Well, here is my thinking on the situation in general.
As frustrated fans of Aggie basketball we are quite jaded by our rather unsuccesful past.
So therefore, being true Ags and Texans with alot of pride, we feel embarrased. On top of that our rivals are doing quite well that's a double problem. So the pain and build up of a bruised ego with losing is pretty big!
So what we want to do know is bow up and make a big statement, a splash that will make the media and the sips rise up and take notice!
Truth be known I could care less about the media and the sips or making a splash. I want to find a guy that will quietly come in here and build a program and develop the talent we have and bring other talent here to A&M.
On top of our humiliation we have been emotionally 'burned' by these 'up and comers' and we now have a bad mentality towards them. It's like this.
You tell a guy who has never had an apple that apples are good. You get him to try one, he some what innocently grabs one and bites it and low and behold he hits a worm! Well that's not very pleasent. The dude gets angry at you. You calm him down and you get him to try again, well this time he picks and apple and he bites into a bruise. Yuk! He says fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!
Well, you try to explain that apples are still good but he is not so convinced. Finally he gets over the pain and tries again being carefully he looks for worms, looks for bruises and then bites the apple and yuk it isn't ripe. That's it he says. No more apples. All apples are bad!! It;s not true but he is convinced it is.
That's what we have here. The truth is that there are good apples. Yea maybe, Kermit, Barone and Davis were all bad apples for differing reasons. However to say that Gillispie is bad because, like Kermit, Barone and Watkins, he is an 'apple' is just faulty logic.
Just like the logci that says, going out and getting Eustachy or a big name coach is going to guarantee a winner. It's not. There are lot of elements that go in here. There are big name coaches that are not working right now for reasons. Slocum was a big name coach, but would not be considered a good hire for many programs for a number of reasons. It's hard to say how succesful Slocum would be in a program in football program like, let's say Illinois.
See some big names inherited good programs. They may great at maintaining good programs but horrible at comming in and turning down programs around. They also may have let the game and the style of kids pass them by, like Shelby Metcalf.
In this situation Gillispie may be the right apple.
1. He has a good background was turtored and understudied under a good coach. Was successful at the HS level, as an asst. at the mid conf level, as an asst at the major conference level. (this is important he knows the pressure, competitiion and expectation of a major conference and yes the Big 10 is a major conference and Ill is primarily a basketball school) He now has turned around a program from worse to first.
2. He has Texas roots
3. Is considered a good recruiter. He got top jucos to come to UTEP. Look every top program has some top juco players from time to time. He didn't get those guys at UTEP because nobody else wanted them. He had to win em.
4. He is an energetic, hard working, team oriented guy, who is young and hungry. His ego reputation will not compete with the University for top billing, ie ttech.
5. He'll be very familar with A&M, where we have been who we are and where we want to go. As he was a native here and surely is not oblivious to who we are.
The anti Gillispie crowd hasn't given one legitimate reason why this wouldn't be a good hire except to say that he's an "apple".
You guys need to do better than that!
"only one thing is important!"
