Ole Miss incident typical of coach-reporter tension

ESPN's Edwards says remark is 'a total non-issue'

By Jerry Tipton / Herald-Leader Staff Writer

Jerry Tipton

What the Internut, er, Internet crowd doesn't understand is that reporters and coaches have their dust-ups from time to time. If each is doing their job, a squabble is inevitable, if not desirable.

In an extreme example of the mongoose-and-cobra relationship, a former Kentucky coach once put up his dukes to gesture a willingness to get physical. I declined the invitation despite having the seventh-grade boxing championship at Copernicus Junior High (Hamtramck, Mich.) on my résumé.

So Billy Gillispie's mild put-down of ESPN sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards at Mississippi on Tuesday night seemed like a ho-hum incident. Yet, the blogosphere buzzed with excitement.

"To me, it's a total non-issue," Edwards said in a telephone interview. "It's kind of funny it's getting as much attention as it is. When you're on live television, you have to be prepared for just about anything. There are times you get thrown a curve ball and you just have to roll with it."

In case you haven't seen or heard about the incident, Edwards stopped Gillispie for the customary leaving-the-court mini interview at halftime. She noted that Jodie Meeks hadn't scored a basket in the first half and asked the coach what adjustments he might make to get his leading scorer on track.

"This is not a one-man team," Gillispie said before adding, with a shrug of his shoulders, "and that's really a bad question."

Is Gillispie (or any coach) qualified to judge the merits of a question? Rather than explore that topic, Edwards moved on.

"I totally understand where he was coming from," she said. "It was the heat of the moment. He was frustrated with his team. Whether or not it was a question he liked is irrelevant."

Gillispie called Edwards the next day and apologized.

"I'd never had that happen before," Edwards said. "But I also never had an incident that had gotten that much attention before."

The halftime interview became instant fodder for Web sites.

Blogger Dashiell Bennett used sarcasm to make a point.

"Edwards had the temerity to suggest that Kentucky might be concerned that the team's leading scorer had only six points at halftime," he wrote. "That was just stupid, and Gillispie told her so, saying that Kentucky is not a one-man show and Edwards had asked a 'bad question.'

"You see, just because Jodie Meeks is one of only two players on the squad averaging double-digits that doesn't mean the Wildcats need him to score points or anything. I mean, he added 15 in the second half — even though Ole Miss held him to just four field goals for the entire game and he missed his average by four points — and Kentucky still lost! So clearly he's not the most important player on the team, you dummy."

Edwards, whose duties for ESPN include coverage of the Southeastern Conference, considers Gillispie a "casual friend." The two share an interest in horse racing.

Before joining ESPN in the mid-1990s, Edwards trained and rode thoroughbred horses. She even rode in a few races to learn about the experience.

Edwards, who grew up in Tenafly, N.J., where she was a cheerleader in middle school and high school, is married to a former jockey. She got her start in television as an analyst for races at the Pimlico and Laurel tracks.

Edwards is a pro who knows what lies at the heart of her exchange with Gillispie at Ole Miss: the unavoidable friction created by coaches wanting to win and reporters wanting to inform.

"We know those perspectives are not always congruent," she said.

Pro influences?

There wasn't much of a collegial feel to SEC basketball last week. Not with the in-season departures of two coaches, Mark Gottfried at Alabama on Monday, then Dennis Felton at Georgia on Thursday.

Aren't college coaches supposed to be mentoring their players through the school year? Isn't it the pros who fire coaches during the season? How far away are we from dismissing a coach, say, five games into a season?

SEC consultant C.M. Newton saw benefits to an in-season firing. It frees coaches to look for new opportunities and allows athletic directors to begin searching for someone new.