Gillispie earns COY honors at A&M

Associated Press

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Billy Gillispie never doubted he would eventually win a lot of games at Texas A&M. Hardly anyone thought it would happen so soon.

''We exceeded our expectations,'' Gillispie said. ''But expectations were fairly low here for a good reason.''

Indeed. Gillispie, who came to Texas A&M from Texas-El Paso last March, has engineered a remarkable turnaround at what was one of the nation's worst big-time college basketball programs.

Coming off a winless record in Big 12 play last season, the Aggies (19-8, 8-8) have turned themselves into improbable contenders for an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament. A&M's 12-win improvement is tied with San Diego for the biggest swing in Division I.

For his role in bringing a taste of success to a traditionally downtrodden program, Gillispie was named the AP's Big 12 coach of the year on Tuesday. Gillispie was an overwhelming winner among the panel of sportswriters that regularly cover the league, earning 21 of 24 votes. Texas Tech's Bobby Knight got two votes and Oklahoma's Kelvin Sampson had one.

''It's always nice to receive recognition,'' Gillispie said. ''But I've got more to learn than anyone in the league. I'm not going to fool myself into thinking I'm better than I really am.''

Before arriving in College Station, Gillispie had already proven he could turn things around quickly.

At UTEP, Gillispie finished 6-24 in his first season but went 24-8 the next year and advanced to the NCAA tournament. That tied for the greatest one-year turnaround in college basketball history.

A&M posed a much bigger challenge for Gillispie because of its history of mediocrity -- the Aggies had only one winning season in the past 15 years and one NCAA tournament berth in the past 25. UTEP, at least, won a national title in 1966 under Hall of Fame coach Don Haskins.

The Aggies finished last in the Big 12 in three of the previous four seasons, including a humiliating 0-16 mark in league play last season under former coach Melvin Watkins.