Billy Gillispie may be in his third month as Texas Tech's men's basketball coach, but he's already had a longer tenure than three of his colleagues in the Big 12 Conference. "I am the seventh-longest tenured coach in this league," Gillispie said Thursday during a teleconference. "That happened very, very quickly." Change remains a hot topic in the conference, primarily because there will be so much of it next season. Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas A&M also have first-year coaches, while shrinking to 10 teams means the Big 12 will debut a double round-robin schedule.

  Billy Gillispie laughed - and cried - as he spoke at a luncheon welcoming him and new Texas Tech Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt to town. The pair were guests of honor at an event Wednesday sponsored by the Red Raider Club, where 300 ticket holders at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center sampled a barbecue buffet and got a little grilling of their own from Tech's new basketball coach. "A lot of you have told me what to do with the staff, and I appreciate your input," Gillispie said. "It's like when I was married, my wife, she had a lot of input, too."

Most days after Texas Tech men’s basketball practice ended, assistant coach Bubba Jennings came back to the court to work on his shooting.

Billy Gillispie slipped up Wednesday morning when he said Texas Tech men’s basketball has had “14 great coaches.” Ask any of the approximately 800 Red Raider fans who attended his introduction at United Spirit Arena, however, and they might say lucky 14 was already on the right track.