The Daily Orange

Media Credit: Kris Wilson

Everyone crams into the tiny back room of Manley Field House, to see what Quentin Hillsman has built.

They file into the small, square room with white walls and nothing but a couch and a television. Fifty people line the walls, taking up every seat, and begin to sit on the floor. The newsmen pull out their television cameras - eight of them in all. The photographers take their seats, along with the newspaper reporters in the back. Family, friends and finally the team sit in the middle.

Rushing around, shaking hands, darting in and out of the room is Hillsman, the reason they all came. They want to see the crowning moment of his team's resurrection: an NCAA Tournament bid, to be broadcast on ESPN in about a half an hour.

Exactly 17 months after the day he was hired as head coach, Hillsman has taken a 9-20 team and turned it into 22-8, on the brink of the NCAA Tournament. After a strenuous first season, Hillsman orchestrated a 13-win turnaround, the second-largest swing in Division I this season.

But he still looks nervous as the big moment approaches.

***

The camera is ready to roll, and Hillsman is in his normal spot, right in front of it. He'll appear live on Action News 3 in just a few moments, flashing that smile that has appeared on television and in newspapers so often this year.

The clock is ticking until he will know whether or not his team will make the dance, and everyone wants to talk to the man behind it all. And Hillsman engages every one of them.

For Hillsman, task No. 1 was to change the attitude of a perennial loser in the Big East conference. The program had recorded one winning season in the last 17, and had made only one NCAA Tournament in the past 20 years.

Moving past that became a priority for the young head coach. He focused on bringing in players from winning programs. McDonald's All-American Erica Morrow became a poster child for those priorities, coming from New York City powerhouse Murry Bergtraum, and its nine consecutive NYC titles.

The season got off to a 13-1 start on the shoulders of Hillsman's recruiting class. But now he had a new challenge: not letting the team's success go to its head. He started feeding his players adages like, "When you think you're great, you've lost already."

The day after the team earned its first-ever national ranking on Jan. 21, Morrow said Hillsman worked the team twice as hard in practice, just to prove his point.

Continued...

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