GREENSBORO — Virginia coach Pete Gillen’s annual appearance at Operation Basketball is as eagerly anticipated as that of spring in Siberia.
There are nine tables packed with sportswriters at OB, and at each of them at least three people are asking, “Hey, when do we get Pete?”
One of the nine ACCcoaches in the room is an icon — Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski. Others Like Wake Forest’s Dave Odom qualify at least as semi-icons. UNC has a brand new coach, Matt Doherty, who was a semi-icon in his playing days and already carries himself like he’s a full-fledged coaching legend.
Also circulating from table to table are not-so-famous good guys like Clemson’s Larry Shyatt and Georgia Tech’s Paul Hewitt, either of whom could walk into a McDonald’s anywhere in North Carolina without being bugged for an autograph. We’re supposed to be getting to know people like Shyatt and Hewitt. But to heck with them. We want Pete.
Oh, we can hear Pete. Even across the room, he’s coming in loud and clear, so we know he’s here somewhere.
The rest of the league’s coaches — especially now that Bobby Cremins, who used to say some really crazy stuff, is gone — rate anywhere from droll to dreary. Sure, Coach K gets off an occasional funny line, but comparing his snappy patter to Gillen’s is like comparing Al Gore to Abe Lincoln. Gillen isn’t just funny, he’s a riot. He’s like Jerry Seinfeld, except he’s also a pretty good basketball coach.
Did I say pretty good?
Gillen’s first UVA team two seasons ago won 14 games. That was the same team that everyone — literally everyone — predicted would be the worst team in ACC history. But all Gillen did was come through with the finest coaching job in ACC annals. He inherited six scholarship players when he took over a sinking ship from Jeff Jones that was coming off an 11-19 season and had graduated everyone who mattered.
It looked bleak. It got worse. Gillen’s starting center broke an ankle. Then his backup center contracted food poisoning. Then he had to play a walk-on bartender named Raleigh Harbour in the middle. He never stopped competing.
“It was like, hey, you with no thumbs — get in there! Hey, and you, too, Bullhead!”
That’s how Gillen describes his crazy early days in Charlottesville. But somehow his cloddish Cavs beat N.C. State, Wake, Clemson and Florida State. They lost 67-66 to talent-laden UNC on a late 3-pointer by Ademola Okulaja. That 3 knocked Gillen out of an NIT bid. That was too bad. Maybe Okulaja could have saved that 3-ball for Weber State when the Heels really needed it.
But, wait, there’s Pete. And he’s walking toward our table!
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Gillen doesn’t immediately plop down wearily like the other coaches, who act as if they’ve just run a marathon. Instead, he looks under the table. “Checking for bugs,” he says, cheerfully.
Everyone laughs. They keep laughing for the next 10 minutes.
“I’m Irish, you know,” yelps the red-haired Gillen, as he gets on a roll on the very first question. “We get paid by the word.”
Gillen has an opinion on everything and expresses all of them in his inimitable style.
“Sure, we’ll be pretty good this year,” he says. “But the league’s older — better. But that’s not a negative, that’s why I came to this league. I just hope we get credit for how good the league is at NCAA time.”
Last year, the Cavs did not get credit. They went 19-12 and somehow didn’t make the NCAAs, although they did make an NIT appearance. Gillen’s not bitter. He just wants to get better.
That’s why he took his team to Europe this summer and why he upgraded his schedule with an eye on those all-important
RPInumbers.
“I thought we were scheduling Tennessee A&I,” he jokes. “Turns out it was the University of Tennessee that we added. I do know if we go 19-12 again and don’t get in, I’m in the wrong business. Maybe I should go sell snow-cones in the Bronx.”
Why not? The glib Gillen could probably sell mittens at Myrtle Beach.
Someone asks Gillen about his recruits. He describes J.C. Mathis as “a coach’s son, who’s pump-faking our managers right out of the gym.” Then he offers the opinion that rookie wing Maurice Young might be a little too offensive-minded. “But, hey, he only shoots it when he’s got it,” Gillen shrugs.
Asked why he doesn’t get more technicals to fire up his team, Gillen gestures helplessly. “The refs can’t understand a word I’m saying,” he explains in his best Brooklyn accent.
Someone asks how a man who has a degree in English Lit and who used to teach at Holy Name grade school in Brooklyn could have stumbled into the weird world of coaching.
“You know, education’s a funny thing,” responds Gillen. “I remember bringing home a report card with a ‘D’ in Biology and four ‘F’s.’ Dad wanted to know why I was spending so much time on Biology.”
Of course, the writers want to know Gillen’s take on the “new” rules that are supposed to clean up rough play in the ACC.
“If they call it, it’ll help us,” said Gillen. “Our children always go gently at Virginia, but there are some mugging schools in this league where they come at you with their ski masks and combat gear.”
Gillen smiles benignly at Krzyzewski and Shyatt as he makes that statement.
But finally, Gillen gets serious — at least a little — about a year that should be the best for UVA hoops in a long, long time.
“It hurt our kids that they got so close last year and didn’t make the Dance,” he said. “Maybe that will motivate us this time. But talk is easy. You still have to win games and we’ve got three of the best 10 teams in the country (Duke, UNC and Maryland) in our league.”
With that statement, Gillen heads for the next lucky table. We hate to see him go.
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Mike London covers college basketball for the Post.
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