Houston Chronicle offering buyouts

Rumor is that Hearst is eyeing the Austin American-Statesman. Needless to say, that would get real interesting if that went down.

It does make them look small, even though Brent is solid and will give them great coverage. Things are changing and while here understand the reasoning behind it, most readers won't.

 

If I'm not mistaken, Houston is the larger market with the increased circulation, and is a closer to College Station, but is outsourcing?

 

Been talked about before. Probably won't happen.

 

Someguy,

I did some research and you are dead wrong. The Gillispie story you are referencing is the one Terrence wrote in regards to the coach not taking Arkansas. In that same article, he reported Kentucky could be a possibility. Check the paper's archives. Additionally, Brent wrote that Gillispie and the AD at the time were somehow at odds which was anything but true. A&M bent over backwards to keep Gillispie but finally couldn't.

It's true Brent lives in College Station, but to say he owned the beat is far from true. Check the facts since Terrence arrived on the beat. But that's really not the issue here. The issue is how this makes the Chronicle look giving up covering the school closest geographically.

 

In a reactionary way, UT is currently priority because it's better than A&M, yes. But you are still the local paper in places like the Woodlands, Conroe, Tomball, the Cypress area, etc., all places where Texas A&M IS as much the local team as UH. You can't say that for the Horns.

 

Sorry Terrance ... Didn't mean to offend ya

 

There are two things at work here, I think, although at least one person on this thread might dispute one of these points.

1) The Chron just doesn't care about their college coverage as much as the SAEN does. The Chron has the Astros, Rockets and Texans to worry about. They have multiple writers on each beat. That's a lot of travel ... college stuff is somewhere below all that on the pecking order. The SAEN has the Spurs and ... what else?

2) The second point is that, in my educated opinion, Brent owns the A&M beat. There's no way the SAEN is giving him up, or making him cover anything else. That would be a massive misuse of Hearst resources.*

* -- this is the point that is debateable, although I stand strongly by what I've written. And no, I'm not Brent. But I did cover the Big 12 beat for several years in the state of Texas, so I know a little of what I'm talking about.

 

Yes, Brent owns the beat. That's pretty much a given.

 

Some Guy and Snoopy Boy,

I guess you guys subscribe to the notion never let the facts get in the way of a good argument. Give an example of Brent owning the beat outside the VIP Connection. Someone who owns a beat would have certainly broke the departure of a popular basketball coach, the ouster of the football coach and the hiring of a new one. Breaking stories like that define owning a beat in my book. My belief is that all four major papers around the state did a great job on A&M, while it is no question Chip Brown, formerly of the DMN, owned the UT beat. The A&M beat was a true battle among some very good reporters.

 

We'll just have to agree to disagree, SR.

As I recall, Brent was out in front of most of the stories you mentioned.

 

Some Guy,

A lesson you might want to remember, as journalists the worst thing we can rely on is our memories. Let the facts guide your words in print. It's a lot safer that way. ;D But we can agree to disagree because I'm sure this is more conversation than this subject deserves.

 

Scoops,
"Let the facts guide your words in print" Good advice!
I do admire how you state factual errors with such conviction.

Here's a story from Brent Z weeks before Harris ever mentioned Kentucky:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/MYSA031407_EN_BKCaggies_insider_e53fa17_html.html

I'll put the copy below.

Also, this is from the Chronicle at the exact same time Zwernemen wrote (in late March) that Gillispie was holding out for the Kentucky job (now tell me who again was out front on this?):

March 28, 2007
Officials: Billy Gillispie to stay at Texas A&M
Texas A&M basketball coach Billy Gillispie will remain head coach of the basketball program he has turned into a national power, three high-ranking sources close to and within the A&M system have confirmed.

Gillispie apparently has not officially confirmed to athletic director Bill Byrne or the regents that he will accept a new contract that will pay him in the neighborhood of $2 million a year, including guarantees added to the deal that runs through 2012. But regents and athletic department officials feel confident the new deal, and construction on the new A&M basketball facility scheduled to begin Monday, are the guarantees Gillispie was pursuing.


Here's the original BZ story that was part of the link:

From March 14, 2007, long before TH mentioned Kentucky as a part of the equation:

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The jokes started the second CBS announced Texas A&M's destination in the NCAA tournament.


Wonder if Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie will simply buy a one-way ticket? How many bags will he pack? Will he interview with Kentucky at halftime of the Aggies' game against Pennsylvania on Thursday in Rupp Arena?


Obviously, the NCAA tournament committee has quite a sense of humor, sadistic as it might be to A&M's faithful. Gillispie coaching in Rupp Arena -- likely against UK rival Louisville in Saturday's second round? Get out.


Only A&M fans are hoping Gillispie doesn't. Get out of College Station, that is, should UK fire coach Tubby Smith at season's end. Whenever that might be for the 21-11 Wildcats, who face Villanova on Friday night in Chicago.


Will, “Say it ain't so, Joe?” be replaced by an Aggieland version of, “Say it ain't really, Billy?” Time will tell -- but the slices certainly are food for thought -- as tough as they might be to swallow for A&M fans who believe Aggieland is just this side of the River Jordan.


And Reed Arena is on its way to becoming Rupp Arena (though Rupp is about twice its size with a hundred times the history).


Word 'round these hills is UK fans are snapping up tickets for Saturday's Aggies-Cardinals game. To heartily root against Louisville coach Rick Pitino. And lustily root for Gillispie, whose specialty is breathlessly turning old powers (Texas-El Paso) and never-really-was's (A&M) into contenders.


All along, I've bought into the idea that Gillispie, good ol' Graford boy, is home in Texas. I wrote it in this space a week ago. He coached high school basketball here for almost a decade, swinging twice by Killeen along the way, with pit stops in Copperas Cove and our beloved New Braunfels.


Each stop, even after he entered the college ranks in 1993, has been better than the previous. And at each stop he's worked miracles, even as a sizzling assistant under the likes of Larry Brown (not that Larry Brown) and Bill Self, the current Kansas taskmaster.


Something jumped out at me when asking Gillispie about his time at New Braunfels' Canyon High from 1988-90. He talked about how Canyon once was good at basketball. Before the Cougars started playing football.


Folks play basketball in Graford, not football. Football isn't in Gillispie's blood. Never has been. Never will be. He now coaches at a football school, plain and simple, no matter the amazing success of the basketball team.


It was mightily interesting this week to talk with folks who worked around Canyon with a young Gillispie. Folks who realized his nomadic nature, folks who knew he would do great things for Canyon -- if only he had stayed. “Heartbroken” was a word I heard about Gillispie's leaving New Braunfels -- and that was following an 18-13 season in 1989-90.


A&M has been great to Billy Gillispie. Gillispie has been greater to A&M, proving that the school can win in, gasp, basketball. In fact, the Aggies have excelled a lot more in hoops than football since his arrival only three years ago.


Problem is, Gillispie, who's not much for philosophizing and pondering things outside of the baselines, looks up into Reed Arena during a late November game and sees a half-full arena.


“We're appreciative of every person who comes to the games,” he told me in an arena tunnel following a 40-point victory over Arkansas-Little Rock earlier this season. “But I'll just say you notice, and the players notice (a small crowd). That's not being negative -- but you notice.”


That is being negative -- just a kinder way of saying it. But, more harshly, it's the truth. Certainly, A&M fans began packing the arena -- just as they did last year -- when they became convinced this was a pretty good Big 12 team. Again.


Aggies say give it time, this evolution of A&M hoops. Gillispie doesn't want time. He wants a packed arena for every game, and every ticket sold before the season starts.


And the black-and-white visionary can't understand why they're not.


Aggies like to think Gillispie's family will keep him in-state. Hogwash. He can afford to buy his sisters and mama plane tickets to Lexington, if they really want to come see their kin. He's married to basketball, plain and simple, and Kentucky is one of the long-, long-time places you can count on less than one hand that worship basketball -- UK, KU, Indiana and North Carolina -- and don't really give a flip about football.


Where the recruits come to you, even if you don't go to them. The signs are simple, really, even for an A&M beat writer. Gillispie, 47, has shown the desire to move onward and upward throughout his career, from the time he started as an assistant coach at Killeen High in 1985.


And who can blame him? He's a sparkling strategist, with a crazily insatiable desire to teach and keep learning basketball. Don't ask him, he's “aw-shucks” humble and would never admit to as much. Ask his peers, who voted him (for the second time) league coach of the year.


He's got a great thing going at A&M, there's no doubt. He had a good thing going at UTEP, as well. But he earned the opportunity to coach in the Big 12, an upward move.


The man's whole goal in life, plain and to the point, is to win a national title. And then (I'm highly doubtful he'll kick back and contentedly rub his belly at that point) win another.


Gillispie has longtime ties to UK, believe it or not -- as distant as they might be. Gillispie's athletic director at Copperas Cove 20 years ago? Hal Mumme, future (and fired) Kentucky football coach.


Think Mumme, 20-26 with the Wildcats, ever told Gillispie what a great basketball school UK is? On Tuesday, a former Canyon player, Brian Caddell, told me Gillispie gave him an instructional video by Pitino. That was almost two decades ago -- about the time Pitino was headed for Lexington.


Don't forget Gillispie loves horseracing.


Oh, and then there's the money, although Gillispie has never struck me as a big-money guy. UK can afford (both financially and philosophically) to pay its basketball coach more than its football coach.


Gillispie, who can be a little moody and surly and all of those mean things occasionally, overall is a pleasure to cover -- because it's fun to cover a winner.


Recently, he got a little reflective when he talked of inheriting Acie Law from Melvin Watkins three years ago. He talked about how Watkins' players suddenly became his players.


“We left good players at UTEP,” Gillispie added. “When I left they became Doc Sadler's players. And Doc Sadler became their coach.”


Sadler is now at Nebraska, and a possible candidate at A&M should Gillispie bolt for more fertile pastures (there's that horse thing again).


Man, those suits on the NCAA tournament committee are a real hoot. Who'd have thunk it?


Meanwhile Aggies everywhere are crossing their fingers that Thursday's game in Rupp Arena isn't a sneak preview of things to come for the Graford Sensation, in his transition to HillBilly Gillispie. All together, Ags: Say it Ain't Really, Billy.