GREENSBORO— There were nine tables of sportswriters. There were nine Atlantic Coast Conference
coaches who rotated around those tables, talking about their seasons, their past, their
future and their present.
There was just one thing eight of
the coaches tried to avoid: following Virginia’s Pete Gillen, the ACC’s resident
comedian.
N.C. State’s Herb Sendek had
the unenviable task of playing second fiddle.
“Oh no, you mean I have to
follow Pete?” sighed Sendek when he arrived at his second table. “What was his
best one-liner?”
Last year, Gillen’s first in
the ACC coaching fraternity, he was full of one-liners. This year, he was a bit more
subdued — but just barely.
“At out Midnight Madness,
we’ve got a balloon man coming in,” he said. “Supposedly, he blows up a big
balloon and goes inside of it. They tell me in town that if we don’t win, I’ll
be selling balloons as his associate.
“Not his assistant. His
associate. I’ve got a little status.”
He certainly does. The 52-year old
David Letterman lookalike has spent the last 25 years of his life coaching and has a
288-144 record as the head man. He won big at Xavier for nine years and he won big at
Providence for four years. Then, he arrived in Charlottesville.
“I’ve been to the
mountaintop,” Gillen said. “It was a quick fall.”
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Virginia was 4-12, 14-16 last
season but Cavalier fans know their time to resurface in the ACC is here. That’s why
they laugh at Gillen’s jokes, not roll their eyes in dismay.
Gillen’s sense of humor came
in handy last year. He had a grand total of six scholarship players. He lost his center to
a broken ankle. And freshmen took center-stage.
Gillen has replenished his bare
cupboard and now has almost too many practice players.
“It looks like the Russian
Army out there with all those bodies,” Gillen said. “It’s a nice problem to
have.”
Virginia has been on the skids for
two years. The season before Gillen arrived, the Cavs were 3-13 in the league and 11-19
overall, leading to Jeff Jones’ departure. Athletic director Terry Holland went after
a high-profile coach and got Gillen.
“Pete Gillen was high on our
short list of candidates from the beginning,” Holland said.
Gillen has two gold medals with
USA junior teams and another in the 1993 U.S. Olympic Festival. His college clubs have
made a regional semifinal and a regional final. And don’t forget the gold medal as an
assistant for Dream Team IIin 1994.
“I think that is a remarkable
resume,” Holland said. “The fact that his teams play an up-tempo style and he
finds humor in basketball and life will bring a lot of excitement to Virginia
basketball.”
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It’s like when Jim Valvano
came in at N.C. State. He used humor from the outset to reel in the fans and then kept
them hooked once his program took shape.
“We’re not going to the
moon and we’re not going to re-invent the wheel but we feel good,” Gillen said
of his second season. “I’d rather have high expectations than no
expectations.”
They need to be higher in this
league. It’s the absolute best, in his opinion.
“I’ve coached in some
great leagues — the Big East, the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, the Atlantic 10
— but they’re not the ACC. I think it’s the top league in the country. Even
the writers are students of the game to a certain degree. It’s an honor to be in the
league.”
Gillen found out quickly that
there are no easy games, home or away.
“Even the super powers Duke
and Carolina have to be ready,” he said. “But that’s a plus, not a
negative. The best players want to play against one another and the coaches want to coach
against the best.”
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Last season, Gillen didn’t
have a chance and he knew it when he sat around those nine tables. He joked about getting
used to southern food and his about his homeboys back in Brooklyn. He laughed and needled
himself from the time he walked in the door.
Then, the season began and the
comedy routine became a bit strained.
This year, the only one-liner
needed from Gillen is:Virginia is back.
“There’s excitement
around the community about our basketball team,” Gillen said. “We expect to have
a good season.”
And if the Cavs falter again?
Gillen knows there’s a
balloon man out there with a job opening.
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Ronnie Gallagher is the sports
editor of the Post. |
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