Virginia hosts Texans, led by former Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Virginia opens its 15th season of the Tony Bennett era on Monday night against visiting Tarleton State, a team transitioning from Division II to Division I basketball (7 p.m., ACC Network Extra), but don’t overlook the Texans.

Tarleton, a relative newcomer to the Western Athletic Conference, has big ambitions and hired Billy Clyde Gillispie — former head coach at Kentucky, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and UTEP — to put them on the college basketball map.

Gillispie, who has experienced a roller-coaster ride as a head coach, is in his fourth season with the Texans and led them to a berth in the 16-team CBI last season after posting a 9-9 record in the WAC, and finished 17-17 overall.

In past seasons, Gillispie’s teams have played Kansas, Gonzaga, Michigan, Stanford and other national programs, and will go anywhere to advance the goals. Six of the Texans’ first seven games this season are on the road, all outside of Texas.

Tarleton has five players returning from last year’s squad, including its second- and third-leading scorers, Lue Williams (10.7 ppg) and Jakorie Smith (9.8 ppg), in addition to a nation-leading 16 newcomers (six freshmen and 10 transfers).

Smith put up 30 points in Tarleton’s 105-42 exhibition win against Howard Payne last week.

Virginia will have lots of new players on its roster, with only one starter back from last season’s ACC regular-season champs, senior point guard Reece Beekman (see related story). Beekman, Ryan Dunn, Isaac McKneely (see related story) and Taine Murray return from that Cavaliers team.

Bennett has said he really likes the playable depth and athleticism of this team, and added that he may go away from his traditional thinking of sticking mostly with a regular lineup, and instead rotate starting lineups depending upon the opponent and matchups (see related story).

UVA was predicted to finish fourth in last week’s ACC preseason poll behind Duke, Miami and North Carolina, mostly due to all the new faces in the program, which includes three freshmen and three transfers, along with two redshirted players.

Leon Bond III and Dante Harris (who transferred to UVA from Georgetown during last season), are both expected to make strong contributions this season after redshirting in 2022-23. Transfers Jordan Minor (17.4 ppg), Jake Groves (6.8 ppg) and Andrew Rohde (17.9 ppg) are also looking for solid seasons, along with freshmen Blake Buchanan, Elijah Gertrude and Anthony Robinson, plus Christian Bliss, who reclassified and committed to UVA as a prized freshman recruit who originally planned to redshirt, but could figure in the mix.

“I think we’ve got a handful of guys … we could have a revolving-door starting lineup in terms of who starts based on matchups or who’s playing well,” Bennett said. “I think there’s some depth. Whether you can play 10 guys remains to be seen, or nine, but I think there’s legitimate depth.”

Bennett said he was encouraged by what he saw in the Cavaliers’ two preseason scrimmages against defending national champion UConn and against Maryland.

“What I liked was a lot of guys got opportunities, you saw them play really hard throughout, and fixed some things,” Bennett said of the scrimmages. “We had a chance to play different guys and look at different combinations, and some guys stepped up that we didn’t really expect.”

After Virginia takes on Tarleton State, the Cavaliers will travel to Charlotte for a neutral-site game against Florida as part of the Hall of Fame series on Friday night.

Meanwhile, Tarleton State is guided by the 63-year-old Gillispie, considered one of basketball’s most successful recruiters, who teamed with current Kansas coach Bill Self at Tulsa, then Illinois, in building strong rosters at those schools.

Gillispie’s big break came at Texas A&M, where he led the Aggies to quick success and was named to succeed Tubby Smith at Kentucky. However, after year two he was fired when the Wildcats failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first time in 18 years.

He resurfaced in 2012 at Texas Tech, but resigned after one season citing health reasons. After the pandemic, he was brought in by Tarleton State, which wanted to transition to Division I.

Tarleton State is in Stephenville, Texas, about 75 miles southwest of Fort Worth. It’s a school with 15,000 students and is part of the Texas A&M system. Its most famous alum is probably late actor George Kennedy.

The school’s basketball program plays in a 3,000-seat gym, but a new $110-million arena is in the works, which will at least double the capacity as Tarleton becomes eligible for the NCAA Tournament in the 2024-25 season.

Gillispie, who has captured 13 Coach of the Year awards during his career and led various programs to four NCAA appearances, is confident he can take the Texans to places they haven’t been.

“I firmly believe this is a monster in basketball,” Gillispie said of Tarleton. “I don’t think there’s a team in the country we couldn’t play with.”