Report | Staff "Appalled" at Gillispie's Treatment of Players and Gillispie Expects to Have Coached Last Game at Texas Tech

The Williams and Hyatt Show's Ryan Hyatt is reporting that the staff was apparently appalled at Texas Tech head coach Billy Gillispie's treatment of players, according to sources. Because Hyatt is a friend, give Hyatt's site a click, but here's a bit:

It’s too early now to say if current and former staff rose to the level of "whistle-blower" status regarding the treatment of players and potential rules violations by Gillispie at Tech. We can say, based on our conversations with sources, that staff members were "appalled" ( the same word used by separate sources ) at the treatment of players by Gillispie during his first year at Texas Tech.

There is also some important information there in terms of a timeline, which is that apparently the compliance office started to interview players as soon as the semester started and that an investigation had started over the course of the summer and those people inside the program. Hyatt also summarizes that Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt would not have named Chris Walker in charge in some fashion and that the other assistants will most likely remain in place:

These revelations become important today as Chris Walker takes over. I have no doubt that when Hocutt was set to visit with Gillispie before his first hospital stint that last day of August that the Tech Athletics Director had more than enough information to make a decision on Gillespie’s status then. That Hocutt feels confident now to leave the current assistants in place, regardless of the status of Gillispie going forward, tells me that he feels they acted with the best interest of the program, that they did their best to alleviate a bad situation and that they followed Tech guidelines. To keep these assistants with knowledge that they were complicit with Gillispie’s alleged actions would make no sense.

You'll also note that the headline is two parts, that the staff was appalled and that Gillispie expects to have coached his last game at Texas Tech. 105.3 The Fan's Greg Williams was roommates with Billy Gillispie while at Ranger Junior College and he spoke about his recent conversation with Gillispie. Williams noted that he did not ask about any of the allegations, but Williams says that Gillispie believes that he has coached his last game at Texas Tech. Williams also says that Gillispie is facing some very real medical and health issues and that he previously just worked through them. You can listen to the audio if you can stomach the background music.

So how about that, two radio sources essentially confirming what I have thought, which is that I do think that Gillispie likely stepped over the line in terms of treatment of players, that Gillispie has coached his last game at Texas Tech and the Chris Walker era is going to begin at Texas Tech.