Student to face teacher as Sadler leads Huskers against Gillispie's Aggies

By RICHARD CROOME
Eagle Staff Writer

It sounds more like a high-noon matchup at the OK Corral than a night game in Lincoln, Neb.

Billy Clyde Gillispie vs. Doc Sadler.

But the only shots fired between the two will be ones of great respect when Gillispie's sixth-ranked Texas A&M men's basketball team faces first-year coach Sadler and his Nebraska Cornhuskers in a Big 12 duel at 7 p.m Saturday.

Enlarge photo

Photo courtesy of Nebraska athletics Nebraska coach Doc Sadler (right) and team director of operations Chris Croft watch the Huskers play. Sadler was an assistant under Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie at UTEP. When Gillispie came to A&M, Sadler took over as head coach. Now Sadler, who was hired by Nebraska before this season, will face his former boss.

The two head coaches go back nearly 15 years with the 2003-04 season being the pinnacle of their working relationship. Gillispie, who was in his second year at UTEP, hired Sadler as an assistant coach that season.

"When I first got the UTEP job, he definitely was one of the first calls I made," Gillispie said. "I got [hired at UTEP] in November, so he was coaching his team at that time and he couldn't leave then. Later that spring, I wanted to try to bring him aboard and I had to beg him for about four or five weeks before I could talk him into it because he had such a good situation. He was at home. His family was from there, and he had one of best junior college situations in the country."

Sadler left his job as head coach at Arkansas-Fort Smith to join Gillispie's staff at UTEP. Sadler was moved up to the head position after Gillispie moved to A&M. Two years later, Sadler moved to Nebraska.

As Sadler followed in Gillispie's footsteps, he had a one-time boss in his corner.

"I bugged [the Nebraska officials] as much as I could," Gillispie said. "When those things happen, everyone's trying to sell somebody to them. I was able to talk to their administration a little bit and hoped it helped. I let them know how I felt Doc could do out there."

The two became acquainted when Sadler, who was working for Texas Tech, was recruiting one of Gillispie's players at Killeen Ellison High School. Sadler sat through a very lengthy practice before making his pitch to sign Ellison's Gionet Cooper.

The two coaches gained each other's respect immediately and remained in touch even after the recruiting process was over.

"At that particular time neither of us required much sleep, so we'd call each other in the office at 11 or 12 o'clock all the time," Sadler said. "It's difficult when you're coaching, but we have a friendship that will last forever. Billy is a special best friend."

Said Gillispie: "He was a fantastic recruiter because he stayed in contact all the time. He did a fantastic job of recruiting me and the player."

Recruiting is just one of many things that has kept Sadler on the move since he arrived in Lincoln on Aug. 8.

His first assignment was making sure some of the veterans were going to stay at Nebraska. One of his missions included a trip to Australia, where his star big man, Aleks Maric, was considering staying home for good.

"He had to win his own team over before anything else," Gillispie said. "But that's what makes Doc special. He cares about people in an honest way. I'm sure it didn't take long for them to figure out that they had a good one."

Sadler says he recruits 365 days a year. The task is made more difficult because most of his trips now require more time in an airplane than even the hours he spent driving while recruiting in Texas. The Cornhuskers don't have a single player from the state of Nebraska on their roster.

But Sadler says the recruiting race is worth it. Players are the lifeline to a program and are far more important than Xs and Os, and he calls that one of the more important lessons he learned from Gillispie.

"What I did learn from Billy, more importantly, was how to fight and understand all the things it takes to be successful," Sadler said. "You're not going to make everyone happy. You've just got to be honest, and that's the best quality."

Sadler, who had a 48-18 record at UTEP, was also handcuffed with a small roster and a difficult nonconference schedule when he took over at Nebraska. He had seven scholarship players who were healthy enough to practice at the beginning of the season. It's not much better now, with two more of his scholarship players able to practice only a small percentage of the time.

But behind Marik and diminutive team leader Charles Alexander, the Cornhuskers have a 14-8 overall mark and went 11-3 in nonconference despite six of those game being away from the Devaney Center.

"We knew going in that it would be long and difficult," Sadler said. "Our home games in conference have been tough, but it is what it is, and we don't look beyond the next game."

Sadler's lineup also as a matter-of-fact quality to it, which means he's playing a 6-foot-4 freshman, Ryan Anderson, at what would normally be the power forward position.

A&M and Gillispie know that tune. In his first season at A&M, Gillispie dubbed walk-on Chris Walker, also 6-4, his "powerless" forward.

But like Gillispie had at A&M, Sadler's lineup isn't necessarily full of duds.

"Doc will make you think they are devoid of talent, which is not the case. He brought good players with him and inherited good players," Gillispie said. "Five years from now, Doc may be playing with a 6-4 power forward. He's singing a sad tune about it right now, but it's probably the way he'd prefer to play, smaller and quicker.

"He's a guy like myself in that he doesn't think a guy has to fit a particular profile to be a good player."

Walker was an energy player for the Aggies. Anderson is being counted on for both scoring and rebounding. He is second on the team in both categories, averaging 10.7 points and 4.3 rebounds a game.

"We wouldn't be as successful without Ryan Anderson," Sadler said. "Sure, I'd like for him to be 6-10, but he's not and we do the best we can."

Sadler continues to work overtime for the Cornhuskers. On Thursday, his day included leaving California after a recruiting trip, conducting a practice, traveling to Omaha, Neb., for a function and returning to Lincoln to do his weekly TV show.

"And somewhere along the way, I've got to be ready for Billy," he said.

NOTES - The temperature at gametime of the A&M-Nebraska game will be in the teens. Sadler said of the weather change from El Paso to Lincoln: "It's great. When it's that cold, you've got to stay inside and play basketball." ... Nebraska is coming off a last-second win at Texas Tech, its second-straight road win. ... In the Husker's last home game, they were blown out by Kansas. Later in the week, Sadler made the team practice twice in one day - an unusual schedule once the season is underway.