Interim coach looks to 'break the ceiling' with Tarleton basketball

BY: JAXON HANSARD / Sports Editor

Tarleton State University’s men's basketball team started their season Oct. 30 like normal with a victory over Howard Payne University. 

While the team was in California for the SoCal Challenge tournament on Nov. 19, it was announced that head coach, Billy Gillispie, would be away from the team with some medical circumstances. 

Assistant Coach Joseph Jones would answer the call and lead the Texans to winning the SoCal Challenge tournament. 

Since being the active head coach, the Texans have gone 10-4 and have a 12-6 record in total with close wins over Stephen F. Austin, UT Arlington, Abilene Christian and a buzzer-beating swish by Jakorie Smith to beat UTRGV 

Jones joined the Texans coaching staff as an assistant coach in 2021 under Gillispie who was his coach during Jones' college playing time at Texas A&M. 

The Texas A&M Athletic Hall of Fame player did have a professional career overseas playing in a myriad of countries including Spain, Turkey, France, Israel, Dominican Republic and lastly in Puerto Rico where he won the BSN Championship in 2019 with Santeros de Aguada. 

“The hardest thing about coaching is relaying the information to the players and get them to complete the task,” Jones said. 

When asked about his coaching style as compared to Gillispie, Jones said he's in it to win it.

 “I really don’t have one, my deal is to just coach to win. That’s how we're going to do whatever we think is the best to do at that time. If it calls on me to get on to you and try to motivate you and just get all the way on you then I’m going to do that,” Jones said.

The amount of turnover in this year’s roster compared to last season has allowed multiple players to step into bigger roles with the opportunity presented. 

“The hardest thing for a coach to do is to trust someone new when you’ve trusted this guy for two to three years, with guys moving on and Jakorie, Lue, and (KiAndre) Gaddy being the main guys that played last year so it gives them the opportunity to play more,” Jones said.

“I know KiAndre was a good offensive rebounder and now playing more you see that he’s a great offensive rebounder, he’s Top 3 in offensive rebounds in the nation.”

The goal for this season is to win as many games as possible. 

“I’m a basketball player, That, on the way out, knowing how to get stuff done is by hard work and never giving up so if you keep showing up every day trying to bust through the ceiling. That ceiling is eventually going to fall and someone is going to try to build another ceiling and you got to keep trying to bust through that,” Jones said.