One of Billy Gillispie’s former players is transferring into the SEC

Believe it or not, Billy Gillispie is still coaching college basketball. Unfortunately, he’ll go into his 13th season as a head coach without one of his best players from the year before.

On Wednesday morning, Tarleton State power forward Keitenn Bristow announced he’s transferring to play for Alabama in 2025-26. A 6-foot-8, 190-pound native of Texas, Bristow was named the Western Athletic Conference’s Freshman of the Year this past season after posting per-game averages of 11.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 1.1 steals in 26.3 minutes. He shot 46.1 percent from the field and 32.8 percent from deep.

Bristow was one of the bright spots on Gillispie’s fifth team at Tarleton State, which finished 12-20 in 2024-25 with a 7-9 record in the WAC. But instead of running it back with ole Billy Clyde, the rising star is coming to play in the Southeastern Conference for Nate Oats, where he’ll run into Kentucky on the hardwood this coming season.

This is a good opportunity to do a quick recap of Gillispie’s coaching career. Oddly enough, his five-year stint at Tarleton State is his longest as a Division I head coach. He was at UTEP for two seasons (2002-04) and then Texas A&M for three seasons (2004-07) before his disastrous two-year run at Kentucky (2007-09). Gillispie took a couple of years off from coaching before stepping in at Texas Tech for one season (2011-12). He resigned from the Red Raiders after one season due to allegations of player mistreatment.

Gillispie then made the move to the JUCO ranks where he coached Ranger College for five seasons from 2015-20. The Rangers were NJCAA runners-up in 2019. That stint was not without controversy either, though, including the vacation of an entire season of wins and a brief retirement from coaching. But when Tarleton State was preparing to make the move from Division II to Division I ahead of the 2020-21 season, the program chose Gillispie to guide them.

Going into his sixth season as head coach of the Texans, Gillispie holds a 78-74 record (46-38 WAC). Tarleton State made it to the CBI in 2023 and the CIT semifinals in 2024. But Gillispie has only reached more than 17 wins once during his tenure. And now, he’s losing his star freshman to a high-major school.

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