Behind the scenes of A&M basketball & BCG's leaving...very interesting

[g$$]

(FYI: take this for what you will, but John Lopez of the Houston Chronicle is an Aggie grad who has great sources within the athletic department. He & BCG are also old friends.)

April 08, 2007

Behind the scenes of A&M's basketball soap opera:
The past two weeks of the A&M basketball saga has proved one thing more than anything else. Aggies athletic director Bill Byrne is either hard-headed, self-serving, brilliant, or a little bit of all three.

Several sources who have been tack-on with all the information they have offered me over the past two weeks broke down the A&M basketball coaching saga as follows.

Here's how the puzzle pieces fit: As the Aggie basketball season was winding down, former University of Houston coach Pat Foster, a close friend of Gillispie's worked as an intermediary between the University of Arkansas and Gillispie.

The Hogs were working behind the scenes as far back as early-February, with an eye on Gillispie as Stan Heath's replacement. Heath knew of his ouster long before it came and tried to force Razorbacks AD Frank Broyles' hand, by asking for assurances that he would stay. He didn't get them.

Meanwhile, Gillispie tried to stay out of the fray as he tried to win a Big 12 title and take this team to the Final Four. He spoke with Foster only occasionally, telling his friend he was happy at A&M, but come the end of the season they would talk seriously about it again.

Gillispie's thoughts were, he didn't want to be put into a position where he would have to lie either in public or to his players.

Broyles continued to talk with Foster and felt confident they would get Gillispie, to the point that he didn't even compile a second list of potential candidates.

Gillispie spoke with Foster after the Aggies were eliminated in the Sweet 16. What he didn't realize was Byrne, aware of Arkansas' interest, refused to take calls from anyone associated with Arkansas. He was buying time in an effort to put pressure on the A&M Board of Regents to get Gillispie a new contract and begin construction in earnest on a new state of the art basketball facility.

Byrne's biggest mistake: He never told Gillispie any of this. Instead, he kept Gillispie in the dark. Gillispie learned about the details of the new contract and the Board's moves to keep him from a member of the media. Understandably, he was upset with Byrne.

When the contract was ironed out and Byrne flew to the Final Four to get Gillispie to sign the deal, Gillispie told him he planned on being the Aggies coach. At the same time, Foster was getting calls from Kentucky about that job.

Gillispie began having doubts about just how much he could trust Byrne. He planned to sign the contract even after getting a firm offer from Kentucky while on the west coast attending an awards ceremony involving point guard Acie Law.

While contemplating the offer, Gillispie called several close friends in basketball to ask about the Kentucky job. He hedged when one trusted friend in professional basketball told him, "The best day of your life at Kentucky will be the day you're announced as head coach. The rest are going to be hell."

Gillispie went back and forth until deciding it would be stupid to tell the Wildcats no and Byrne already had made contact with a representative for Turgeon, tossing out contract numbers close to those offered to Gillispie. Also, a source within the A&M department told Gillispie that Byrne had made contact with a member of the Board of Regents, in an attempt to protect his own hide, making Gillispie look like he was pouting and being difficult. In fact, the exact opposite was true.

All along, Gillispie was looking for a lifetime commitment, letting the thing play out.

Once Gillispie took the job, Byrne alienated several trusted sources in basketball -- the same ones who raved about Gillispie three years ago -- by keeping them out of the loop on this coaching search. Byrne decided all of a sudden he knew more about basketball than the same people who handed him Gillispie on a silver platter.

Most interesting: Longtime coach Rick Majerus contacted a pair of basketball people close to the A&M program, expressing great interest in the job. But when these sources tried to contact Byrne to endorse Majerus, Byrne refused to return their calls. UNLV coach Lon Kruger, through another A&M basketball source, also tried to contact Byrne. The A&M AD didn't want to hear any of that, either.

Make no mistake. The Aggies could have had Majerus or Kruger. No doubt about it.

Instead, Byrne made every call on the future of A&M basketball on his own, start-to-finish. He allowed Gillispie to leave on bad terms and refused to consult with some of the finest basketball minds in the game.

Mark Turgeon may be perfect for the Aggies. Maybe not. Either way, it's on Byrne.

Posted by John P. Lopez at April 8, 2007 11:26 PM

[g$$]

Irate Ags researching BCG are uncovering a few unsavory things from his past; character assassination or some truth too? Funny how when you are winning everything gets swept under the rug, huh? Take this with a grain of salt of course, but the man obviously can coach & is also severely lacking in the morals & ethics department. He has gone from "savior" to Judas in a week's span!

A few I have come across (take for what you will):
-2 DUIs (while coaching at other stops in the past; I had heard about one from a friend who still works at A&M)
-known to frequent college bars with 20-something yr. olds (professional at age 47 & coaching at the school?)
-messy divorce (his business & very well-known)
-work cell phone records indicating talking with Arkansas since early January (just stupid on A&M's dime)
-BCG & AD Bill Byrne not on speaking terms for months (some personal & some professional things, like the delay in construction on the new practice facility set to break ground this week)
-thin skin, can't handle criticism (good luck at Kentucky then where every move will be critiqued & examined)
-self-absorbed & huge ego (not uncommon for big-time coach)
-text messaged current players of his decision to leave, some found out on tv (anyway to treat "your" guys"?)
-told recruits it was all untrue rumors, hang with me (again not uncommon)
-wore blue tie in big win over Louisville played at Kentucky's Rupp Arena (possibly to show Kentucky his desire to leave or just a coincidence?)
-would not sign A&M's new contract at Final 4 after issuing statement he was staying & loved his job, etc. (hand delivered by A&M)
-yada, yada, yada


Interesting read:
posted 7:15p, 4/6/2007 by Boston Ag74 (aggie forum)

Billy sealed his fate with his Arkansas dance. There was just too much smoke there to believe that it was anything other than a mutual infatuation. Even though Arkansas didn't get him, it put him in a situation where he HAD to leave. The stories of him cutting his own deal back in January would have eventually surfaced, and angry Arkansas boosters would have made sure that all the details of the early contact were made public. He had burned his bridges at A&M and he knew it. It was just a matter of time until players and fans saw the smoke. After Tubby left Kentucky, Billy knew he was going to one of two places: Kentucky, or to the vacancy left by the coach who went to Kentucky, but there was absolutely no doubt that he was going.

Finding out about the flirtation with Arkansas was like discovering that your wife had been b**ging the stock boy at Wal-Mart. There are a lot of things that can be forgiven, but that ain't one of them. He had to go, and he did us a favor by leaving on his own. The list of character flaws he has demonstrated in this whole episode is so long that we have to feel that we have dodged a bullet with his departure. His life focus is so narrow, I doubt he even comprehends just how many ethical boundaries he obliterated in his single minded quest for ego gratification.

Politics and religion are full of people who do the same thing Billy did: They believe their cause is so righteous, their goal so noble, that any means are justified in attaining that goal. Lying, cheating, and stealing are no longer sins in the bizzarro world of someone who is so pathologically devoted to a single pursuit. That's why we should just move on and bring in a great coach to continue building the program. As a coach, it will be hard to find better than Billy. As a man, you could walk into any fast food joint a find a half dozen candidates who would qualify.

Billy did a remarkable job, but he didn't do it for A&M or its fans or alumni. He did it for Billy. Let's find a coach with more balance in his life, one who can truly buy into the Aggie Spirit and is emotionally and psychologically capable of being part of a family. We didn't have that with Billy. We will have it with the new coach.

[CHS_CG]

Two of the guys I work with went to A&M and another one is in progress at A&M.. The two alumni have pretty good ties into higher class info in all of this and told me last week that A&M's AD told BCG that if he got on that plane to go check out UK... he couldnt consider himself unemployeed at A&M. BCG felt like he owed it to himself to go check out the offer (which I can understand) I know for one thing, if BCG doesnt do anything with in probably 4 years at UK they will let him go. (as would any team)

The Bryan Eagle Paper was also reporting that on Billy's Myspace, there were mixed emotions from everybody. They even put a comment made by like a 14 or 15 year old that said "no wonder you arent married considering you cant commit to anything for more than 2 or 3 years" The way all of this was handled is a shame. It was handled sloppy, everybody was keeping stuff from everybody and when the media got a hold of it, it just exploded into a huge drama.