LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Billy Gillispie knows he's not the most
eloquent speaker. The Texas A&M coach hopes he makes up for it with
honesty.
While Gillispie is certainly proud of how far he's brought the
Aggies in just three years, he knows football will always sit at
the top of the food chain on the A&M campus.
And you know what? It doesn't bother him a bit.
"I think being a so-called football school is a major advantage
for us," Gillispie said. "We play 12 games and a bowl game every
year. Those games are about 3½ hours in length and they're all on
TV. How could you get better advertisement for your basketball
program or your school?"
Besides, it's not like the Aggies, who play Louisville in the
second round of the South Regional on Saturday at Rupp Arena, have
been forgotten by the athletic administration.
Reed Arena is getting a $20 million facelift that will include
two practice gyms, lounges, offices, weight rooms and medical
facilities, the type of project that let Gillispie know the school
is serious about basketball.
Compare that to 2003-04, the year before Gillispie arrived. The
Aggies played in front of sparse crowds at home, many of them
simply looking for something to bridge the gap between Texas A&M's
bowl game and the beginning of spring football practice.
Three seasons and a pair of NCAA tournament appearances later,
the atmosphere has changed.
"Every year it gets crazier and crazier," forward Joseph Jones
said. "Everybody says A&M is a football school, and it is, but
everybody is starting to go crazy over basketball."
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^BIG SPENDER:@ Pat Kilkenny, Oregon's new athletic director,
worried that the lucky students who got the 55 tickets to the first
round of the NCAA tournament in Spokane, Wash., might not be able
to afford the trip.
So Kilkenny picked up the tab.
Kilkenny, who takes over April 1, spent between $6,000 and
$6,500 of his own money on the $56 tickets and a bus to transport
the students from Eugene, Ore., to Spokane for the Ducks' first
NCAA appearance since 2003.
"As a former University of Oregon student, I can relate to the
passion that they have exhibited for their school's basketball
team," said Kilkenny, who attended the school from 1970-73.
The athletic department put the 55 tickets up for sale on
Tuesday morning and they were gone in 30 minutes, sold to a group
that camped out overnight for them.
Kilkenny also promised to pay for tickets for Sunday's
second-round game if the Ducks survived. They beat Miami of Ohio
58-56 Friday, costing him another $3,080 for tickets.<
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^TAR HEELS' MOVTIVATION:@ North Carolina coach Roy Williams has
had an emotional few days after learning of the death of his sister
the day before the Tar Heels' first-round game against Eastern
Kentucky.
But when asked whether his players should try to win for their
mourning coach, Williams said he wanted them focused on playing
Michigan State on Saturday.
"I've got some different things that I've got to think about at
times, but I think they trust me enough to know that I'm not going
to shortchange them," Williams said. "You go through those kinds
of things in life and it's not very pleasant, but I don't want the
team to get motivation from that. I want them to get motivation
because they have it inside themselves to be the best team we can
be."
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^SPARTANS' PRESTIGE:@ Michigan State's Tom Izzo figures the
Spartans' four Final Four trips, one national championship and 10
straight trips to the NCAA tournament in his 12 years as coach have
put his program among the nation's best.
But he said the Spartans haven't quite earned the same national
reputation as programs such as North Carolina, Duke and Kentucky.
"I don't think we're there yet," Izzo said. "We're in a
different situation. We want to say we reload, but we really don't
because recruiting isn't the same. ... I think we're in the earning
process. The four Final Fours put us right up there with anybody,
but we still just don't get to snap our fingers and be on every
recruit that programs of that stature do."
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^BUFFALO HAS BITE:@ First Bobby Knight. Then John Chaney. Now
Coach K.
With a 79-77 first-round loss to Virginia Commonwealth on
Thursday, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski became the latest high-profile
coach to have his team's season end in Buffalo, the chicken wing
city that's gaining lore in NCAA tournament history while only
hosting its third sub-regional.
Buffalo was the place where Knight coached his final game with
Indiana in 2000, after the Hoosiers were upset by Pepperdine in the
first round. And, two days later, Temple lost to Seton Hall in the
second round, ending what was regarded as Chaney's best chance of
finally reaching the Final Four.
Temple's loss was even more of a shocker, considering it was
little-known Pirates reserve Ty Shine leading the way, scoring a
career-high 26 points, including the winning 3-pointer with 18
seconds left in overtime of a 67-65 win. Shine was filling in for
injured Shaheen Holloway.
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^DICE-K BRACKET:@ How widespread is the public's fascination
with the NCAA basketball tournament? Even Red Sox pitcher Daisuke
Matsuzaka, the much heralded newcomer to the United States, filled
out a bracket sheet.
"You know he doesn't know" much about college basketball,
Boston manager Terry Francona said in Vero Beach, Fla., "but it's
good. You get people involved and guys have fun with it."
The team the Japanese rookie picked to win it all, North
Carolina, beat Eastern Kentucky 86-65 in a first-round game
Thursday night.
"I know he was the only guy that went from winner to back,"
Francona said.
While most people who fill out brackets start making their picks
in the first round and move toward the Final Four and then the
championship game. Matsuzaka picked his champion first and worked
backward.
Pitching coach John Farrell said, "maybe he knows something we
don't."
While Matsuzaka filled out just one sheet, Francona said he
submitted 10.
"About the third sheet I get bored and I lose my concentration
and all my sheets stink," he said. "Nobody likes this tournament
more than me. I just want to have a team at the end where I can
just be alive."
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AP Sports Writers Will Graves, John Wawrow, Aaron Beard and
Howard Ulman and Associated Press Writer Nicholas K. Geranios
contributed to this report.