Gillen was officially introduced in Charlottesville at a news conference Thursday, and between one-liners and amusing anecdotes, Gillen laid out his plans for returning UVa to national prominence in the world of college basketball. We're going to try to be a family. Family laughs together, cries together, wins together and loses together. He met with the media for almost an hour Thursday, stating that his goal is to re-establish Virginia as one of the perennial top 20 teams in the nation. He offered no timetable for the turnaround, but did offer the way he expected to get the job done.
Good players make good coaches.
You win with talent, players win. I'm not real smart, but I know that. Gillen met with his new players for the first time Thursday afternoon and was leaving today to go on the road and meet Virginia's two fall recruits, Chris Williams and Adam Hall. Gillen comes to Virginia as pretty much a polar opposite of former coach Jeff Jones, who resigned under pressure March 15. Jones was a low-key, admittedly reserved guy from rural Kentucky.