Goodbye Billy G.

As we drove home from school on Thursday, the talk began about the boys' day. The conversation bounced from the Spring Fling parties, upcoming spelling tests, next week's spring break and UK Men's Basketball Coach Billy Gillispie.

If you don't live here in Wildcat Country, the idea that your seven-year-old is discussing a college hoops coach might seem a bit odd, but we do live amongst the wackiest bunch of fans on the planet, so I didn't bat an eye.

Josh preceded to explain that during the school's morning show (a live feed from the office that is broadcast to TVs in the classrooms) they conducted a poll if Billy G. should be fired or not. Out of 14 students and teachers, 10 said get rid of the fella, 2 thought he should stay and 2 were undecided.

If Josh had been asked, he would have agreed with the majority and stated Coach Gillispie should be let go. It's not like Josh is a huge fan, but he knows enough about sports to understand that the Cats are just not living up to expectations. And he's being brainwashed at school. Good thing my boys look good in blue.....

Now, we personally do not bleed blue, nor really care if the Cats end up on top. Rich actually finds enjoyment when they lose because of all the hysteria it causes at work. Drama, drama, drama. But I find it all very amusing and quiet frankly riveting when you find your town in the middle of a national debate/scandal that has been brewing over the last few days. We are talking front page stuff. Headline story on ESPN. com, even while the NCAA tournament is down to just 8 teams. It's that big.

Why? Because Kentucky basketball is HUGE, even if you don't live in the Bluegrass. They were a once heralded program coached by the legendary Rick Pitino. His successor Tubby Smith won the NCAA National Championship during his first season back in 1998 in San Antonio and I was there in person to witness it. They were a basketball dynasty and Ashley Judd was their most visable fan.

Fast forward eleven years and Rick Pitino is now the coach of Louisville- UK's most hated rival. Tubby made a quiet exit two seasons ago when he just couldn't take the intense scrutiny and demands that the UK fans shove on him 24/7. One writer said the UK coach as 24,000 assistant coaches that pack into Rupp Arena every game. I couldn't have said it better myself.

And now Billy Gillispie wrapped up a season that was tied for the second worst of all time at UK. He was pushed out today and believe me, if he hadn't been, the fans might have done it themselves- literally.

UK fans are the most intense, pushy, irritating and die hard group around. They love their school. They love to win. And they love to talk about it all. You should have watched the news broadcast the night UK lost in the SEC tournament and their dreams of getting into the Big Dance were shattered (the first time in 1991). The on site reporter after the game said there was a group of fans and player's parents shouting "Fire Billy G." He then made mention of waiting to see if they would get an NIT bid and he waved his hand in the air showing his own disgust. He closed his piece by saying what a terrible season they had. Ever seen that anywhere else? I surely have not.

I have my own opinion of the fans. I think their insanity is enhanced by two things. 1) They all drink and things can get ugly really fast when liquor is involved. 2) They bet money on the games. I care a heck of a lot more who wins in the tourney when my brackets are involved. If it were really money you were dealing with, I would be disgruntled too. You have to know that gambling is a big industry here when there are drive thru betting booths at Keenland Race Course down the street.

Kentucky: Horses/Gambling, Bourbon and Tobacco. Yup, it's where we call home.

One of the greatest writers at ESPN is Pat Forde. He is from Louisville and wrote a piece about the Gillispie saga today. "Black Friday" he dubbed it. He's lived the madness. And I loved his article. It's posted below. Why? Because one day Lexington will be a memory, and I don't want to forget the Kentucky Madness we call UK Basketball.
Blame goes to Gillispie and Kentucky

Pat Forde
ESPN.com

After weeks of simmering angst, Billy Gillispie's short, ugly tenure as coach of Kentucky is over. His two years in Lexington were a spectacular failure for Gillispie personally. And for the Wildcats as a basketball program.

Mark Zerof/US PresswireBilly Gillispie and Kentucky were not a good fit from the start.
This was a rushed marriage that rarely felt right or happy. In figuring out how we've arrived so quickly at this ignominious divorce, one thing is clear: There is ample blame for both sides

Start with the Kentucky brass, athletic director Mitch Barnhart and president Lee Todd. After being turned down publicly by Billy Donovan of Florida in 2007 and rebuffed privately by Jay Wright of Villanova and Rick Barnes of Texas, they panicked. Reacting hastily after the Barnes talks broke off, they lunged at the guy they knew would say yes: Texas A&M's Gillispie.

The decision seemed to be fueled by a fear that mighty Kentucky could not suffer the prestige hit of repeated rejections. Especially not after Barnhart went through an entire Rolodex of football coaching candidates in 2002 before getting Rich Brooks -- which ended up working out splendidly after a rocky start.

But that was Kentucky football, and this is Kentucky basketball. And the Wildcats are not supposed to grovel for a coach.

Never mind that former athletic director C.M. Newton took more than two months and at least a couple of rejections (Lute Olson and P.J. Carlesimo) in 1989 before getting around to hiring a guy named Rick Pitino. This time around, UK hurried a critical decision.

Vanity and rabbit ears for criticism helped push Barnhart into the basketball version of a Las Vegas wedding. And you know how those tend to work out.

Had Kentucky taken the time to carefully conduct its search, it might have learned that Gillispie's prickly personality and uneven moods made him poorly suited for the fishbowl existence of coaching the Wildcats. Even being a bachelor turned out to be a complicating factor, since everyone wanted to know Gillispie's personal business. And because the coach was hardly a stay-at-home shrinking violet, the gossip mill churned at a hysterical pace.

This was a rushed marriage that rarely felt right or happy. In figuring out how we've arrived so quickly at this ignominious divorce, one thing is clear: There is ample blame for both sides.
Nobody much cares what you do at UTEP and Texas A&M. At Kentucky, they care about every breath you take.

They also care about winning. And while Gillispie had done tremendous work reviving UTEP and A&M, he brought a grand total of three NCAA tournament victories with him to Lexington. That's the fewest of any new hire at UK since Joe B. Hall, a former Adolph Rupp assistant who had never been a Division I head coach.

So Barnhart brought in an odd duck with a decent but not dazzling résumé and foisted him off as the savior of a listing program. His failure to gauge the fit between school and coach is impossible to ignore. Now, after just two years, he's in the humiliating position of having to admit he blew it.
Quite frankly, the apparent fact that Barnhart will be in place to make a second basketball hire is either shocking or foolish. Or both.

But that's only half the failed marriage. The other half is Gillispie, who insiders say has absolutely flunked Interpersonal Relationships 101.

The trouble began almost immediately, when Gillispie obstinately refused to sign his contract. He still hasn't, which had to fray his relationship with Barnhart. Every time the subject came up, Gillispie had a flippant response that indicated this was no big deal -- but multimillion-dollar contract impasses always are a big deal.

So are losses to Gardner-Webb. Gillispie did that in the second game of his tenure, showing a strategic stubbornness that would become an unwelcome hallmark of his tenure. There would be no adjustments; it would simply be up to the players to come around to Billy's way.

The 2007-08 Wildcats did eventually come around, going 12-4 in Southeastern Conference play and earning Gillispie co-coach of the year honors. But as early as New Year's Day, insiders were saying the coach seemed miserable and many wondered whether he'd look to leave after only one season.

CarrA rushed decision two years ago has Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart looking for a new coach again.

Kentucky barely got into the NCAA tournament and lost in the first round for the first time since 1987. Two players transferred.

This season, more was expected by a less-than-realistic fan base and less was delivered. Once again, the angst began immediately with a season-opening loss to VMI. Once again, playing time for some players rose and fell seemingly on a whim. Once again, a slow start had the commonwealth wondering.

But then Kentucky rallied, starting with a valiant, last-second loss to Louisville in Freedom Hall. In late January the Wildcats were 16-4 overall, 5-0 in the SEC, and the fan base was speculating about an undefeated league record.

Instead the Wildcats wound up 8-8, collapsing in a weak league and losing their last four regular-season games for the first time since 1907. Along the way Gillispie grew more publicly critical of his players, often foisting the blame onto their shoulders.

After losing in the second round of the SEC tournament, the Cats were out of the NCAAs. And at Kentucky, the three dirtiest letters in the alphabet are N-I-T.

I was in Lexington on Selection Sunday and it was the saddest town in America. A populace that treats NCAA bids as a birthright stayed indoors on a morose, rainy day. The sports bars had few people in them wearing blue. Meanwhile, hated rival Louisville was the overall No. 1 seed.
The season was an official catastrophe.

Before then, though, it started to become clear how many people were put off by Gillispie's personality. The list is longer than 6-foot-8 Patrick Patterson. Some former players took public potshots at him for treating people poorly, and Barnhart's frustrations came through clearly in a revealing all-access story by ESPN.com's Dana O'Neil.

Still, Kentucky and many other schools would tolerate a jerk who wins big. A jerk who goes to the NIT is another matter.

So that's how we got here, in just two years, to Black Friday in the commonwealth.

Kentucky blew a hire at its most public position at a critical time in the program's history. Billy Gillispie blew the chance of a lifetime.

There are no winners here.