Jared Powell of The Cats Zone is attending a press conference with Coach Gillispie and some of the players at around 4:00 PM today.
He has asked me to solicit some questions that he might pose to the coach. No guarantees, but if you have a question to ask Coach Gillispie, post it in the comments below, and Jared might ask him.
Happy Friday!
Update [2008-1-11 16:42:18 by Truzenzuzex]: Check The Cat Zone for updates from Jared. He says he will have audio up sometime. One interesting and comforting factoid is that Ramon Harris said everyone practiced today.
Update [2008-1-11 17:25:48 by Truzenzuzex]: OK, I just took a quick listen to Gillispie's press conference today, and I must say, he did a much better job with this than he has with other recent interviews and media availabilities. A couple of big picture points:
- About the zone - Gillispie reiterated that he believes man-to-man pressure is the best way to play, and "he'd rather not" play zone. He said "That's what I believe," and I am sure that's true.
- About who he starts -- Gillispie has been absolutely consistent on this every single interview without any exception: "Whoever earns it, gets it," and "I believe in being fair." Nobody has earned the start tomorrow yet. There is still one more day of practice, tomorrow AM. He believes in this principle, and he says that "being a finisher" is the most important thing. How long will they go in the morning? "I don't know -- sometimes long, sometimes short."
- He knows people disagree with who he puts on the floor, and he said "that's OK" -- But what I heard was "It's my way, and you are welcome to disagree, but I won't change it."
- He talked a lot about Vandy and how they play. He has apparently studied a lot of film.
- Porter hurt his back early in the week, but improved "quite a bit"
- He doesn't believe in trying to "Take one person away" from a team.
- Of the most improved players, he says Patterson and Crawford, Bradley and Carter have impressed him with their improvement. He also has been impressed with Williams' improvement, but he says he just isn't ready to make a difference yet.
- Insists that we shouldn't be adjusting to other teams, we should force them to adjust to us.
Overall, I thought he was a lot more forthcoming than perhaps he has been on his call-in show. He is saying the same things over and over again, and that is to his credit -- I prefer that to the one just before the last, who would say one thing one day and something else the next.
Overall, an informative interview, although he still tends to stick with generalities and avoid specifics about virtually any subject. I don't know why, but he is consistent in that regard and I don't really expect it to change.