-place finish behind the Kansas Jayhawks. The 2006–07 post-season, the Aggies advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA tourney. Their post-season hopes ended with a one-point loss to the Memphis Tigers at the Alamodome in San Antonio on March 22, 2007.
Kentucky
Hiring
On April 5, 2007, University of Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart was given permission by Texas A&M to speak with Gillispie about the program's basketball coach opening, vacated by Tubby Smith.On April 6, 2007, the announcement was made that Gillispie had accepted the position. He drew criticism for the way he left Texas A&M by having alerted the Aggie players of his decision to take the Kentucky job via text message, while en route to the introductory press conference in Lexington.
On April 6, 2007, Gillispie was formally announced as the new head coach of the University of Kentucky by UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart. He fielded questions from the media during a press conference held at UK's new practice facility, the Joe Craft Center. He expressed his excitement and joy to have been given the honor and the opportunity to coach what former Kentucky Wildcats head coach Rick Pitino referred to as the "Roman Empire" of college basketball. "I'm very, very grateful and honored to be here, but we have a lot of work to do." Gillispie became only the sixth head coach in the last 76 years at the school.
Gillispie signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Kentucky on April 6, 2007 which outlined his salary and benefits. The memo also stated that contract negotiations would be concluded with "every reasonable effort" within 60 days. Gillispie and the university never signed a formal contract.