Taking time to chill with Gil

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You only get a certain amount of room in the newspaper, so here is the parts of my interview that didn't make it into my article about Gil Jackson only playing Penn after Dunphy and company left.

JW: What will it be like to reurn to the Palestra? GJ:“It’ll probably be a little strange sitting on the other bench. The good thing is that I’m used to the visiting locker room, I used to dress there before home games. It’ll be different, I’m kind of excited though.

JW: What do you miss most about Penn? GJ: “The Big 5, the tradition. Penn has a lot of tradition and pride, so I’m trying to instill some of that in Howard. Howard has a lot of academic pride, but when it comes to athletics it’s not quite like Penn, Penn has both. They’ve found a way flourish in athletics and academics, and that’s what I’m trying to do with the basketball program here.”

JW: What’s the best part about being a head coach? GJ: “You want to be in charge of the program, you can put your stamp on it in the players that you recruit. You have the final say, so the product is kind of ‘you.'”

JW: Is it hard to go from a team that makes the Tournament more than every other year to one that is in its rebuilding stages? GJ: “Yeah, that’s challenging. We have to rebuild and change the culture a little bit, that’s the tough part. We’ve done some nice things at Howard. The student body is more involved, we had our first “Blue – White” game, so we’re trying to start to build some tradition, but it is difficult.”

JW: What do you think of the Quakers’ new coaching staff? GJ: “Penn has a new program and they’re doing well. I had a lot of respect for Glen when he was coaching at Brown – they were always well-prepared, they have a very intricate offense. We just want to compete and play hard.”

JW: Coming off of a tough loss [129-59 to Duquesne], how do you prepare your young team coming into the Palestra? GJ: “We’re going to try to minimize our mistakes and get some confidence from somewhere, we don’t want to play too quickly. [We need to] make our free throws, and get some confidence on the floor. We’re pretty fragile, and played against a strong, veteran [Duquesne] team. We have to try and grow and mature, and keep them upbeat.”