Billy Gillispie

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Billy Gillispie (born November 7, 1959, in Graford, Texas) is an American basketball coach and is the head coach of the men's basketball team at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

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[edit] Early coaching career

A native of Texas, Gillispie began his career coaching basketball at high schools and junior colleges in Texas. In 1994, Gillispie moved to Division I college basketball as an assistant coach at Baylor University. Gillispie later served as assistant coach under Bill Self at the University of Tulsa and the University of Illinois.

[edit] University of Texas at El Paso

Gillispie was hired at the head coach of the men's basketball team at the University of Texas at El Paso in 2002. The UTEP Miners finished 6-24 in his first season. In Gillispie's second season at UTEP (2003-04), the Miners finished 24-8 and received a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The 18-win improvement was the best in Division I basketball that season, and one of the best in Division I history.

[edit] Texas A&M University

Texas A&M hired Gillispie in 2004 after the previous coach, Melvin Watkins, finished the season with a 7-21 record overall and 0-16 in Big 12 play. The Aggies immediately improved under Gillispie, and in a dramatic fashion. The Aggies started the season by winning their first eleven games before finishing 21-10. For the second consecutive season, Gillispie was the coach of the team with the biggest turnaround in Division I basketball. The Aggies won games against ranked opponents Texas and Texas Tech, and they received a bid to play in the postseason National Invitation Tournament, the first time in 11 seasons that Texas A&M was invited to a postseason tournament. The Aggies won two games in the 2005 NIT, the first postseason wins at Texas A&M in 23 seasons.

In the 2005-06 season, Texas A&M finished the regular season with a 21-8 record and received a bid to the NCAA Tournament, the Aggies first since 1987 [1]. The Aggies finished the regular season with 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 Big 12 in 1996-97. As a twelfth-seeded team, the Aggies upset Syracuse in the first round of the tournament [2] but then lost in the second round to eventual Final Four participant LSU by the score of 58-57 [3].

The present Aggies are off to a 7-1 start and are ranked #6 by the Associated Press and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' polls, their highest ranking in school history. They are believed capable of contending with the Kansas Jayhawks for the Big 12 regular-season crown and were picked to finish second in the Big 12 media and coaches' polls.

[edit] Coaching record

School Season Record Postseason
UT-El Paso 2002-2003 6-24 none
UT-El Paso 2003-2004 24-8 NCAA First Round
Texas A&M 2004-2005 21-10 NIT Quarterfinals
Texas A&M 2005-2006 22-9 NCAA Second Round

[edit] External links


Texas A&M Aggies Head Basketball Coaches
Steger • Graves • Morris • Driver • Bible • Bassett • Reid • McQuillan • Smith • Carow • Floyd • Loeffler • Rogers • Metcalf • Thornton • Davis • Barone • Watkins • Gillispie
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