Spotlight on...

November 19, 2008

Roy Gilmore, Women's Basketball Head Coach

1. Who are coaches you admire?

C. Vivian Straighter, Pat Summit, Tom Izzo, and Bobby Knight. Coaches that respect the game and get their kids to play hard are the ones I admire.

2. What are some of your earliest involving basketball?

Probably playing in our backyard we had an old run down garage with a metal hoop to the side of it. We also played in the house with a hanger on a door and using a sock for a ball.

3. When did you know you wanted to be a coach?

Probably after I entered the "real world" for about four years. I always liked being the one who picked the teams and I was never the most athletic player so I had to learn the game to be good at it. I guess you can say my whole life has been me becoming a coach.

4. What did you do before you started coaching?

I worked at a small newspaper in Edwardsville. I wanted to be the next Stephen A. Smith.

5. How do you decide where the team stops for dinner?

A whole bunch of variety and also really cheap. The players don't look it but they can put away food. They also like places like Quiznos and Fazoli's.

6. What do you all do to pass time on the bus?

Movies - we watch a whole lot of movies. I've banned Julia Roberts movies because I've seen too many of them.

7. What do you think of the team's entrance song "Here Comes the Boom" by Nelly?

If that's what it takes for them to get pumped up I'm all for it. I'm old school. When I played in high school we came out to "Eye of the Tiger" (by Survivor). That would probably be good enough for me.

8. If you could coach any player who would it be?

Just watching him play in the Olympics, I'd have to say DeWayne Wade just because of the intensity he brings. It'd be fun to see how I could push him to that next level, and as a coach I'd learn how to motivate a player like that to take it to the next level.

9. What are some books you've read?

"Winner's Manual" by Jim Tressel. Right now I'm reading "Rebound Rules" by (Rick) Pitino and "Letters to a Young Brother" by Hill Harper

10. What's on your iPod?

I don't have an iPod. If I did it'd be ESPN Radio. I annoy my kids all the time because they want me to turn on XM but I always play ESPN Radio. If it was music it'd be old school like Ice Cube or KRS-1