I'm trying to move on. Really, I am. It's been over two weeks since Athletic Director Craig Littlepage called Pete Gillen "the classiest person in the coaching profession" and then just seconds later talked about how he is "very excited about the opportunities that lie ahead" without him, officially marking the departure of the Sultan of Sweat. But the fact is Pete Gillen didn't just disappear. He's still around. I've seen him. Everywhere.
He's a regular attendee at the 5:15 Sunday mass at St. Thomas Aquinas. He occasionally can be seen swimming laps at the AFC in the evenings. He likes to get sandwiches at the Bel Air Market. There he was, the same old Pete Gillen, ordering a turkey sandwich and holding a bottle of Aquafina.
In a lot of ways, it would be easier if Gillen could just vanish into thin air. Like many followers of the Virginia program, I was rooting for Gillen to do well. Now, every time I see the newly unemployed coach, it makes me feel sad. He is a genuinely nice guy who cared about the community as well as his players. If life was fair, Gillen would be one of the top coaches in the ACC and would spend the rest of his career coaching at Mr. Jefferson's University.
But, life's not fair. Gillen is out of a job, and sooner or later he'll have to start thinking about what he's going to do next. In fact, it seems like he already has. When the woman behind the counter at Bel Air Market mentioned how she was sorry about what happened, Gillen said something about giving her his resumé.
Obviously, he was kidding. Sort of. I'm guessing there is a grain of truth in his request for a job making sandwiches: Gillen wants to work again.
Sure, he is 57 years old and has made a few million dollars working for the University. They even paid him two million just to leave. Early retirement is a legitimate option, financially. He's already removed himself as a candidate for the coaching job at Sienna -- a small Division I school outside of Albany, N.Y. that plays in the MAAC and said he plans to take a year off for personal and family reasons.
Assuming he does return to the ranks of the working stiff, I think there is a better option out there for him than a head coaching spot at a mid-major: a job where his likeable personality and sense of humor will serve him just as well as his basketball knowledge and eye for talent. I'm talking about a job as an ESPN or CBS TV analyst.
Like most college basketball fans, I've listened to several different broadcaster/analyst teams during the NCAA tournament. Because the first 32 games of the tournament are played in eight different locations in a span of 36 hours, CBS can't have Jim Nantz and Billy Packer doing every game. I'm convinced that Gillen would be able to do just as good a job as most of the guys who worked the early rounds of the tournament.
Gillen may not have had much success at developing players and cultivating their talent during their time at Virginia, but his ability to bring players with potential into the program never was questioned. He knows the skills that make a good basketball player and as an analyst will likely be able to provide insights and make astute observations that the viewer at home might miss. Plus, he's spent almost 20 years coaching Division I basketball and should have plenty of stories and anecdotes he could sprinkle throughout a broadcast.
Considering that Gillen took the Cavaliers to the Big Dance only once during his seven-year tenure, it's pretty amazing that he's not despised throughout the community. But most fans have a lot of good things to say about the man who arguably ran this program into the ground. It may just be that people are happy to see him go, but I think that he still remains close to the heart of many students and alumni. There aren't many people out there who would be able to pull that off. If Gillen is so likeable that even Virginia fans still think favorably of him, I imagine that a neutral TV audience would be quick to warm up to the Brooklyn native.
Gillen's quick-witted sense of humor also will serve him well on television He consistently was able to make an often-hostile Virginia media corps laugh at post-game press conferences. When asked about what caused a lively exchange between himself and assistant coach Walt Fuller, Gillen quipped "He said, 'great taste,' I said 'less filling.'" After a narrow exhibition win in 2003, Gillen was asked if he would sleep well that night. He responded, "Yeah, I'll sleep like a baby. I'll wake up every two hours and cry."
I could go on, but I think you get the point. Gillen's prospects as an analyst seem bright. The former Virginia coach would be a breath of fresh air in a world where an astute-but-bland Jay Bilas gets major airtime and an entertaining-but-obnoxious Dick Vitale has achieved celebrity status.
After all, it would be good for Gillen to have a backup plan just in case making sandwiches doesn't work out for him.
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