“Billy Gillispie’s tenure as head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats ended yesterday after a two year record of 40-27, one NCAA appearance and one NIT appearance. At this moment, UK is without a basketball coach. Apparently, that will not be Billy Donovan.

“In response to the rumors circulating about my interest in other jobs, I wanted to address this as quickly as possible. I’m committed to the University of Florida and look forward to continuing to build our program here.” So says Billy Donovan about his interest in the vacant University of Kentucky job.

So says Billy Donovan, who was the second part of the persistent rumor that swirled around Billy Gillispie — that he would be fired and Billy Donovan would be the replacement. Now, we see that the administration had no coach in the wings, and the firing was what it is. A desire to remove Gillispie based on “philosophical differentness and “UN-FIT” circumstances.

Now I have no doubt, after careful consideration, that Billy C. Gillispie did nothing to ingratiate himself to the boosters, media, or the HEAD MAN. He was a hard driving basketball junkie who loved the game and hated the spotlight. This is plenty enough to get you fired in the real world, yet this isn’t the real world. This is no marriage, there was no contract. This was no agreement; there was none, perhaps an understanding, but those are very flimsy, as we can see now.

This is a basketball team with young men hanging in the balance of their careers, and a program tethering on the brink of instability. A strong recruiting class coming, whose parents want to know what is going on. Those things are paramount in considering anything in relation to the men’s basketball program. Having a man in place who appreciates what the University of Kentucky basketball program is all about is a no-brainer. Mitch should have thought of that two years ago when he introduced us to Billy Clyde as the saviour of UK basketball.

Now, we are left to twist in the wind while we look for a basketball coach. Experienced coaches are turning us down now, first Donovan, now Calipari. Never say never, and some may reconsider but, A “home run” hire is necessary soon to address the need to retain the recruits we have coming in. The search is on……

Mike Decourcy, The Sporting News, weighs in, “The guy’s been there two years. If you’re firing somebody after two years, with one NCAA appearance and an NIT, I’m not sure the failure belongs to the coach.”

“You need a special guy…I think that John Calapari…Rick Barnes….Travis Ford…” Vitale offered these names, and we know these. We will be needing NO help from Dicky V. I’ll take Travis. Thank You.

Billy Gillispie arrived at UK with a reputation as a hard-nosed grinder who overachieved. He had four conference Coach of the Year awards in his pocket to go with it. Some said that Billy was too much of a task master, that he wore his players down, but it CANNOT be said that he did it HIS WAY, since he never got the chance, given only a two – year tenure.

Billy Gillispie had a 40-27 record in his two year at UK. He took over for Tubby Smith who left to go to Minnesota. This year UK missed the NCAA for the first time in 18 years. Reports are that UK is reaching out to representatives of Billy Donovan.

Jodie Meeks scored 18 of his 21 points in the final 12:18 as the Wildcats (22-14) used a 17-5 run to cut the lead to 67-62 on a slam dunk by Perry Stevenson with 2:42 left. But the Irish were 8-of-8 from the free-throw line over the final 1:29 to end the game on a 10-5 run to hang on.

Ramon Harris suffered a mild concussion in the first half, and his defense was missed on the three point shooters for the Irish. UK, as they have all season, had trouble guarding the 3 point shot. “That’s what inexperience can do…we just had a couple of bad stretches” were among the post game comments of Billy Gillispie…

UK’s fans are left in a “waiting pattern” waiting to see who the next coach might be, and for many, what the reason is IF the one we have is dismissed.

Kentucky closes out its season at 22-14, while Notre Dame moves on to Madison Square Garden to face a Penn State team (25-11) in New York.

During a Sunday news conference, UK’s coach Billy Gillispie, shrugged at intense speculation about his firing as the Cats headed for Omaha, Neb., to play Creighton in the National Invitation Tournament.

“All I do is work,” he said. “That’s all I’ve ever done (and) all I’ll ever do.”

That prompted a question: Because he does not acknowledge the public-relations component of being UK’s coach, does Gillispie want to return?

“I love it,” he said after chuckling. “I mean, I love it. I love this place.”

But Gillispie could not say at a Sunday news conference whether he will remain Kentucky’s coach next season.

Gillispie neither confirmed nor denied that UK President Lee Todd met with Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart late last week to discuss the future of the basketball program. Or whether the coach had met with either of his superiors about the program in recent days, “We meet all the time” was his response.

Creighton, winner of 12 of their last 13 games, is led in scoring at 15.7 ppg by Booker Woodfox who was also the Missouri Valley Conference player of the year…He also shoots 47.6 from 3 land, 3^rd in the nation.

I look for Darius Miller to continue his improved play. Darius has been averaging 9.3ppg over his last ten…BCG on Darius: “It is hard for a freshman, and being Mr. Basketball in this state is added pressure. (Darius) has handled. He is learning to play angles and I’m proud he is improving in that area so quickly. He is not afraid to take shots and force the action, and I have great confidence he can guard his man in the toughest situations.”

Ramon Harris on the game, “Last year we had a few ups and downs and then we got it going. We thought the same thing would happen this year, but it didn’t. This is our last chance to get it going and prove that we are better than people think”.

Indeed it is….

Tuesday night the UK basketball players are in store for an entirely new crowd in Memorial Coliseum. “I think it’s one of the best buildings I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a lot of them,” Billy Gillispie said. “I think it’s one of the most grand buildings ever built for college basketball.”

Indeed, everyone is gathering for a sold out game of also rans, UK vs UNLV, but the building will be rocking, I promise. From experience, I can tell those in attendance that they are about to experience something that happens only 30 years or so; that being UK playing in the smallish, 8,500 seat gym, where the “Man in The Brown Suit” patrolled the sidelines, Adolph Rupp. But alas, smaller here is better, as there is not a bad seat in the house. I ought to know, having never missed a home game during my tenure as a UK student.

I never failed to arrive at a home game before the doors opened and was awarded with the best of “first come, first serve” seats. This was for the routine home games. For the big ones where the SEC title was on the line, or some such, I had to stand in the line like all other students, but it became a social affair and party. Students back then were determined to get tickets and did so. They were rewarded by getting a chance to see some great UK legends of the sport run up and down that floor.

Now, UK is again back on that stage due to an odd twist of fate that sees them playing the team that their starting point guard last year transferred to. Yes, Derrick Jasper plays basketball for UNLV, but is rehabbing this season and won’t make the journey. He is missing a heck of a game regardless who wins because of the venue. The average fan at this game promises to be of a younger demographic and coincidentally LOUDER in their manner…This is the place to be on Tuesday night. This is the place to play to soothe the “thorn in the side” of rough season. This is the place….Jodie might get 54 here….

UK will host UNLV at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday night in Memorial Coliseum. UK will be a four seed in a region that also has the top-seeded Creighton. Now that UK is playing in the JV tournament, I suggest that they make the most of it. There may be some fans that get to see them that would otherwise not have that opportunity.

Patrick Patterson had his own opinion of the NIT: “If we could win the NIT that could carry over to next year, that would be a huge confidence boost and weight lifted off our shoulders. We’ve had a not so good season and everyone is frustrated but making a run in the NIT would help”

Ramon Harris sees it as “a chance to play more basketball”, and indeed it is. UK will be playing its first game in Memorial Coliseum since the end of the 1975-76 season when the Wildcats moved to Rupp Arena.

“We are happy to still be playing,” Gillispie said. “There are 330 some teams and they all want to play in the NCAA and that’s not possible for every team every year. We will try to represent ourselves the best way we can.”

So his players seem eager to play?

“I am not a mind reader. We had a really good practice last night. I would expect we will play well and we will have to play well to advance against a very good team,” Gillispie said.

UNLV won AT Louisville 3 days before UofL beat UK on a Edgar Sosa buzzer beater. They are similar to many SEC teams in that they like to spread you out and shoot the 3. Billy Gillispie expects a difficult matchup for that reason, “It will be a difficult matchup for us because they spread you out and shoot a lot of 3′s. They really utilize the drive. They are hard to guard because of their athleticism and ability to shoot 3′s.”

The hotly contested game saw LSU lead for most of the game as the UK squad played catch up…In the end, too many turnovers, the season’s bugaboo, along with a subpar game from our stars, Jodie and 2Pat, as they came up short of their combined scoring average. Perry S had a subpar game with only 5 points, a far cry from yesterday’s performance.

Credit is due to LSU, an experienced, well coached, patient basketball team that runs all their stuff and hits the boards very hard. They have seven (7) 4th year seniors, and their maturity shows on the court.

Coach Billy Gillispie said in describing UK’s loss, “We just turned the ball over too much and didn’t keep them off the offensive boards” … They made better decisions and that is why they beat us”…

]]> http://bigbluerules.com/2009/03/13/ides-of-march-fall-on-cats-as-they-lose-to-lsu-67-58/feed/ 0 http://bigbluerules.com/2009/03/12/611/ http://bigbluerules.com/2009/03/12/611/#comments Fri, 13 Mar 2009 04:12:36 +0000 Memoirs0Zeus http://bigbluerules.com/?p=611 “Coach is the one designing plays, but it’s our intensity, it’s our toughness, it’s the way that we battle out there that (determines) down the stretch whether we win or lose” ..so says Patrick Patterson who has spent much of his time defending his coach, Billy Gillispie, during his time in Tampa, and today went out on the court and proved it, along with his teammates.

Billy Gillispie’s young charges showed that there is still basketball being played in the state of Kentucky. Sure it was an also ran, NIT bound, Ole Miss Team we beat, but that was the goal and we did it well, well in the second half.

Kentucky advanced to the second round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Tampa on Thursday with balanced scoring and some tough second half defense.

Post game had BCG saying “that’s the way we should be playing”, referring to the stingy defense that allowed Ole Miss only 18 points in the second frame.

Indeed, it was the D, and the B, as in Balanced Scoring, as Meeks led the way with 25, while Patrick had 15 points and 14 big rebounds. Perry Stevenson had a great game, matched by one Darius Miller, who came in and added 12 points to go with Perry’s 13. Perry cracked the double-digit point barrier for the first time in eight games. Darius Miller, only an 18 year old freshman, equalled his second-highest point total against a Southeastern Conference opponent

“I don’t really care how many points I score so long as we win. When something like that happens I’m glad we have help on the team. People off the bench gave us great energy and help.” said Jodie Meeks. Indeed, BCG that is the way we should be playing, and a lot sooner than now.

Uk’s 13 point victory was a second half clinic on how to play defense and UK must put together two of these halves to have a shot at their next opponent, LSU. “Today we did what the coaches asked, and that included playing hard and tough. We controlled the tempo with our defense and rebounding, things we had not been doing.” UK junior Ramon Harris. Indeed, Ole Miss was only 2 for their last 9 in the last eight minutes enabling UK to post the victory…

LSU is in the headlights…We’ve played ‘em close once. We will do it again. “We’re definitely a better team like this,” Meeks said. “The more scorers you have, the better.” Let the game begin, keep the bubble alive. GO CATS !..!..!

The Georgia Bulldogs came into Lexington, losers of nine road games this season and playing for pride only, beat the Kentucky Wildcats. The University of Kentucky Wildcats, needing a win to avoid their NCAA bubble bursting, may have seen that slip away. The Cats, losers of 6 of their last 9 coming in, plodded along with bottom league dweller Georgia in the first half, as the Georgia shooters put on a 3 point display reminisicent of some other squads that came into Rupp this year…It must be the defense! Georgia shot 52% the first half on 7 of 9 three pointers in gaining their 1st road win of the year.

Uk rode the hot shooting of Michael Porter who was 4-4 on threes the first half to finish the half with a 2 point lead after being down by as much as 7 with 1:10 to go in the half. On the strength of a 4 point play, precipatied by an intentional foul on Georgia, and possesion which led to a Patrick Patterson slam and the resulting first half lead. Terrance Woodbury had 21 points for Georgia in the first half.

The second half saw Georgia take a quick 61-53 lead as Billy Gillispie pulled all his starters but one, and UK had 3 consecutive turnovers…UK fell behind and trailed Georgia by as much as 10 points in the second half…Now UK, not knowing where they stand, must pick themselves up and go to Gainesville Fl. Florida suffered a similar loss tonight against Mississippi State, which all but eliminates them from the NCAA tournament also..

“Basketball Jones…..I got a Basketball Jones….I got a Basketball Jones… Oh Baby..” , the song goes…., and I have one, a “Basketball Jones that is…I want to see if UK can repeat the performance they had in Rupp arena on Saturday. Saturday was UK’s finest hour based on the number and production of players not named Jodie or Patrick….

We’re on the road now with this group and they are playing a FINE SEC squad that beat us at home, on a last second shot by Devan Downey, who else?…SC has a pair of dynamic guards led by Devan Downey, a mini-mini version of Allen Iverson, who is almost unstoppable off the bounce. He must be contained assist-wise for us to win, and a win would be for 1st Place in the always tight SEC East…

UK will have its hands full and the logical thought is that Liggins or Galloway will have to spell Porter more than normal. Keeping up with either of SC’s guards will be a chore for him. Winning this game though, is entirely within the realm of this team should we manage the play we exhibited Saturday…

If we play the way Gillespie says they are STILL playing we lose…

Billy Gillispie had this to say on the topic of whether the players have known their roles so far this season: – from KSR

“We are very far away from that. They have been defiant. Every single person has to defensive rebound much better. We have to help defend much better. We have to offensive rebound much better. We have to reverse the basketball better. We have to feed the post better. And when you talk about those things that need improving as a team, those are the things that individuals must do to improve as a team and we are not doing that right now. “

Play like you did Saturday…., LADS - the rest will take care of itself…:)

Coaches are never happy…And so it goes………….