[Rosiak's Blog] An interview with Billy Gillispie

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An interview with Billy Gillispie

Written by: Todd Rosiak


The best known of all the coaches for whom Buzz Williams has worked over the years, Billy Gillispie remains a close confidant of his former assistant from Texas A&M.

With that in mind, here's the interview I did with the Kentucky coach:

How did you know Williams prior to hiring him? I had seen him out there working. He'd recruited not exclusively, but quite frequently, in Texas and I was either at Tulsa or Illinois or Texas-El Paso. Just knew Buzz from the profession. Got to know him well as a person and I really admired his work from afar.

What made him attractive as an assistant? He's a good person, a person that anybody who works with him on our staff, the main responsibility is I want somebody that wants to make a difference in someone's life every single day. That's the kind of person he is. He has great skill and great ability in the basketball world. He's a good person and a hard worker and he cares about other people. He's not selfish in any way and he's totally selfless. He honors the people he works for and works with and he just has all the character qualities you want in a co-worker. He's also a guy that's going to help you build a basketball program.

Williams speaks a lot about relationships. Did you see that right away in his recruiting? I didn't have to hire him to know that. In this profession you always kind of cast your eyes to guys that are getting the job done. They may or may not be working with you but you know who gets the job done no matter what position they hold or what position they're at that particular time. You knew a lot of things before he ever came to work for us at Texas A&M.

Williams gets a lot of credit for his recruiting. How would you rate him as an entire package? I think he's fantastic. I think he proved that in the year he was a head coach at New Orleans. I think he did a great job in a lot of different areas. I think that most of the time guys usually get the opportunity to become a head coach because of their recruiting abilities or whatever, but nobody's only a recruiter. That's one thing, I came up with Coach (Bill) Self and we always had to do everything. We had to scout, we had to do academics, we had to recruit, we had to be a mentor - do whatever it took to give our team the best chance to win. When I got the opportunity to become a head coach I was ready because of my preparation with Bill Self, and we kind of followed the same thing. We don't just have an expert in recruiting, in coaching, in individual work - everyone has to scout and do all those kinds of things. While it keeps you really busy, I think that it really does prepare you when you get your opportunity to become a head coach. Buzz was ready, and he proved that in the time that he had over at New Orleans two years ago.

How do you think he'll fare at MU? It doesn't matter what position he held -- he's going to be great at it. And now he's got another opportunity to be a head coach, and he'll do great with it, there's no question. Marquette's a great university, obviously, and they love their basketball and they have a sincere desire to compete and excel, and they have great commitment toward that. No matter what Buzz would have chosen to do, he was going to be very, very successful, and fortunately he's at one of the better basketball schools in the country and he'll do a great job as a head coach there, and he'll continue the tradition of Marquette basketball.

Williams is similar to Tom Crean in that he's very detail-oriented, a voracious reader and a copious note-taker. How will that help him coaching in the Big East? Buzz has always been inquisitive to everyone. He takes a lot of time reading and studying, and that's one thing that I've really admired from afar about Coach Crean - he puts himself around successful people and studies why those people are successful, and obviously uses those things to help him continue to be successful year after year. I think along those lines, Buzz has the same kind of philosophy. He's going to continue to study and I think he's confident with what he knows. But he knows that there's always something else to learn, and he's going to probably continue to try to find out everything he can, until he learns everything, which is impossible. What you do learn is you have to try to stay ahead of the game. There's a lot of things you have to juggle in recruiting and media and individual work and trends of the game and those kinds of things, and the people that are going to work the hardest to continue to help themselves get better are the guys that are going to continue to win. And Buzz is one of those guys.

Assistant coaches have different relationships with players than head coaches. How do you think Williams' relationships will change with his players at MU now that he's running the show? There's going to be some different lines, obviously. But if you give your heart and soul to players as an assistant coach you're going to be successful. If you give your heart and soul to players as a head coach, you're going to be successful. There are some differences, no question, but I don't think you start acting differently. I think that there are just some things, your responsibilities are different. If you're honest, you're fair, and you give your heart and soul I think that players always appreciate that, no matter what your position might be on a particular staff. And Buzz definitely does that - he cares about people genuinely and he gives his heart and soul every single day, and they know he cares about them. There will be some differences, but there's not going to any differences in the way he goes about loving his players.



http://blogs.jsonline.com/muhoops/archive/2008/06/09/an-interview-with-billy-gillispie.aspx