(Photo: Enquirer File Photo)
Perspective is the greatest gift of time.
Pete Gillen earned that perspective through three decades of coaching college basketball so he's uniquely qualified to explain the peaks and valleys of a season and the challenges a first-year head coach faces.
Gillen's first year as a head coach was the 1985-1986 season. Like Travis Steele, his first head coaching job was on Victory Parkway at Xavier University.
"I didn't think I'd make it to Thanksgiving that first year," said Gillen, who spent 10 seasons as an assistant at Hawaii, Virginia Military Institute, Villanova and Notre Dame.