Notebook : He’s OK with being No. 2 at A&M
Billy Gillispie knows he’s not the most eloquent speaker. The Texas A&M coach hopes he makes up for it with honesty.
While Gillispie is certainly proud of how far he’s brought the Aggies in just three years, he knows football will always sit at the top of the food chain on the A&M campus.
And you know what? It doesn’t bother him a bit.
“I think being a so-called football school is a major advantage for us,” Gillispie said. “We play 12 games and a bowl game every year. Those games are about 3 1/2 hours in length and they’re all on TV. How could you get better advertisement for your basketball program or your school?”
Besides, it’s not like the Aggies, who play Louisville in the second round of the South Regional today at Rupp Arena, have been forgotten by the athletic administration.
Reed Arena is getting a $20 million facelift that will include two practice gyms, lounges, offices, weight rooms and medical facilities, the type of project that let Gillispie know the school is serious about basketball.
Compare that to 2003-04, the year before Gillispie arrived. The Aggies played in front of sparse crowds at home, many of them simply looking for something to bridge the gap between Texas A&M’s bowl game and the beginning of spring football practice.
Three seasons and a pair of NCAA tournament appearances later, the atmosphere has changed.
“Every year it gets crazier and crazier,” forward Joseph Jones said. “Everybody says A&M is a football school, and it is, but everybody is starting to go crazy over basketball.”
Williams deflects attention
North Carolina coach Roy Williams has had an emotional few days after learning of the death of his sister the day before the Tar Heels’ first-round game against Eastern Kentucky.
But when asked whether his players should try to win for their mourning coach, Williams said he wanted them focused on playing Michigan State today.
“I’ve got some different things that I’ve got to think about at times, but I think they trust me enough to know that I’m not going to shortchange them,” Williams said. “You go through those kinds of things in life and it’s not very pleasant, but I don’t want the team to get motivation from that. I want them to get motivation because they have it inside themselves to be the best team we can be.”
Buffalo has bite
First Bobby Knight. Then John Chaney. Now Coach K.
With a 79-77 first-round loss to Virginia Commonwealth on Thursday, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski became the latest high-profile coach to have his team’s season end in Buffalo, the chicken wing city that’s gaining lore in NCAA tournament history while only hosting its third sub-regional.
Buffalo was the place where Knight coached his final game with Indiana in 2000, after the Hoosiers were upset by Pepperdine in the first round. And, two days later, Temple lost to Seton Hall in the second round, ending what was regarded as Chaney’s best chance of finally reaching the Final Four.
Temple’s loss was even more of a shocker, considering it was little-known Pirates reserve Ty Shine leading the way, scoring a career-high 26 points, including the winning 3-pointer with 18 seconds left in overtime of a 67-65 win. Shine was filling in for injured Shaheen Holloway.