Billy Gillispie Takes the Easy Way Out

By - Lauren Dundee

As many of you may have already heard, Billy Gillispie resigned as head coach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders basketball team a few days ago, citing medical issues as the reason for his departure.

Photo by: Jamie Squire

While Gillispie may have recently spent a couple of days in the hospital with high blood pressure and other stress related illnesses, the reality is he probably would have been fired in the next few weeks regardless.

You see, Billy Gillispie is a bully.

He is borderline abusive to his players and staff. His players were so fed up with him that they had a meeting with Texas Tech athletic director, Kirby Hocutt, about his absurd coaching techniques.

It was quite obvious that Gillispie was doing something horribly wrong.

15 players had transferred out of the school in the last 18 months, reportedly due to his cruel behavior. Other members of the basketball staff had quit as well.

Even Texas Tech's star player, Jordan Tolbert, said that he would leave the team if Gillispie continued to be the head coach.

This is an unusual turn of events for Gillispie. At one point, he was one of the rising star coaches in NCAA basketball. He took mediocre programs at the University of Texas El Paso and Texas A&M and turned them completely around.

He was in demand.

However, things started to change after 2 years at Kentucky. There were numerous stories floating around about Gillispie and his abusive tactics towards players. Making them ride in the equipment van on the way home from road games. Kicking them off the team mid-game. Worst of all, making injured players return far too soon.

Still, Texas Tech was willing to give Gillispie a second chance. They thought that he had learned his lesson and would change his ways.

Guess not.

Gillispie's harsh tactics continued with the Red Raiders, and they eventually led to what could be his final fall from grace as a coach.

But hey, at least now he will have plenty of downtime to focus on that blood pressure...