Billy Gillispie

If he truly has his demons under control, he'll make somebody that takes a chance on him a helluva coach. Of course it won't be us because not enough people will see him in church on Sunday.

Sadly I agree. It was sad to see how many of them turned on LE when he had to battle his demons with alcohol and Shane Power banging his wife..... allegedly.

He got help and has turned his life around. I don't think he enjoyed his success at ISU as much as many people think he did. The guy was sincerely troubled and his problem was legit. I can't help but be proud of the guy now.
 
These sentiments of "Billy will be very motivated to succeed if given a job just to show everybody that he can coach, or to show up UK" are hogwash. If the booze is still controlling him, the booze will take precedent over any job. Coaches can't keep serious private issues from affecting their coaching. LE couldn't do it, Lute Olsen couldn't do it, and Billy Gillespie won't be able to do it.

You mean like Bob Huggins? You think K-State regretted hiring him? Do you also think West Virginia regrets hiring him?
Just wondering if you think Huggins was a mistake hire by those two schools, both now in the top ten.
Doesn't look to me that "booze is taking precedent" over his job in Morgantown...
 
You mean like Bob Huggins? You think K-State regretted hiring him? Do you also think West Virginia regrets hiring him?
Just wondering if you think Huggins was a mistake hire by those two schools, both now in the top ten...

K-state would regret it if he hadn't brought Franky along with him.
 
You remember how things turned out the last time ISU hired an alcoholic coach...a couple years of great...followed by a few stinky years...followed by an ugly national scandal. We really don't want that again.

Call me desperate but I'd take three crap years and two Big 12 championships with a coach firing at the end again in a heartbeat.
 
Take off your desperation-colored glasses and reflect on the situation for a minute...

You remember how things turned out the last time ISU hired an alcoholic coach...a couple years of great...followed by a few stinky years...followed by an ugly national scandal. We really don't want that again.

Billy Clyde is fresh out of rehab and there is no indication that he has his alcoholic problems under control. One trip to rehab doesn't magically make everything better. It's not a "holier-than-thou" issue, or an issue about ripping on someone who's made a mistake. It's an issue of common sense. It would be foolish to hire a coach that does not have his alcoholism under control, and right now that is in question with BG. So here's the question...where is Billy now, and what he is doing? One poster here as already provided some insight into that.

These sentiments of "Billy will be very motivated to succeed if given a job just to show everybody that he can coach, or to show up UK" are hogwash. If the booze is still controlling him, the booze will take precedent over any job. Coaches can't keep serious private issues from affecting their coaching. LE couldn't do it, Lute Olsen couldn't do it, and Billy Gillespie won't be able to do it.

Secondly, a college MBB coach has to be part baby sitter. College kids do silly things, and sometimes those "silly" things get kids and teams on probation. Coaches need to be watching over that to some extent. Thirdly, the coach has to be someone that the players will respect.

It's like some people here didn't learn a thing from a nasty event that happened to ISU less than ten years ago. This is not about finding a coach with zero baggage or about denying people a second chance. This is about not hiring a coach that might still have 100 pounds of concrete chained to his ankle...


Exactly.....if we hire someone that risky, we are risking putting our program in worse shape than it is now (and I don't think that this program is in worse shape than it was several years ago).

I can read the writing on the wall and know that there is a chance McDermott is not back this year, but I can't find a person that would make me happy with the decision. The closest thing would be the top assistants at WI or MSU, but we don't even know if they'd be interested.
 
Call me desperate but I'd take three crap years and two Big 12 championships with a coach firing at the end again in a heartbeat.

Of course you would, because that's two guaranteed championships. Hiring BG isn't necessarily two guaranteed championships. They're completely different.
 
Of course you would, because that's two guaranteed championships. Hiring BG isn't necessarily two guaranteed championships. They're completely different.

No, but it's not a guaranteed disaster for the program either. Nobody is saying hiring Gillispie wouldn't be a risk, it's obviously a high risk/high reward scenario. There's just a lot of us that think it would be a chance worth taking.
 
Thank you for your compelling argument.

For all those bring up the Wesley thing, he was obviously very willing to listen. It takes two to tango and obviously something wasn't totally right here.

Yep. Events don't happen in a vacuum.

People tend to ignore this, but its a fact: People are much more receptive to opportunities elsewhere when they are unhappy with their current situation.
 
At this point I could get behind just about anybody that would win consistently, even if he's got some character issues. I'm not sure how things could get a lot worse than what we're dealing with. I'm kind of in the Clark Griswold camp right now......


WORSE? How could they get any worse? Take a look around here, Ellen. We're at the threshold of hell!

Great posted :biglaugh:
 
Take off your desperation-colored glasses and reflect on the situation for a minute...

You remember how things turned out the last time ISU hired an alcoholic coach...a couple years of great...followed by a few stinky years...followed by an ugly national scandal. We really don't want that again.

Billy Clyde is fresh out of rehab and there is no indication that he has his alcoholic problems under control. One trip to rehab doesn't magically make everything better. It's not a "holier-than-thou" issue, or an issue about ripping on someone who's made a mistake. It's an issue of common sense. It would be foolish to hire a coach that does not have his alcoholism under control, and right now that is in question with BG. So here's the question...where is Billy now, and what he is doing? One poster here as already provided some insight into that.

These sentiments of "Billy will be very motivated to succeed if given a job just to show everybody that he can coach, or to show up UK" are hogwash. If the booze is still controlling him, the booze will take precedent over any job. Coaches can't keep serious private issues from affecting their coaching. LE couldn't do it, Lute Olsen couldn't do it, and Billy Gillespie won't be able to do it.

Secondly, a college MBB coach has to be part baby sitter. College kids do silly things, and sometimes those "silly" things get kids and teams on probation. Coaches need to be watching over that to some extent. Thirdly, the coach has to be someone that the players will respect.

It's like some people here didn't learn a thing from a nasty event that happened to ISU less than ten years ago. This is not about finding a coach with zero baggage or about denying people a second chance. This is about not hiring a coach that might still have 100 pounds of concrete chained to his ankle...

I don't give a crap if he drinks. I want him to coach basketball, not babysit my kids. I like to drink beer, all my friends like to, why would I care if our coach does?

As far as whether his players respect him, they seemed to respect him just fine at A&M, based on how hard and well they played for him. Gmac doesn't get in trouble, but its pretty obvious he doesn't have the respect of the players either. Respect is gained through time and personal interaction, not whether he had an OWI in the past.

The problem wasn't that Larry drank.... it was that our AD overreacted to him partying with college kids and fired him.
 
You mean like Bob Huggins? You think K-State regretted hiring him? Do you also think West Virginia regrets hiring him?
Just wondering if you think Huggins was a mistake hire by those two schools, both now in the top ten.
Doesn't look to me that "booze is taking precedent" over his job in Morgantown...

Perhaps that is because Huggins has his alcohol issues under control. And perhaps that was the case before KSU and UVW hired him. Do you know differently?
 
whoever we have must have passion to rival orr, floyd, and eustachy and not the calm persona of McD or Hilton Magic will never be revived. The crowd, and the players, seem to feed of a coaches energy during a game.
 
whoever we have must have passion to rival orr, floyd, and eustachy and not the calm persona of McD or Hilton Magic will never be revived. The crowd, and the players, seem to feed of a coaches energy during a game.


AGAIN, for the 1000th time, McDermott is not calm during games. He has plenty of passion and shows it during games.

This myth about him is beyond stupid.
 
I don't give a crap if he drinks. I want him to coach basketball, not babysit my kids. I like to drink beer, all my friends like to, why would I care if our coach does?

It is a bit scary that you don't understand the difference between "my friends and I like to drink beer" and alcoholism/4 DWIs.
 
AGAIN, for the 1000th time, McDermott is not calm during games. He has plenty of passion and shows it during games.

This myth about him is beyond stupid.

Agreed that he's not calm during games, but he IS much calmer than the aforementioned personalities.
 
I don't give a crap if he drinks. I want him to coach basketball, not babysit my kids. I like to drink beer, all my friends like to, why would I care if our coach does?

As far as whether his players respect him, they seemed to respect him just fine at A&M, based on how hard and well they played for him. Gmac doesn't get in trouble, but its pretty obvious he doesn't have the respect of the players either. Respect is gained through time and personal interaction, not whether he had an OWI in the past.

The problem wasn't that Larry drank.... it was that our AD overreacted to him partying with college kids and fired him.

It's not the fact that he drinks. It's the decisions he makes after he's been drinking. Respect isn't gained through time and personal interaction. There are tons of people that I'll never respect no matter how much time and interaction I have with them. Conversely, there are people I respect that I've never met.
 

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