Billy Gillispie has been fired, and Billy Donovan is on the way!
Yay!
Billy Gillispie has been fired, and Billy Donovan is on the way!
Yay!
Didn’t Tubby go to the NCAA’s this year?
Yes, and what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?
Well, shows what I know. I thought Gillispie was a great hire, seeing how well he’d done with the Aggies. Things just never clicked for him in Lexington.
Well, I didn’t hate him, nor Tubby, and Billy G is supposed to have a very highly ranked recruiting class coming in…but Billy G was 40-27 with UK in two years, with embarrassing losses to sub-par teams…
I just don’t think it was going to work out.
If we ran Tubby out of town because he couldn’t recruit, why would we expect Gillespie to win with Tubby’s players?
IF Donovan is coming, I guess I will support the move as a positive, but tossing someone aside after 2 years is not the way I would like to see things done.
Donovan has already indicated he isn’t interested in the job.
College basketball coaches don’t tell LIES … do they?
UK fans are delusional - they think a Donovan or Izzo is going to pull up stakes to jump into **that **snake pit?
Good luck finding a good midmajor coach looking to move up. Calamari, anyone?
I’m happy to see Gillispie go as he is rumoured to be borderline abusive of his basketball players and he just doesn’t understand the ethos that is Kentucky basketball. Besides, he’s a loser and makes decisions in every aspect of the game that are just plain ignorant of the game. But you can rest assured that Billy Donovan is not returning to Lexington. I wouldn’t want him even though, as a former assistant under tricky Ricky Pitino, he knows the drill that is UK basketball.
I was initially worried that, in sacking Billy Gillispie, we would be going from the frying pan the the fire with the next hire. But the end of this season leads me to believe that just about anyone could do a better job than Billy.
No Way! Notes location Ask KState fans about Bob Huggins!
I think it all worked out pretty well in the end. Kentucky had a few years in the wilderness coming, and somebody was going to end up having to pay for it. It’s just as well that it happened to an asshole like Gillispie.
My favorite moment in Billy Clyde’s career was his comment on a talk show that he didn’t realize he’d have to be such a public figure as Kentucky’s coach. I mean, Jesus Christ, did they not take the man for a drive around town? UK’s head coach is like the Chairman Mao of Lexington.
That sort of tone-deafness to the UK brand might have been OK if we had been contenders. But when three of Kentucky’s state universities made it to the NCAA and UK wasn’t one of them, it was torch-and-pitchfork time. I just hope they don’t have to pay him that $6 million buyout; they’ve already been acting like faculty shouldn’t be expecting a raise this year.
Now comes the fun part: Billy Donovan seen getting on a charter flight to Lexington! Tom Izzo’s wife spotted shopping at Fayette Mall! Travis Ford’s mother’s hairdresser says they’ve totally already made him an offer!
Well said. I am starting to think that maybe Donovan isn’t our man, not so much because he isn’t going to come, but because he may be bipolar!
<<Borrowed from another board>>
“Let me say again, I have no interest in the Kentucky job. I love these kids here at… excuse me.”
“I got how much? Yes. Take it.”
“I’d like to thank the University of Wherever for the opportunity to coach here. I’ll be forever grateful. I love this University. Now please step away so I can get out of here.”
John Clay at the Herald-Leader makes pretty much the same point I did–if you’re gonna be a jackass, you’d better be winning ball games.
I think there are two lessons to learn from this:
–If you’re going to fake talking on your cell phone, it’s best to occasionally talk into your cell phone.
–If you “badge in” to a restricted area, and the press are after you, close the damn door behind you.
He backed out of coming to Orlando. Dunno why he’d go to Kentucky; what can he do there that he can’t do in Florida? The program just isn’t what it used to be.
LOL, yeah, I saw that. Alan Cutler: “Coach, you’re not really running away from me, are you?”
Obviously, I was all wrong about Gillispie two years ago. I THOUGHT KEntucky was getting a great coach… and maybe he still WILL be when he gets another job at a school where he can be just a coach.
Being the basketball coach at Texas A & M is like being the football coach at Kentucky. People are aware of your existence, but they don’t get THAT excited. If the football coach at Kentucky is a humorless stiff who manages to win 6 or 7 games and go to the John Hancock Sun Bowl, people are delighted. Similarly, if the basketball coach at A & M is a stiff who manages to make the NCAA tournament now and then, fans are happy.
Being the basketball coach at Kentucky is like being the football coach at A & M. Fans and alumni KNOW the school’s history and they’re PROUD of it. They expect wins, yes, but that’s a given- they ALSO expect the coach to be “their kind of guy.” Being a charming, folksy, good ol’ boy is highly advisable.
I’m only a casuall basketball fan, and even I know that! If Billy Gillispie thought he could just be an X’s and O’s guy in Kentucky, he was very foolish. He should have gotten the fattest contract he could from A & M and stayed there forever.
I’m curious, are you still rejoicing? Calapari has some baggage that will have to be accounted for.
Yeah, he’s got plenty of baggage, but it’s a problem I’m looking forward to having. Between the waning years of the Tubby Smith era and Gillispie’s two years, it’s been a bit of a dry spell for the Wildcats. I want to see the team back in the elite again.
I for one am still rejoicing. After listening to Calapari’s talk with the media upon his introduction, I’m more excited now than I was at the prospect of Billy Donovan.
Cal seems eager and ready to embrace the job, the culture, the fanbase and truly acts like he “gets it” WRT being UK’s head coach.
People keep bringing up this “lots of baggage” statement. Is there something besides the Marcus Camby incident (which may or may not have occurred with Calapari’s knowledge) that I am unaware of?
I am of a mind that many/most NCAA DivI programs cheat, and I have almost reached the point where I don’t really care anymore, because quite frankly, the NCAA is stupidly draconian in many regards.
Calhoun is under pretty intense scrutiny right now, his team is in the Final Four, and he’s something of a legend. I would have taken him as my coach gladly.