Mike Gillian interviewed at Longwood University in 2003 with an empty glass in hand.
As he went office to office, meeting school administrators and discussing the job as Lancers basketball coach, Gillian set the glass on a desk.
"People would look at that glass as empty," Gillian said of his prop. "To me, the eternal optimist, I looked at that glass as waiting to be filled."
Longwood hired Gillian, who was a George Mason assistant under Jim Larranaga, and the Lancers upgraded from Division II to Division I. But they have played as independents, with ridiculously challenging travel, zero geographic rivalries, and an annual series of games that led to nowhere. Their next three opponents are Seattle University, Washington Adventist University and North Dakota.
Longwood's season concludes Feb. 29. That's just in time, as usual, to watch the rest of college hoops embrace March Madness.
On Jan. 23, Longwood gained admission to the Big South Conference, effective July 1. In Gillian's estimation, a whole new ballgame already has begun for the Lancers.
"Now, here's how I feel: We have filled the glass halfway, filled it with competitiveness, a reasonable degree of success — especially at home — and Big South membership," he said. "I don't have any desire to do anything other than fill that glass."
The process continues with a fresh recruiting pitch currently being delivered by Gillian and his assistants, who had no counter when prospects chose other schools based on the chance to participate in rivalries, make all-conference, play for a league championship, and reach the NCAA tournament.
"We've been able to be involved with (past recruits) who have gone on and played at other places and are having some success," said Gillian, 47, whose current team is 8-15. "I think now if we get to that same point with them, they're going to make the decision to come here."
High school and AAU coaches would recommend Division II and Division III level players to Longwood's staff, according to Gillian, a Massachusetts native. He wanted access to prospects drawing interest from CAA and Atlantic 10 Conference programs.
Since the announcement of Big South affiliation, Gillian said Longwood has started to gain a recruiting foothold among "people that you've been attempting to have recognize what you're doing for a long period of time. That last piece of the puzzle is in place, and now they can say, 'I can support what you guys are doing.' "
Longwood and the Big South are working on schedule models that would allow the Lancers to compete for conference championships starting in 2012-13. Gillian believes his program will instantly hold its own in the league, which includes VMI, Liberty and Radford.
"Being competitive is step one, but being competitive is not the goal," Gillian said. "We want to immediately compete for regular-season and tournament championships."
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