[McDunkin]

Texas Tech leading scorer Jordan Tolbert said Monday he doesn’t want to play for Billy Gillispie if the coach returns from an extended medical leave.

 

"I don’t," Tolbert said by phone. "I don’t. Maybe I would for the assistants. I haven’t put that much thought into it. There is a big sense of urgency. I don’t want to play for him if he comes back."

 

Gillispie is on indefinite sick leave while his bosses investigate allegations that he mistreated his players during practices.

Tolbert was one of the returning players who met with Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt two weeks ago after the compliance office queried the players about excessive practice time.

 

Tolbert said the players have not been informed about Gillispie’s status or his health update after he was released last Thursday from University Medical Center following a six-day stay.

 

Texas Tech spokesperson Blayne Beal said Monday that Gillispie is taking sick days and it was not clear how long he will be out. The Texas native who is entering his second year as coach of the Red Raiders did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Tolbert said the players were told that they would meet with Hocutt once he was able to meet with Gillispie. Beal said that meeting had not been set up as of Sunday night and that there was no timetable for a meeting.

 

 

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Ray Carlin/Icon SMITexas Tech’s Jordan Tolbert, one of the Big 12’s leading freshmen last season, says he doesn’t want to play again for coach Billy Gillispie.

 

 

But no decision could be made on the second-year coach until a meeting occurred. Multiple close friends of Gillispie in the coaching profession have told ESPN.com that they have not been able to reach Gillispie by phone or text for the past 10 days.

 

"We just don’t know," Tolbert said. "We’re waiting to find out like everyone else. I haven’t seen or talked to him in two or three weeks."

 

Tolbert said the players have been working out with the assistant coaches during Gillispie’s absence. Tolbert averaged 11.5 points and 5.7 rebounds as a freshman on the Red Raiders’ 1-17 Big 12 team (8-23 overall).

 

"We still can be good," Tolbert said. "But we do need a coach."

Hocutt last week announced that the school had reprimanded Gillispie in January for exceeding practice-time limits the previous fall. The letter included language that there would be "no tolerance for disregard of rules," Hocutt told The Associated Press.

The school penalized itself for the overage, docking twice the number of hours that Gillispie had exceeded during a two-week period in October or 12 hours and 20 minutes. An unidentified assistant coach was also reprimanded.

The NCAA allows 20 hours of practice per week.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8362335/texas-tech-red-raiders-jordan-tolbert-says-want-coach-billy-gillispie-back

[c’mon craigParticipant]

this whole thing is pretty funny to me. these kids are complaining about practice being too long and gillispie pushing them to their physical limits. imagine if bobby knight was still head coach. he’s infamous for choking one of his players. i’ve seen him smack players that weren’t paying attention. these kids would have never survived under knight. players want everything handed to them nowadays.

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

That is the difference. Gillispie seems to have Knight’s type of attitude without the results. For as ornery as Bobby Knight was, he seemed to at the very least maintain within the structure of the rules and was heavily respected by his peers. Seems like since Kentucky, the same cannot be said about Billy Gillispie. Seems like he is kind of mean for the sake of being mean in many of these supposed cases.

Bobby Knight had a temper, he definitely overstepped boundaries at times, but it usually seemed to have some reasoning behind it. With Gillispie making a guy with multiple stress fractures practice and run steps seems just cruel. As bad as Bobby Knight may have been with his tyranny, think he would be smart enough to know their is no point in making an obviously injured player hurt himself further.

Bob Knight took a 9-19 Texas Tech team and made them 23-9. Billy Gillispie took a 13-19 squad and made them 8-23. They were 1-17 in conference. He ended up losing his best two recruits (Wannah Bail and Michael Carey are supposedly taking a post grad year at Canarias Basketball Academy, both could not take Gillispie). I know a lot of people like the fact that coaches now have the ability to initiate some off-season practices, but these guys work hard regardless.

Being an NCAA basketball player requires long hours and I like that they have a cap on practice hours in the off-season, so they can at least sort of be kids. Gillispie going over this cap and having the attitude he did seemed to be what sunk him. If you say playing for him is easier than playing for Bob Knight, but it can’t be easy playing for a guy who wants you to follow his lead when you are not going anywhere. With Bob Knight, I think people knew that was not the case. With Billy Gillispie, well, the results at Kentucky and Texas Tech seem to speak volumes.

[c’mon craigParticipant]

 its too early in his tenure at tech to talk about results. he has only been there one season. most of the players on the team weren’t his recruits. your post are usually spot on but you can’t really compare those two seasons. bobby knight inherited a team full of upper classmen, andre emmett being the most notable. gillispie ended up with 8 freshmen. his best player tolbert, also a freshman, was the only player to average double digits. as you pointed out they were 13-19 the year before. well they also lost all five starters from that team. so gillispie was starting from scratch. he has proven that he is capable of turning a program around at two different schools, utep and texas a&m. he was also successful at kentucky his first season, had bad luck with injuries in the second year and the team still almost made the NCAA tournament. i’ll say their style is designed for certain kids and given time it is very effective.

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