WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
KILLER
CROSSOVER
What Andy Kilbride learned in helping lead UW back to
the Big Dance for the first time in 47 years has carried
over to make him a success in the business world, too
T
BY MIKE LUCAS • UWBADGERS.COM
he author of "A Man's Guide to Getting Fired" is Andrew J. Kilbride, the
40-year-old founder of Foster Bridge
Partners, LLC; a management and
consulting firm in Ann Arbor, Mich.
You may call him Killer ― his friends do.
At least that's how most Wisconsin basketball fans and his former teammates knew Andy
Kilbride, a fearless 6-foot-3, 190-pound guard and
three-year starter out of Kankakee, Ill.
The book on Killer? "There was never a shot that
I didn't like," he admitted.
There was much more to Kilbride's game than
he was leading on.
During the 1992-93 season, in fact, he was Wisconsin's Defensive Player of the Year.
He still got his shots, of course, and he made a
high percentage of the longer ones. Kilbride ranked
second in the Big Ten in 3-point shooting (.493)
that year, behind Indiana's Greg Graham.
Offensively, Michael Finley and Tracy Webster
were the top guns, averaging 22.1 and 14.1 points,
respectively, on coach Stu Jackson's first team at
Wisconsin; a team that finished 14-14.
Nobody was satisfied with the record. That was
especially true among the players and coaching
staff, even though the Badgers qualified for the
NIT for the third time in five years.
"Some people thought that was an accomplishment and we all thought it was a failure," Kilbride
said. "Our goal was to contend for Big Ten championships, which was kind of laughable at the time."
No joke.
The Badgers had not finished higher than sixth
in the league over the previous 18 seasons. Yet at
Jackson's introductory news conference, he said,
"I will never, ever come to grips with mediocrity."
Kilbride felt that signaled a turning point in the
program. "We had a team meeting shortly thereafter," he said, "and I can tell you instantly that the
atmosphere around our team changed."
Jackson, then 36, had less than two seasons
of head coaching experience with the New York
Knicks and was working out of the NBA office when
he was hired by UW athletic director Pat Richter.
Besides retaining Ray McCallum from Steve Yoder's staff, Jackson brought in Lowell head coach
Stan Van Gundy and Pitt's career assist leader,
Sean Miller, 23, who served as a graduate assistant.
That sent a message to the players. "It really
