Things didn’t exactly start out well for Coach Gillispie last year. A 16 point loss to Gardner-Webb in November. Losses to UNC and Indiana were painful but not as embarrassing … until they were followed by losses to UAB, Houston and San Diego.
The Cats were kind of able to get back on track after after a few players got healthy and Gillispie got comfortable. They even made the NCAA tournament, but were bounced in the first round by Marquette.
Coach Gillispie left Texas A&M for a job at one of the most prestigious programs in the country … but with such jobs comes pressure. Lots of pressure. Has it gotten to ol’ Billy Clyde?
Gillispie just picked up a commitment. From an eighth grader.
As fate would have it, though, that chance encounter led to a scholarship offer from the Wildcats and perhaps the earliest verbal commitment in the history of college basketball’s winningest program.
Michael Avery, a 6-foot-4 eighth-grader from Lake Sherwood, Calif., says he will play for the Cats. Now on with the business of finding a high school.
“That’s the funny thing,” Howard Avery said with laugh. “We’ve got our college. Now we need our high school.”
Way to jump on it early, Coach!
As the article mentions, it’s a recruiting violation for coaches to contact kids at AAU events at this point in their careers, but Avery’s dad was pro-active. After hearing that Gillispie was interested Mr. Avery called Gillispie (twice) to talk about his son. On the second call, Gillispie offered. An eighth grader. After having seen him play once.
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