Calipari said he’s trying to do much more with this team. “It’s about more than just winning,” Calipari said. “It’s about are you getting your team better. are they coming together? That’s what I’m trying to do.”
Calipari also said that he’s seeing a huge difference in his competition. The Wildcats are a big target every night. “We’re everybody’s Super Bowl,” Calipari said. “It’s almost stupid watching tape. They’re not going to play the way they’re playing on that tape.”
I tried six ways to Sunday to make the following fit in the John Wall feature I just posted, but it was like putting a taco on a birthday cake so I had to leave it out. Nevertheless I want this to be on the record:
The sequence in Saturday’s North Carolina-Kentucky game where Daniel Orton rejected John Henson at the rim, sprinted down the floor, received a fast-break pass from Eric Bledsoe, and dished an exquisite bounce-pass to Patrick Patterson for the dunk may have been the most impressive possession I have seen from a player this decade. Defense, athleticism, hustle, selflessness, and point-guard-level skill, all on one play. Seven-second wonder Daniel Orton, I salute you!
John Wall #11 of the Kentucky Wildcats shoots the ball while defended by Marcus Ginyard #1 of the North Carolina Tar Heels during the game on December 5, 2009 at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. Kentucky won 68-66. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) Andy Lyons
No.5 Kentucky edges No.10 North Carolina
Big Cuz talked a big game but didn’t put up much to show for it. He’ll have plenty of chances to redeem himself, though.
Half time came and went and suddenly the Cats were no longer taking it to them. Wall, apparently, had cramps. #54 held it down, but, no one else stepped up while Blue Jesus was out.
Finally, though, Eric Bledsoe took advantage of opportunity and iced his free throws and Wall came back in time to to help putt he game away. EB and JW put the final touches on a nice win by hitting 5 of 6 in the final 30 seconds as the Cats held off the Tar Heels.
A nice halt to a 5 game skid that began back in the days of TLT and continued through the lunacy that was Billy Gillispie.
Excellent Game Guys. Wish I could have watched it. AFN doesn’t think that College Basketball is very popular overseas, so I’ll have to catch it tomorrow on tape delay. Better late than never though.
Thanksfully, the guys at Wildcatnation.net kept me up to date throughout the game. If the game was half as frantic as the chat room, tape delay probably saved me a heart attack.
GO BIG BLUE!
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) – John Calipari’s rebuilding project at Kentucky is ahead of schedule.
Patrick Patterson added 19 points and seven rebounds for Kentucky (8-0), which snapped a five-game losing streak to the Tar Heels (7-2) and inched closer to becoming the first program to reach 2,000 victories. The Wildcats have 1,996, while North Carolina has 1,991.
Wall and fellow freshman Eric Bledsoe made sure of it, making 5 of 6 free throws in the last 30 seconds after North Carolina had trimmed a 19-point deficit to two.
Freshman star John Wall shook off a leg injury to finish with 16 points, including the clinching free throws with 4 seconds remaining, and the fifth-ranked Wildcats held off No. 10 North Carolina 68-66 on Saturday.
The win pushed Kentucky’s victory total to 1,996, just head of North Carolina’s 1,991. Not that the Wildcats were concerned with history.
The win pushed Kentucky’s victory total to 1,996, just head of North Carolina’s 1,991. Not that the Wildcats were concerned with history.
‘You guys are going to say I’m crazy, but I’m happy with the way it played out,” said coach John Calipari. ”We let the other team come at us. We gave up way too many (3s) but I’m proud of my guys. We did what we needed to do. We had just enough.”
The win pushed Kentucky’s victory total to 1,996, just head of North Carolina’s 1,991. Not that the Wildcats were concerned with history.
For a team whose motto is ”envy our past, fear our future,” the first signature win of Calipari’s tenure proved his rebuilding job is well ahead of schedule.
”I hope it just gives people some respect for us that we’re a pretty good team,” Wall said. ”We did what we were supposed to, come out with a win against a great team.”
Consider North Carolina coach Roy Williams convinced, particularly after the Wildcats took control with an explosive 28-2 run in the first half.
”You’ve got to give them congratulations, they really kicked our butts,” Williams said. ”They just ran us out of the gym.”
In a 94-57 defeat of UNC-Asheville, John Wall dishes out 14 assists breaking the single game record for assists by a Frosh. Consider that against the backdrop of UK greats. Amazing. This kid is a big time talent. Not that we didn’t already know that. DeMarcus Cousins threw down a double double and ended the game with 24 points and 12 boards and going 8 for 10 at the line in a mere 17 minutes of PT. Darnell Dodson was resurrected from Coach Cal purgatory and blasted UNCA for 15 points. Of course, Patterson gives his usual-17 pts and 9 boards. These boys are for real. The whole cast and crew. I can’t wait to get home and watch these guys blast a hole in the SEC Tournament.
Instead, the Wildcats walked all over North Carolina Asheville – with an assist from point guard John Wall.
Fourteen of them, in fact.
Sparked by Wall’s slick second-half passing, No. 5 UK stomped on the Bulldogs 94-57 in their final tuneup before Saturday’s game against No. 11 North Carolina.
Wall – who earlier Monday had been named the Southeastern Conference’s Freshman of the Week for the second consecutive week – had a career-high 14 assists, five of them on consecutive baskets in the second half.
Wall’s assist total was one shy of Travis Ford’s single-game UK record, set against Eastern Kentucky University on Dec. 8, 1993, and the most ever by a UK freshman in a single game.
Wall added 12 points, including a spectacular one-handed dunk on a baseline drive with 2:13 to play. He was named the Greater Louisville UK Alumni Club’s Player of the Game.
It was Wall’s second double-double of the season. He had 21 points and 11 assists in a win against Rider on Nov. 21.
During an open practice on Sunday, UK’s Patrick Patterson, DeMarcus Cousins and Josh Harrellson had playfully stomped on the Cardinal logo at halfcourt, to the delight of fans in attendance.
There were no such antics from the players on Monday, though UK’s Wildcat mascot followed their lead during halftime.
Instead, the Cats (7-0) entertained fans on Monday with a second-half dunking display against the undersized Bulldogs.
After the game Leach asked Big Cuz about the upcoming contest against North Carolina. Big Cuz responded with: “Yeah I not impressed…” Hope he can keep that promise. Carolina is not the juggernaut that they were last season or in their last championship season. Even so, they’re not and never will be a push over. I have faith that our boys will take them this year in Rupp. Led by Patrick Patterson and John Wall, Kentucky is no pushover this year either. With Big Cuz mixing it up in the paint, Dodson throwing down treys, Bledsoe out there with him and the rest of the crew, I’m confident that Kentucky is going to take another step in the right direction and get one win closer to that 2,000 win mark.
Go Cats!
Wall did his best to provide a little entertainment for what figures to be his only game at Freedom Hall during his collegiate career.
He threw down a wicked reverse dunk on a break and followed it up moments later with another slam after a steal. UNC-Asheville’s J.P. Primm didn’t even bother chasing Wall down the court, trotting once Wall got behind him as the Kentucky star swooped in for the jam.
Observation: A loss might be a very good thing for this team
I’m no different than any other UK fan. I want the team to win every game every season, so don’t think I’ve lost my mind with this observation.So far, this year’s version of the ‘Cats has had good games and not so good games. They’ve looked really good in spurts and not so hot in others.
Yet, in spite of all that, they have yet to feel what defeat feels like. Last night’s game was arguably the toughest test they’ve had so far. The Miami/Ohio game was a tough one, too, but it didn’t go into overtime. My point is they have yet to “pay the price” for their sloppy play. Again, I DON’T look foward to our first loss, but we all know it’s going to happen eventually. When it does, I honestly think that will be the catalyst to get our younger players, as well as the whole team, to realize that they really need to get with the program completely. Frankly, I would rather it be prior to the start of SEC play, rather than after.Last night was the first time this season I think at least some of the players had reality set in. At the end of regulation and into the overtime period, the camera was on John Wall and he was more intense than I’ve ever seen him. I know he really enjoys it when he makes a good play and I get pumped up just watching him, but last night I think it finally dawned on him that, “Hey, we might actually LOSE this game if we don’t it in gear!”Sometimes the foundations for the BIG victories are laid on the grounds of a loss. I won’t be happy when we do lose, but in the long run I think it’ll pay dividends when we do.
Comments?
I think John Calipari, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Patrick Patterson, Eric Bledsoe, John Hood, Ramon Harris and the rest of the Team and Coaches would think you a complete fool.
What kind of fan spouts this nonsense?
The guy who wrote this idiocy is the exact same fan to whom I was referring here. The dude is an idiot and should be banned forever from posting on any Kentucky fan board. Complete Fuckin’ Moron. Dude needs to have his Kentucky Fan credentials revoked. lol
Joe Hall, the Kentucky coach who succeeded Mr. Rupp and for many years was his assistant and chief recruiter, once said:
“Coach operates from an extreme competitive desire and has a strong dread for losing.”
Regardless of the reason, he always put forth this kind of effort. On his weekly television shows he often said:
“We want to win, we just have to win. Goodness knows, no one wants to win any more than we do.”
Winning was Mr. Rupp’s passion. Someone once recited to him the famed Grantland Rice line, “when the one Great Scorer comes to write against your name, he marks not that you won or lost, but how you played the game.”
To this, Mr. Rupp answered:
“Well now, I just don’t know about that. If winning isn’t so important, why do you keep score?”
That looks like Coach Rupp telling a moron what he thinks of the “good loss” theory.
Here he is in all his glory. Coach of the Golden Gophers of Minnesota.
Any Kentucky Fan who still cheers for this guy is an idiot. They should be driven out of the Big Blue Nation or hell, we should tar and feather the losers. I’m so tired of getting on Kentucky boards only to see some moron has posted a link to a Golden Gophers board or a new link to a Golden Gopher game/win. Here’s a hint ~ No one cares. If you want to cheer for Traitor Tubby, take your sorry ass to a Minnesota Golden Gophers Board. I’m sure they’ll welcome your sorry ass with open arms.
They’re especially notorious for this over at Wildcatnation.net. Several posters over there love to slobber all over Tubby each time he’s brought into a conversation. Then they wonder why people get annoyed by them and their Tubby erotica. I swear to God. In a full moon, these idiots probably get together and have orgies under a Tubby Shrine. Lube themselves up and in a grotesque scene straight out of hell, they worship Tubby by sacrificing poor little gophers which they’ve painted gold with paint purchased on special at Walmart. I’m sure UKBOOB leads them in their sacrificial prayer and is the first to strip down and rub himself all over the TLT statue and drink the golden gopher blood.
Bunch of Damn Losers!
Honestly, I’ve got nothing against the Tubster since he did the right thing and skulked out of town leaving all the problems that he created behind for someone else to fix. Now that’s real class. lol But his slobbering and adoring leftovers at UK, I wish he’d come down and lead them away like a bandwagon driving pied piper. We don’t need the bandwagon chumps in the Big Blue Nation.
Here they are planning the TLT orgy ritual.
The TLT Orgy hunting party chasing gophers in Eastern Kentucky. Once they catch the poor critters, they’ll paint them Minnesota Gold. Afterward, they’ll lop off their little heads and smear themselves with the sacred Golden Gopher blood as a sacrifice at the Tubby altar in the post orgy festivities.
The Clarion team was outmatched in every category and it showed from the start when Kentucky came out and scored 12 points in just over 2 minutes. Had they kept that pace, the boys in Blue may have scored into the 300s.
The first exhibition left some scratching their heads. The team seemed to look hesitant. No hesitation tonight from all I’ve read. I won’t get to watch the game for a couple of weeks when it’s mailed to me (I’m in Afghanistan). Can’t wait to see this game.
I’m very excited to watch this UK team get the season started. I haven’t been this excited about a season since 1996. With Wall, Cousins and Patterson on the court, this should be a fun season. And a dominant one. Kentucky Coach Calipari has been taking the team through two a day practices this week so I fully expected a big improvement over the 4 November performance. The Cats did not disappoint.
The Final Score was 117 UK to 52 Clarion. I can’t remember the last time that UK scored 117 points. Perhaps ‘96 or ‘97. Tubby didn’t score in the triple digits too often and Gillispie only had one game in the 100s. He lost that one. And I don’t remember a time that UK defeated a team by 65 points.
It is possible that this UK team will produce many firsts. I’m looking forward to seeing this season unfold.
I’m glad Patterson came back for this season. I understand Meeks leaving and the reasons he gave for leaving. Still I wish that he’d have come back. He deserved a season like the one forthcoming.
From KentuckySportsRadio: Kentucky wins this not-a-game 117-52. Best practice of the year, guys. Next time it counts.
LEXINGTON, Ky. — John Wall proved to be worth the wait.
The heralded Kentucky freshman scored 27 points in his collegiate debut as the fourth-ranked Wildcats rolled past Clarion 117-52 on Friday night in an exhibition game.
“I asked him, ‘Is that your ‘A’ game?” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “He was pretty good.”
Maybe even better than advertised after Wall was forced to sit out Kentucky’s exhibition opener on Monday as part of an NCAA suspension for accepting improper benefits from his former AAU coach.
He didn’t waste any time getting comfortable against the Golden Eagles, an NCAA Division II school in western Pennsylvania.
Wall nearly outscored Clarion in the first half and showcased a little bit of everything, from a dunk to a 3-pointer to a nifty behind-the-back dribble for a layup.
“He’s the real deal,” Clarion coach Ron Righter said. “I hope (Kentucky) can keep him because he’s in another league.”
Jerry Tipton has no integrity. That’s the bottom line. The lexington Herald Leader, apparently, has no integrity either.
Where is the PUBLIC APOLOGY to the Pattersons? He printed his lie publicly. He should print his apology publicly. It should be made just as prominent as the lies that Tipton printed.
This is the story which Matt Jones printed on his blog outting the lie printed by Jerry Tipton after Big Blue Madness:
In case you missed it earlier today, Jerry Tipton wrote a game report in which he commented on the fact that Patrick Patterson had a new truck. In his report, he said Patrick drove the new truck to the game and then “the fun figured to continue when he climbed in his new black truck and drove away.” Interesting story right? The problem is that according to Patterson’s mother, it is not true. I spoke this afternoon to Tywanna Patterson who said that Patrick didnt drive to the game in the truck or drive home afterwards, instead riding with his parents to dinner after the game. She also said that Patrick’s new truck isnt even kept primarily on campus and was a gift from his parents that will be kept primarily in Huntington. Patterson’s mother was upset at Tipton’s comments on the truck and said,
“I just dont appreciate him making false statements and comments. When he first interviewed me, he misquoted me about OJ Mayo when Patrick was in high school. I just wish he would stop doing that.”
The Patterson family has had issues with Tipton before and his father Buster Patterson, famously said to a line of Tipton’s questioning, “you just dont quit do you Jerry?” But as for the current issue, Tywanna Patterson simply says, “I just wish he would report on the game and not things that didnt happen.”
I just spoke with Tywanna Patterson who said that an editor of the Herald Leader called her to apologize about the story. Apparently a comment or retraction of some sort will be in the paper tomorrow on the issue.
Below is the Jerry Tipton “retraction” as re-printed on KSR from the Tipton blog:
Clarification: Patterson’s new truck in Huntington
I just had a pleasant conversation with Tywanna Patterson, the mother of Kentucky big man Patrick Patterson. She asked that a clarification be made about the game story on UK’s Blue-White Game.
Patterson did not drive his vehicle, a Lincoln Mark LT, to the game.
His parents did buy him the Lincoln Mark LT. The truck was “a gift for all his hard work,” his mother said.
The car remains in Huntington. Patterson’s parents intended the car as a Christmas present, she said.
UPDATE: Jerry Tipton clarifies the statement in his blog. Not exactly a retraction or explanation for why the story was wrong, but at least an acknowledgement.
Jerry Tipton fabricates a story about Patrick Patterson departing Big Blue Madness in “his new truck.” The story is highlighted by Matt Jones and Tywanna Patterson and proved to be a complete lie. Jerry Tipton merely states that it did not happen. No apology for the lie or the insinuation behind the lie.
Anyone with the ability to think independently can clearly see the implication behind the Tipton non-story. He’s mentioning the “new truck” as a way of outting what he perceives to be an NCAA violation. Apparently, Jerry Tipton thinks that the only way that a black student athlete or his family could afford a new truck is through extra-legal means or via NCAA violations of one sort or the other. What Jerry didn’t stop to think about is the fact that both of the Patterson parents are working Professionals. Jerry Tipton seems to me to be a closet racist. He probably doesn’t perceive himself that way but clearly he thinks that a Black Student Athlete has no business with a brand new truck.
Jerry, this is 2009. Not all Black Student Athletes come from the inner city of New York, Chicago or Atlanta. Plenty of college educated, professionals African-American or Black Adults out there. Many of them have children. Some of them have children who are quite talented. Plenty of them can afford to purchase vehicles for their children.
I think the Tipton act is getting old. Extremely old. With every event, Jerry Tipton will present a negative viewpoint concerning UK. Student violations during madness. Fabrications of Student Athletes driving off in illicitly gained vehicles.
There was absolutely no reason for Jerry to mention that Patrick Patterson had a new truck except to imply that it was a violation of NCAA regulations/rules.
Tipton is a muckraking, unprofessional cur with some kind of odd need to magnify any negative no matter how trivial concerning UKAA, UK Basketball or any UK Basketball Student Athlete.
I agree with the many folks out there saying that it’s time to put Jerry out of the business. UK fans and any responsible citizens out there should join in a boycott of any sponsors for any publication that prints the trifling bile that Jerry Tipton puts forth in the media. It’s time for Jerry Tipton’s reign of madness and negativity to end.
# Game delayed on Big Blue Sports Network; • SEC Game; 1–Cancun Challenge (Rupp Arena, Lexington); 2–Cancun Challenge (Cancun, Mexico); 3–Freedom Hall (Louisville, Ky.); 4–SEC/BIG EAST Invitational (New York City); 5–Nashville, Tenn.
Here they are folks. This years Kentucky Wildcat Basketball Team.
Left to Right 2nd Row (Standing):
Jon Hood, Ramon Harris, Patrick Patterson, Daniel Orton, Demarcus “Big Cuz” Cousins, Josh “Jorts” Harrelson, Perry “Slim” Stevenson and Darnell “Ramel Bradley’s Twin” Dodson
Left to Right First Row (Seated):
Rod Strickland, Orlando Antiqua,Darius Miller, John Wall, Mark Krebs, Eric Bledsoe, DeAndre Liggins, John Calipari and Jon Robic
“I’ve done enough,” Calipari said Thursday at the first official media day since leaving Memphis. “I’m waiting for election day. I was kissing babies, and I didn’t care if I won or lost the election. I just wanted it to happen.”
Calipari is well aware that the passionate UK fans care strongly about whether he wins or loses. They want wins — preferably in bunches.
The program’s recent buzz has been sparked not just by its energetic new leader but by his debut recruiting haul, a freshman class arguably the most touted since Michigan’s Fab Five.
Yet unlike that 1991-92 Wolverines team that reached the national title game with five freshman starters, Kentucky has plenty of experience to go along with the new blood. Patrick Patterson was an all-Southeastern Conference center last year during Kentucky’s National Invitation Tournament season. Kentucky’s roster is so deep, Calipari envisions Patterson playing some wing this year.
This is going to be a hell of a year. Big Pat is back on the scene with a mission. He’s got help from incoming Frosh John Wall, Big Cuz, Orton and Eric Bledsoe as well as Darius Miller and the remainder of the returning team.
Big things are expected and these guys can take care of business and meet those expectations. I can see making Final Four this season. Of course, everything will have to go right for the team. Keep the injuries down. Cohesion and Esprit de Corps will be important factors. With the Cal DDS system, there should be plenty of PT for all of the stars that make up this team. Cal has been to two Final Fours and I can see this being his 3rd with the possibility of going al the way to the Title Game and bringing home banner #8.
A year that doesn’t end in a National Championship will not be catastrophic. Less than a Final Four would surprise me. I see this team slicing through the SEC like a hot knife through butter. I’m sure there will be challenges, but, I see enough talent to overcome a few bouts with youth and inexperience.
Everything I read about John Wall says that the kid will be an instant player for Kentucky and Coach Cal. Big Cuz is supposed to be a monster. Daniel Orton should be a beast down low. Eric Bledsoe may be better than advertised which would be impressive as he’s supposed to be a future lottery pick. Darius Miller can take care of spot duty at the point and become an assassin on the wings. These things take place and it’s gonna be a huge year.
HUGE!
Bottom line is that Patrick Patterson didn’t come back for the hell of it. The man came back to get his. I’m hoping he gets it. Patrick Patterson leads this team to a Championship this year and he will go down in history as one of THE greats of Kentucky Basketball. He could well supplant Dan Issel as THE GREATEST.
2. So the Bluegrass State has the Pitino deal, the cloud hanging over UK coach John Calipari stemming from alleged violations at Memphis, and former Wildcats coach Billy Gillispie gets a DUI charge.
Can you rank them in order of who created the biggest PR nightmare for himself? Quote: DeCourcy:
No. 1 is obviously Gillispie. He already had two DUIs in his past from several years ago, plus the difficult tenure while he coached UK. In order to get back into college coaching, he needed to keep his record clean and allow athletic administrators to remember he once had terrific success at Texas A&M and UTEP, two difficult jobs. It is not going to be easy for him to become a college head coach again.
No. 2 is Pitino. The circumstances that led to him facing an alleged extortion attempt were outside the boundaries of good behavior and good taste — and then he exacerbated the problem by blaming the media for how much trouble they were causing his family. Well, that fooled no one. Radio talk shows in the state buzzed Wednesday night with callers pointing out it was Pitino who, with his admitted infidelity, caused whatever problems exist under his roof.
Calipari? He recruited Derrick Rose, whom any coach in America would have loved to sign, and played him after the NCAA approved his eligibility. What exactly was it he did wrong?
DeCourcy is dead on.
Rick Pitino created this whole problem. Rick brought the roof in over his own head. He had extra-marital sex. He covered it up. This is a scandal of his own creation. His own poor decision making cycle come full circle to bite him in his ass.
Billy Gillispie. The only guy who pisses me off more than Tubby Smith and his merry band of worshipers. After 9 or 10 years of Tubby, I knew that there was absolutely no hope of UK ever reaching the Final Four. Gillispie came in with fire and I really thought he was going to make things happen. Then he goes off the deep end. Forcing players to sit in toilet stalls and walk home alone from games and berating players so much so that they lose confidence. The only man who would tell Jodie Meeks to not shoot. What an idiot.
Now this idiot. In the middle of negotiations, that heretofore, he was winning. He grabs himself a DUI. Consider the lawsuit all but over. Gillispie will be lucky to walk away with 500 Grand and that is just so he’ll go away. UKAA should put a clause in that states that Gillispie can never utter, write or even think the words/thoughts “UK”, Kentucky, University of Kentucky, Kentucky Basketball or mention his tenure at the University. He must omit the years 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 from his resume and is not permitted to explain the omission to future prospective employers. Lastly, he should never again be able to enter the Commonwealth of Kentucky or play against any SEC school at the Division 1 Level.
They should burn this guy. And then burn him in effigy. August 27th should become a Statewide day of celebration during which Billy Gillispie paper mache’ dolls are burned in effigy each year across the commonwealth.
What an idiot!
Then we have John Calipari. Recruited Derick Rose. Check. The NCAA granted him eligibility. Check. Then Calipari played Rose on a team that broke records and made it to the Championship game.
THEN…the NCAA–the National Collection of Asinine Assholes–comes back a year later and states that “OOPs! We made a mistake! But, it’s not our mistake. It’s the fault of Memphis!” And they want to enforce strict accountability on Memphis. But not on Duke. Not on the sacred cow named Coach K. And definitely not on the Holy One on High. The Holy of Holies. Coach John Wooden. Not on Pete Carrol. Only on the little guys at the little schools or the schools with Administrations that don’t fight back.
The NCAA is full of cowards. Memphis needs to fight. They need to file a lawsuit.
And the rest of the member schools need to join that fight. Especially the small schools. Duke boosters can provide housing and jobs for Duke Athletes. UCLA can have open and rampant cheating. USC can have guys being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. Duke can have championship runs with Corey Maggette who admitted to taking money from his AAU coach while an “amateur.” But that’s not Coach K’s fault. He had no way of knowing. Duke had no way of knowing.
But somehow, Memphis was supposed to know that Rose had a guy take a test for him in Detroit, MI.
I guess Memphis should have escorted Rose to his test. But then that would have violated contact rules.
Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
The NCAA is full of shit and so are half of the reporters out there who are calling for Calipari to be “punished” by the NCAA.
At UMass, a nothing school on the college basketball landscape, John Calipari won like he was at Kentucky. At Memphis, a bigger basketball school than UMass but still nothing much to look at when he got there in 2000, Calipari won again like he was at Kentucky.
So what happens now that John Calipari is coaching Kentucky?
John Calipari will prove himself worthy of Kentucky fans’ applause. (Getty Images)
I’ll tell you what happens. Kentucky will win like it’s the Boston Celtics. John Calipari will prove himself worthy of Kentucky fans’ applause. John Calipari will prove himself worthy of Kentucky fans’ applause.
College basketball as you know it? It’s over. That sport doesn’t exist anymore, because that sport had a semblance of parity. One year North Carolina is the dominant program. One year it’s UConn. One year it’s Duke or UCLA or Florida. Maybe those teams don’t win the national title the year they’re dominant, or maybe they do. Either way, every year there is a team that, on paper, is the dominant program in college basketball. And every year it’s a different team.
Until now. Until John Calipari merges with Kentucky.
Once Calipari gets Kentucky rolling — and it won’t take him long — Kentucky will be that team. That dominant team. Every year?
Yes. Every year.
Things can go wrong, of course. Players can get hurt or ineligible. A scandal can come along out of nowhere, like the one rocking UConn at the moment. Kentucky itself has been laid low by NCAA violations, back when Eddie Sutton was running amok in Lexington. So things can happen.
But if none of those things happen … it’s over. College basketball will belong to Kentucky. Turn back the clock 50 or 60 years, because it’ll be like that all over again. Kentucky won three national championships in the four seasons between 1948-51. The Wildcats added another in 1958. What happened between 1951 and ‘58? Three trips to the Elite Eight happened. Not even a point-shaving scandal could slow Kentucky down. The Wildcats didn’t field a team in 1953 because of that scandal, then went 25-0 in 1954, but were held out of the NCAA tournament.
The coach then was Adolph Rupp. When he retired in 1972, he had won 876 games, more than anyone in college basketball history. His record stood for 25 years. Rupp was that good at Kentucky.
John Calipari would be that good at Kentucky, too. How could he not? He has been Kentucky-good at places that couldn’t hold Kentucky’s jock.
In 1988, Calipari went to Massachusetts, which hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament in more than 25 years, and soon he was making it look easy. UMass averaged 29 wins per season from 1992-96, and reached the 1996 Final Four. There was the Marcus Camby scandal, with Camby’s relationship to an agent costing him his eligibility and UMass its spot in the Final Four, and heads will roll if that happens at Kentucky.
But if that doesn’t happen, Calipari will win huge. He’ll win like he won at Memphis, where he won at least 33 games in each of the past four seasons and reached the 2008 NCAA title game.
Calipari will win like that at Kentucky, and maybe as soon as Year 1. Kentucky has two future pros, forward Patrick Patterson and guard Jodie Meeks, but neither is quite ready for the NBA. If they come back, and if Calipari brings just two of the incoming freshman studs he has lined up at Memphis — say, Xavier Henry and DeMarcus Cousins — Kentucky would enter next season among the preseason favorites to win the national title. One year after going to the NIT.
Calipari is that good, because he attracts that kind of talent. You can question how he attracts that talent, and you can question the character of some of the talent he attracts, and those are legitimate issues for someone to tackle. But those are issues for another day.
Today, the issue is the merger of John Calipari and Kentucky basketball. He’s going to get that school rolling again, because that’s what he does. UMass had been stalled for 25 years, but he got that program up and rolling. Memphis had been stuck in neutral until he got that place rolling.
He’ll get Kentucky rolling, too. Heaven help anyone who gets in the way.
On his first full day in Lexington, Billy Gillispie stood grinning in front of thousands of adoring University of Kentucky fans who came to an impromptu pep rally in Memorial Coliseum. He bathed in Big Blue love before going to a news conference introducing him as UK basketball coach.
Despite that outpouring of affection, Gillispie found himself fired two years later because his UK bosses did not believe he understood the nature of his job and its connection with fans.
” … Dedicated and passionate fans deserve a coach that understands that this is not just another coaching job,” Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said in reading a statement at another news conference on Friday.
Winning and losing didn’t end Gillispie’s time as coach after two seasons, although his .597 winning percentage was the the worst for a UK coach since Basil Hayden’s one-season 3-13 record in 1926-27.
Ironically, failing to connect with those around him cost Gillispie his job. Ironic because in his time here, Gillispie repeatedly emphasized the importance of building relationships.
“We obviously did not achieve the results we all desired on the floor this season,” Barnhart said of UK’s 22-14 record. “Those results can occur when you are trying to grow a program. We clearly understand that.
“However, it is as important to represent the Kentucky program and the basketball program, more specifically, in a manner which best utilizes our incredible tradition, assets and platform. …
“It is my evaluation that we have not done all we can to manage the entire scope of the program and all that we expect.”
UK President Lee T. Todd echoed that reasoning. He said he spoke to Gillispie during protracted — and ultimately futile — contract negotiations about the public nature of the job.
“It’s kind of like the president’s job,” Todd said. “Nobody really writes out exactly what you have to do. Philosophically, we wanted someone that represented the entire Big Blue Nation. … This is a unique opportunity, a very unique job.”
Gillispie did not answer reporters’ questions. Holding a cell phone to his ear, he walked through raindrops in and out of Wildcat Lodge to tell the players the news and then the Craft Center to clean out his office.
Gillispie and his assistant coaches had reason to be busy. In what suggested a good-riddance sentiment, UK asked them to pack up their belongings and leave their offices by 5 p.m. (about three hours after Gillispie learned his fate in a meeting at Todd’s official residence).
The Southeastern Conference Tournament served as a stage to expose how differently Gillispie and his bosses viewed the UK job.
Gillispie, who saw celebrity as a hindrance, said the UK coach must recruit great players and coach them. Period. He did not embrace the suggestion of also being an ambassador, which showed itself in his first pre-season when he did not speak to the Lexington Rotary Club, something his predecessors did annually dating back to at least the 1950s.
Barnhart, who called fan interest in UK basketball a “cradle-to-grave love,” noted how fans drove to Omaha, Neb., earlier this week to watch the Cats play Creighton in the National Invitation Tournament.
“There is a clear difference in how the rules and responsibilities overseeing the program are viewed,” Barnhart said. “It is a gap that I do not believe can be solved by just winning games. It is a philosophical disparity that I do not believe can be repaired.”
Todd and Barnhart also spoke of their desire for coaches to provide a rewarding experience for the athletes.
The father of leading scorer Jodie Meeks suggested that Gillispie’s demanding style was distracting, if not a hindrance.
“You don’t want to throw gasoline on the flames, but, clearly, a lot of things happened behind the scenes that made it difficult for the kids to play basketball and focus on winning,” Orestes Meeks said.
Of his relationship with Gillispie, the elder Meeks cited his son’s UK record 54-point performance at Tennessee on Jan. 13.
“I got calls from every coach he ever had: baseball, basketball, all of them,” Meeks’ father said. “Except his current coach. His current coach never called. That said a lot to me. … “
“When you start placing blame, tell them when the ship misses the harbor, do they blame the harbor?” Orestes Meeks. “I don’t think it’s anybody’s fault but his own.”
Originally, Gillispie and UK had a whirlwind romance consummated with a hiring in the first 24 hours. Without mentioning those details, Barnhart acknowledged his surprise at the unhappy ending.
“This is not a place I thought we would be at this point, or one that I would want to be,” the UK athletics director said. “However, after long and deliberate discussions, President Todd and I have decided we must charter a new direction for the University of Kentucky men’s basketball program. Unfortunately there are times when a situation and the people involved do not create the right chemistry or right fit. It is our belief that is where we are and where we find ourselves with Kentucky basketball today.”
Barnhart said he and Todd have talked for a month about “dramatic differences” in how the administrators and the coach view the job of coach. Gillispie’s comments at the SEC Tournament about the job’s public component not being in the “job description” seemingly sealed his fate.
After denying any regrets in the hire, Barnhart said, “He’s a good basketball coach. Sometimes it’s not the right fit.”
Say what you want about the rabid nature of the Wildcats’ basketball fans, but after all these years, that’s really all they want. And is it so much to ask?
They want a slick, sharp coach on the bench. They want him to unleash a team such as the Cardinals upon the rest of college basketball like Huns attacking the Great Wall. They want to break the scoreboard, demoralize the opposition and serve notice upon the field.
Most of all, they want possibilities.
Frankly, they want to be Louisville.
And if you know a Kentucky basketball fan, you know how painful that must be to admit.
Tell me. Short of a scandal or three, has there ever been a worse day to be a Kentucky fan? First of all, Gillispie was fired in disgrace, which either came much too early (the prevailing national opinion) or much too late (the overwhelming viewpoint of the Wildcat faithful). Then, before you can dribble a ball the length of a court, their designated next-guy, Billy Donovan, flatly turned them down … again. Evidently, having two years to reconsider didn’t change a thing for Donovan.
Then, after all that, they had to withstand this:
Louisville, the new team of Kentucky’s old coach, looks a lot like a champion-in-waiting.
The Cardinals were darned near perfect against Arizona on Friday. They ran, they shot, they passed, they defended, they rebounded. They drubbed Arizona 103-64, the most points Louisville has scored in an NCAA Tournament game. If it hadn’t been for a late burst of mercy, the 39-point margin might have been 60.
For one night, at least, the Cardinals had the look of greatness. They are so deep, so skilled. The players come at an opponent all at once, and all can dribble, and all can shoot. They dunk, and it is like hearing an airplane break the sound barrier. It is difficult to tell guards from forwards or subs from starters. Stopping them is like trying to hold back a flood with a sponge.
Want to know how wonderful the Cardinals were? Just ask Pitino, who sounded like Roger Ebert at a foreign film festival.
“Fabulous,” Pitino said.
“Brilliant,” he said.
“Dominating,” he added.
So it went. Pitino, 56, also said “tremendous” and “great” and “terrific” and “beautiful” and “unselfish.” You kept waiting for him to give his team an enthusiastic thumbs-up. For the record, Pitino also suggested that humility was very, very important.
The thing is, who is going to disagree? The Cardinals shot 57 percent from the floor, and 93 percent from the free-throw line, and they outrebounded Arizona, and they had 29 assists to only nine turnovers. It looked as if everyone else was playing one game of basketball, and the Cardinals were playing something better, something more pure.
Did anyone see a flaw? Oh, Pitino apologized for the final dunks of the game, but they were just exclamation points on a paragraph. The message already had been sent.
Who is going to stop Louisville if the Cards play this close to capacity? Pitt? North Carolina? Connecticut?
Anyone?
“It’s going to be hard to beat them if they play like that,” Arizona coach Russ Pennell said. “I think it has to be someone who has the quickness to really put pressure against their fullcourt press. Yet Louisville kind of preys upon people who do that.”
For the opponent, that’s the conundrum. For the Cardinals, it is matching their own excellence.
“We know we’re not going to play like this again,” Pitino said, “because of the types of defenses we’re going to run into now. It’s going to be a totally different type of game. We did a great job getting second shots tonight. Michigan State and Kansas don’t give you those.
“Guys, we all know we’re one game from the Final Four. We’re three games from the national championship. I think this team has stayed grounded. Their egos are in check. I’ll find something to be upset about. We’re not going to fall in love with ourselves because we had a good game. We understand what we’re up against.”
In the old days, back before the Wildcats were in a snit — you spell it with an “N” and an “I” and a “T” — coaches at Kentucky used to talk like that. They, too, played like a regal team about to storm the castle. They, too, looked like the team to beat.
As for that brunet in the fifth row cheering on the Cardinals?
No, that wasn’t Ashley Judd.
Was it?
If Tubby had left to the Hawks, UK could have hired Pitino and all would have been right in the Big Blue Nation. Instead, Tubby waits until he’s decimated the team to leave. Mitch screws up and makes a bad hire and Lee Todd steps in and fires him.
One could blame CM Newton for making the wrong hire. He hired the wrong assistant. Instead of hiring Billy D back in 97, he hired the guy who would be the cause of the storm now crashing through the Big Blue Nation.
Oh, and by the way, UL is on the way to the Final Four and probably a Championship. lol
It could be worse. The moon could crash into the sun tonight. haha
This all sounds like a really bad Univision Soap Opera from Mexico.
With the loss to Notre Dame in the NIT, Billy G is gone. So say the talking heads. It’s all over the message boards. I think UK is making a mistake.
I think given the time and space to grow into the job, Billy G would have made a fine coach at UK. Let’s face it. UK has no Roy Williams waiting in the wings. That may never come to pass now. In years to come, UK will regret this day. Billy Gillispie is going to go somewhere and take some team to the Final Four. He’s going to win some Championships. And he’s going to do it with a team of players that he recruited.
UK and it’s fans are going to look on ruefully and be left with thoughts of what might have been. We may be looking on happily. Having recently watched our Team win a Championship with Calipari or some other coach. If the UKAA makes the right hire post-Gillispie. Or we make look on wistfully. Wishing that we and the UKAA hadn’t made the mistake of a precipitous decision to fire a coach who just needed a bit of time to turn it all around.
I’m a bit saddened by all of this. Two years ago, I was excited. It was the end of the Tubby era. I thought we would enter a Golden Age with the gunslinging, Dr. Pepper drinking man from Texas. I had a rug made in Herat, Afghanistan and mailed it back as a welcome gift to Billy Gillispie. I wonder what will become of that rug. Will Gillispie take it with him or leave it for the next coach. It won’t be something that he will look on with fond memories if he takes it with him. For all I know, it winds up in the garbage. Hopefully, he’ll pass it on to the next coach if he doesn’t want to keep it himself.
Both sides have made mistakes. Both sides need to step back and re-evaluate before they move on. Billy G needs to sit down and realize that UK is not just any other job. Mitch and Pres. Todd need to realize that they have a coach who can win and who needs the time to make the transition from the small pond to the Big Blue Ocean. The fans need to make this same realization. G needs to learn how to manage this program and be it’s caretaker and not only it’s coach. Patience is called for here.
If not, I think we are making a mistake of epic proportions. I’m no one to whom anyone will listen. No one to whom anyone should necessarily listen. These things may have already been discussed by one side or the other and dismissed for all I know.
Something just doesn’t feel right, though. And the truth doesn’t seem to be out there. Those outside the circle may never know the truth. Certain people have an invested interest in keeping the truth away from the general public. Such is always the case. Some folks are saying that they are only telling “10% if the story.” Perhaps, there is a lot more out there concerning Gillispie that we don’t know. If it’s in the interest of the UKAA for it to come out, it will be made plain. If not, we will never find out. Perhaps, that’s simply damage control.
Lots of the things that people are complaining about seem to be small to me. If Gillispie were winning already, he’d be forgiven most of this. But since it’s taking longer to win, he’s been hit hard. I don’t think Gillispie realized how big of a jump he made and how fast he was expected to produce.
It’s probably all moot now.
It seems as if the regretful decision has been made. We’ll see.
I know this much. If Mitch doesn’t hit a GRAND SLAM Coaching Hire this time around. He’s next! If not, Lee Todd should be.
The next phase of UK Basketball, begins Friday. Will it be the beginning of a new Coaching Era or an extension of the ongoing era. I’m hoping that G stays on and leads UK to many victories. I’ve never liked the media anyway.
That’s the word I’m hearing from some pretty solid sources.
Actually, I was hearing that Gillispie will not be fired. If G leaves, it’s going to be more of a split due to irreconcilable differences. A mutual decision to part ways. I’m sure there will be a buy out involved.
UK is jumping into the abyss.
I’ve also been told the following:
The player mutiny is nonsense rumor mill tripe. Certainly, there are a couple of players who dislike Gillispie. Meeks and Patterson are NOT those couple of players. Meeks and Patterson are not considering the jump to the League because of Coach G. They support G and are declaring or not declaring based upon their draft status. They will decide based upon real world criteria and not the fantasies of internet rumor mongers and the media. The players who won’t be coming back are guys who shouldn’t be coming back. The Carruth wannabees. Think AJ and Deandre. Team Cancers. From what I’ve been told AJ doesn’t see the purpose or value of an education. He hasn’t lived in his dorm for most of the season. Krebs has been all by his lonesome. Liggins is another problem child. Think that Vegas trip was his only refusal to go in a game. Think again. He’s supposedly done it throughout SEC play as well. Deandre is playing the game right now. The only way that he’ll be back is if he continues his change of attitude. If he doesn’t convince G [or the next coach], he’ll not be returning. Supposedly, he’s been a real challenge this season and I have a hard time understanding why G has put up with it. Don’t be surprised if both AJ and Deandre are sitting on some other bench next year.
Folks who are concerned about the contract and why BCG hasn’t signed it. Some think it’s the clause that sets down the criteria for BCG to be fired. Some think it has to do with charitable contributions and foundations that is the sticking point. Others are saying that it has to do with a “personal life” clause. I’m hearing that such is not the case. Word on the wind is that it’s the same clause that kept Billy D away. Apparently, Mitch wants final say on recruiting offers. He wants final word or veto power concerning recruits. BCG [and most other Coaches who are worth a damn] will not agree to this. Coaches should have final say in recruiting. As long as the guy meets NCAA guidelines, BCG and almost any other coach should have the final say in recruiting. Not the AD. This isn’t the NBA and the AD is not the General Manager. Apparently, Mitch thinks that everyone is as inept a recruiter as TLT. There seems to be more than this but that’s all I got.
Last thing, the media is brewing this storm because of their personal distaste for BCG. My opinion on that is screw the media. Not everyone needs to be at their beck and call and on bended knee. The media does ask stupid questions that are a waste of time. And the media picks it’s heros and it’s villains based upon who kisses up to them. Sycophants like Coach K get all the good press. Any coach who doesn’t kiss their collective asses gets bad press. Wooden was a God. Despite his teams being bought and paid for by a booster. USC gets a free pass in Football. UNLV and UK get burned because Rupp and the towel biter didn’t play their game. Apparently, Matt Jones has a hard on for BCG because Matty was not treated with kid gloves by BCG at an early press conference. If so, Matt has a pretty large ego. He’s a freakin’ blogger. He’s not a real media figure. He’s lucky he gets a media pass. That’s funny, though. Matt Jones was the biggest Tubby Homer on the planet. Almost as big a homer as the guy who runs A Sea of Blue.
On the recruiting front. If BCG is fired, UK better hit a GRAND SLAM on the coaching hire or Daniel Orton is gone. Larry Orton was being polite when he stated that Daniel Orton would reconsider his options if BCG was fired. I’m told that there is no chance that Daniel comes to UK if BCG is not the coach. ”Zero. Actually, less than zero.” Is what I’m told.
There is also the tale being told that the UKAA canvassed the players. Asking if they’d return if BCG was fired. I guess they are weighing their options. Fire Billy and these guys leave/stay. Don’t fire Billy and these guys leave/stay. Jockeying for leverage in contract negotiations? Trying to gauge how hard the program will be hit with a BCG firing. UKAA has to know that they will hurt the program by firing BCG this year. Allowing the pressure to build, though, allows them to have maximum leverage in contract negotiations. Playing hardball, I reckon. Mitch not making a statement of support allows the pressure to build. He apparently thinks this will aid him in the negotiations after the season and will allow them to get the concessions they desire. Will Gillispie give that much control over recruiting to the AD. I don’t think any coach would do that. I think Billy G will allow some contract concessions such as making the hand shake circuit and being nicer to the media. But ceding recruiting decisions to the AD, I don’t think it will happen. BCG and any coach that UK will want will walk away from that deal.
The last thing that I’ve heard is that it’s all over. The “that’s not in my job description” statement was the straw that broke Billy’s back. Billy has supposedly been told that he will not be returning next season. The players are said to know as well. But they supposedly “demanded” that he be allowed to coach them through the NIT. The word is that there is an anointed individual in the wings and he’s still in the Tournament now. Calipari? Pitino? Wright? Dixon? I don’t know.
So that’s the latest that I’ve heard. Could all of that be true? If it is, this program is a mess. Perhaps, it’s time to part ways with Mitch unless he has some magic up his sleeve that puts UK in the Final Four in 2010 or 2011. This whole mess is inexcusable. From the TLT departure catching him off guard to the Billy D fiasco to this mess with Billy G. Does Barnhart have a clue? I’m beginning to think that he does not.
Just things I’ve heard around the water cooler. I’m no one to whom anyone should pay any heed. After Kentucky plays the last game of the season, somethings going to happen. I don’t even think G and Mitch knows for certain what that might be. No one else knows for sure either. That’s simply my opinion.
Kentucky takes out Ole Miss in the first round. The team played energetically and seemed to be running on all cylinders. Darius Miller makes a statement and shows his potential for good things in the 2010 season. Meeks gets his 25. Patterson gets his after announcing that he’ll be back in 2010.
I’ll take it.
On Patterson, if he still is staying come the NBA Draft…I’ll believe it. The kid has to take into account his draft status and such before making a definitive statement. But it sounds like he has no problem with the coaching staff.
This has been a strange year at UK Basketball. Hope Pat and Jodie stick around and make next year phenomenal. Next year is a pivotal year in the Billy Saga. Let’s hope the tournaments of 2009 are harbingers of good things to come.
Six days off could end up refreshing the 20th-ranked Tigers, who begin their push for their first SEC tournament title in 19 seasons with a Friday rematch with the Wildcats in the quarterfinals.
The Tigers (25-6) have been one of college basketball’s surprise teams under first-year coach Trent Johnson, riding a 13-game win streak in conference play to their first regular-season league title since 2005-06. LSU clinched the championship with a 73-70 victory at Kentucky on Feb. 28, rallying from 12 down before hanging on for the win.
LSU played like a team that was mentally and physically tired after that game, falling 75-67 at home to Vanderbilt on March 4 and 69-53 at Auburn on Saturday.
The Tigers shot a season-low 32.1 percent against Auburn and scored their fewest points since a 47-45 loss to Tennessee last season.
“Their focus was not lacking, but there were some guys who were tired and banged up and all those kinds of things,” Johnson said. “Days off at this time of the year would benefit any team. … I’ve been in situations where you had a bunch of guys with a day off, and we came out at struggled.
…and they lost.
Question is will that be Billy Gillispies last game in the SEC? Will UK slide into the backdoor of the NCAAs or are they NIT bound? If they do go to the NIT, what happens then?
I’m not very excited about an NIT bid. If I was home, I’d watch anyway. Here, in Afghanistan, Ii won’t get the chance to watch. AFN pretty much ignores the NIT in favor of the NCAA. Which is the way it should be with the programming/air time as tight as it is.
‘But UK fans, contrary to national reputation, don’t demand perfection. How else could one of their most beloved teams of the past two decades be one that was 14-14? What they do demand, however, is that the team on the court reflect this state’s longstanding passion for the game.’
UK will be tons better when our coaches are no longer working for this years class THIS year or plucking them up from the JUCO ranks. If we give Gillispie time, he may drive us mad in the meantime, but he’ll get the recruiting in order. If we don’t, we’ll have to watch as another coach comes in and plays catch up for two or three more years. I don’t know if G is the right man for the job. I don’t know if he will turn it all around. I don’t know if Patterson and Meeks will stay or not. I know this. All of the guys who didn’t want to work in HS aren’t going to miraculously develop a work ethic just because they are at UK. These tall guys who were borderline talent in HS become almost borderline talent in HS. The real diamonds in the rough that I’ve seen over the years have been guards like Fitch. Most at any rate. He was short but tough. He got overlooked. Tubby got lucky. Erik Daniels was a late developer. So Tubby got lucky there as well. Eirk Daniels was a guard in HS and shot 3 or 4 inches taler late from what I read. Hayes was a short PF who was over looked because of his stature. These are the guys that Tubby was pulling. You can’t build your program off of those guys. Not if you want a Championship anytime soon. Stevenson is a tall, skinny lazy kid who wants it all to come easy. Your typical Tubby recruit. At UK, it ain’t always gonna come easy and there’s tons of pressure. Same with most of the late spring recruits and the guys that no true title contenders truly recruited. Guys like Jared Carter, “Woo” Orbzut, Sheray Thomas and Bobby Perry. Jared Carter should have been showed the light and sent to Georgetown after his Frosh year. UK isn’t the school of welfare basketball schollies. That bench needs to be cleared and Stevenson is one of the guys that needs to be cleared off of it. Instead, he and guys like Porter are starting at UK. And people wonder why they got beat by UGa. Hell, look down the bench. Patterson, Meeks, Miller Then you got a bunch of sometimey little Nancyboys who can’t make up their mind if they want to be winners or walk ons for the girls team. Stevenson….every time I see the guy, I just shake my head. Dude should be a 8 or 9 minute role player. Yes, it’s spelled role. Not roll. lol Stevenson should be a role player. NOT A STARTER. Until UK Coaches learn the difference between a role player and a starter, UK will be getting G Webbed and VMI’d and run over by Bulldogs at the moment of greatest need of a win. Next year comes Orton and Hood. That will be help. Eventually, if the coach keeps recruiting there will be a team at UK. A basketball team. A complete team. 2 Guards (LG or PG and a 2G) 2 Forwards (SF and PF) 1 F/C These gentlemen will know without question their roles on the team. To start and kick ass. Then there will be a second group comprised of players who are up and coming starters and role players. These guys will know their roles. Right now. Meeks and Patterson know what it is that they are supposed to do. The others…I don’t think they have a clue. Porter won’t shoot. Stevenson won’t rebound. A.J. Stewart won’t stay on the team. Galloway plays like a man possessed in one game then a man dispossessed the next. Harrelson plays like he thinks the post is a hostess ding dong and he’s hungry one game. The next he goes on a diet and throws up three balls and collects empty calories with airballs. UK needs a basketball team. From what I can tell, UK has a coach who is losing it. Two guys who are all World. One potential all worlder. ….and a bunch of fluff and Carruth wannabes. Go Cats. Go somewhere. Collect yourself. Grow a pair. Learn to at least fake the funk. This is Kentucky! It ain’t Vandy or Tennessee or Rutgers. It’s UK where Basketball is King. If you can’t comprehend that!?!?!?! Then don’t come back next year. That goes for everyone from the coach down to the sweat sweepers.
This isn’t a “Fire Gillispie!” rant. It’s a getused to the idea that you are at Kentucky and getting paid a Top Ten Salary. We expect Top Ten Results in exchange for that Top Ten Salary. Coach G. You’re not into history. We are.
7 National Championships. That’s history. The history that we want you to be concerned with mostly though is the history that we expect you to make. We expect you to be the 5th Coach at UK to win a National Championship. UK did not hire you to languish at the rear of the top 50 or to fall on your face. We expect you to get out there. Get the top recruits to come to UK again. We expect results. We don’t want excuses. We don’t want bewildered looks and players being thrown under the bus. We want our basketball to be as fast as those beautiful horses that run in the Derby and at Keeneland. Defense is great. Offense is better. If you produce, you can write your own ticket. If you don’t, we’ll run you out of town faster than those horses make that 2 minute mile.
Boys, it’s past time to get it together. Get it. Make it happen. It’s time for one of those miracle runs.
And everybody said “Amen!”
Oh yeah. Billy G, lots of our fans get upset when you talk to a lady like that. Don’t do it. Treat the sideline reporters and the rest of them like they are humans. So I don’t have to hear the old people complain. They get crotchety and hearing them whine gets on my nerves. Throw us a bone Billy G.
P.S. Billy G, invest in about 40 blue ties of various shades and designs. You aren’t at UTEP or Texas A&M anymore. It’s not orange. It’s not yellow. It’s blue.
This week’s question: Which team currently outside the top 25 has the best chance to make a long run in the NCAA tournament?
Greg Antony’s answer:
I’m going with Kentucky. The Wildcats started slow last season, but really came on under Billy Gillispie in the second half of the season despite losing Patrick Patterson late. This season, they’re younger, but I think they’re better defensively. And with Jodie Meeks emerging as one of the best players in the nation, they are explosive offensively. Perry Stevenson anchors the defense, and getting Ramon Harris back in the rotation gives them some experience in the frontcourt. Two things have to happen for the Wildcats to really be dangerous. First, they have to cut down on their turnovers. They can extend their pressure defensively and force teams to try and play in the half court, where their quickness and athleticism can be more of a factor. Second, some of their younger players have to become more consistent because depth always is important in the tournament. This is a team that features two players capable of carrying them offensively. The ‘Cats may be back!
Jason King’s answer:
Kentucky may not be one of the best teams in the country, but the Wildcats have two of the nation’s best players – and maybe its best coach. Well on his way to SEC Coach of the Year honors for the second consecutive season, Billy Gillispie is someone opponents hope to stay away from in March. Along with being one of the best Xs and Os guys in college basketball, Gillispie’s teams always are disciplined. They play hard and they play smart. The favorite to win the SEC title, Kentucky should enter this season’s NCAA tournament high on momentum. The Wildcats may not be able match most of their opponents’ depth, but not many schools have two future first-round NBA picks in their starting lineup. Guard Jodie Meeks, who has eclipsed the 30-point barrier six times, is a national player of the year candidate. Forward Patrick Patterson is one of the most skilled big men in the country, and wing Perry Stevenson is no slouch. Still, the biggest difference-maker for Kentucky wears a suit and tie and stands on the sideline. With Gillispie, the Wildcats always have a chance.
Steve Megargee’s answer:
Conventional wisdom suggests you can’t go far in the NCAA tournament without an elite point guard, but it’s tough to ignore Kentucky’s dynamic duo of power forward Patrick Patterson and shooting guard Jodie Meeks. Kentucky’s 90-72 victory at Tennessee established the Wildcats as the class of the SEC this season, even though they haven’t cracked the national rankings. Since dropping their first two games of the season, against VMI and North Carolina, the Wildcats have lost just twice all season (at home to Miami and at Louisville). Kentucky enters the week with 11 wins in its past 12 games. And the one loss was a down-to-the-wire game on the road against a Louisville team playing as well as anyone in the nation. While the players on this roster have never advanced beyond the second round of the tournament, Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie reached the Sweet 16 two years ago in his final season at Texas A&M. Don’t be surprised if he’s back in the regional semifinals this season.
Billy Gillispie wants his University of Kentucky basketball players to talk — and that’s precisely what they were doing after nearly every practice last October and November.
But they weren’t talking about how to switch men on screens. They were talking about their coach.
The new guy from Texas. The one who was snarling more than he was smiling. The one who had them talking and wondering.
Huddling on the short walk from practice to Wildcat Lodge. Sitting around the training table. Gathering in somebody’s room later in the evening, replaying the puzzling vibrations from that day’s practice.
“I think everybody had questions,” junior forward Perry Stevenson said. “I was asking if Coach really believed I was good enough to play here.”
“I wondered if he liked me, what he thought about me,” said sophomore A. J. Stewart. “A lot of guys wondered where they stood.”
“I was trying to figure out exactly what he wanted from me,” point guard Michael Porter said. “I didn’t realize he just wanted me to be more positive on the floor every day.”
The new members of Gillispie’s second UK team will change the locker-room dynamics. Fresh personalities always do that within a team. But here is what has really changed at Kentucky in Year 2 of Billy Ball:
The veteran players are no longer tuned to FM with a coach who operates on AM. There are no longer all those questions about what Gillispie is doing, thinking and trying to accomplish.
Gillispie is no longer the new guy. He is their guy. The guy who wants them to care as much as their coach cares. The essence of Gillispie can be pulled from this quote he delivered at UK’s basketball media day yesterday:
“That’s what’s great about our country. If you want to outwork somebody or outthink somebody, you can take it if you want it.”
Now Porter understands the primary thing Gillispie wanted from him was to see the body language of a guy convinced that the chance to play point guard at Kentucky is the greatest opportunity in college basketball. And see it every day.
Stewart knows that Gillispie is eager to embrace all of his players — as long as they don’t do dumb things like cut class or show up late.
“Trust me,” Stewart said. “He’ll find out if you’re late to class. He’ll always find out.”
Stevenson knows that Gillispie believes that he can play winning power forward in the Southeastern Conference. There is a trust between the coach and players that was uncertain for a chunk of last season.
Take another look at what Gillispie achieved in his second season at his first two college stops before he replaced Tubby Smith at UK in 2007.
His first team at Texas-El Paso won six games. His second won 24. His first team at Texas A&M missed the NCAA Tournament. His second reached the second round.
“This year will be smoother,” said Jodie Meeks, the junior guard who Gillispie predicts will be the Wildcats’ most improved player. “We know what he expects from us.
“Coach doesn’t have many rules: Go to class, be on time and come to practice ready to work with a positive attitude. He works harder than we work. He’s the first one here in the morning and the last one to leave at night. He just wants to win.”
I found this picture while searching the web for an Adolph Rupp photo. I couldn’t help but laugh and remember. For a while, Kentucky fans were salivating over the prospect of Billy Donovan coming to UK. Also, Patterson and Lucas dominated the recruiting talk for months.
We got Patterson and another Billy. Billy Donovan left Florida for the NBA but changed his mind and came back. Lucas went to UF. UK fans now have a grudge against Donovan because he “snubbed” us. [But it was ok for Tubby to run off to Minnesota. Someone explain that one to me.] Kentucky fans have a hate fetish for Lucas as well.
Kentucky fans are an odd lot. I’m one. I’ll admit it.
Don Barksdale was a pioneering athlete in the mid-20th Century. He was a member of the Gold Medal 48 Olympic Basketball Team and the Philips Oilers Championship Team.
In 1948, he was the first African American to play with the U.S. Olympic team. He
joined the team in Basketball at the 1948 Summer Olympics. He became the first Africa-American basketball player to win a gold medal in the Summer Olympics.
Union’s Oakland Bittners, was given an at-large berth from the independent
bracket, but not without heavy lobbying by Fred Maggiora, a member of the Olympic Basketball Committee and a politician in Oakland, which was adjacent to Barksdale’s hometown. About eight years later Maggiora told Barksdale that some committee members’ responses to the idea of having a black Olympian was “Hell no, that will never happen.” But Maggiora wouldn’t let the committee bypass Barksdale.[2]
“This guy fought, fought, and fought,” Barksdale said, “and I think finally the coach of Phillips 66 [Omar Browning] had said, ‘That son of a bitch is the best basketball player in the country outside of Bob Kurland, so I don’t know how we can turn him down.’ So they picked me, but Maggiora said he went through holy hell for it – closed-door meetings and begging.”
The 1948 Olympic team had five Kentucky Wildcats basketball players who had just won the very first Wildcat national championship in the 1948 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament. The rest of the Olympic team, consisting of the AAU Champions Phillips Oilers, and the Kentucky team later scrimmaged on Stoll Field in front of 14,000 spectators, the largest crowd to watch basketball in Kentucky at that time. Barksdale became the first African-American to play against Kentucky in Lexington. He could not stay at the hotel with the rest of the team, but instead stayed with a black host family.[3]
Adolph Rupp, the legendary Kentucky coach, was the assistant coach on the 1948 team under Omar Browning.[4]
“[Rupp] turned out to be my closest friend,” Barksdale said. “We went to London and won all 12 games and got the gold medal.” But he had to brush off indignities just about every step of the way. . . Later, coach Rupp told Barksdale, “Son, I wish things weren’t like that, but there’s nothing you or I can do about it.” Barksdale agreed. He lived by a very simple philosophy. He wasn’t interested in protest; he was interested in playing basketball. He had faced prejudice before, and he knew that he would face it again.
Does that sound like a racist. Why does the American Sports Press get away with deriding Rupp as a racist when to a man his contemporaries both black and white say the exact opposite? Look to Duke in 1966. All White Team as well. But somehow that fact is never mentioned in all of the talk of “walls tumbling down.” When will these media types start to deal in fact. Instead they lie and cheat and defame persons with innuendo, deception, lies and half truths.
There are hundreds of stories that attest to the lie that is perpetuated by ESPN and their crew of amatuers. Yet, they refuse to back down from their slander. All the while, they canonize a guy like John Wooden whose greatest booster openly paid his players. Paid for their clothes, cars and abortions. I’m not saying that Wooden doesn’t deserve his accolades. He won and won big. But his achievements are tainted with drug money. Neither ESPN nor the NCAA will go near those stories. Wooden lived in denial as Papa Sam paid for his rosters. Either that or he was complicit in the violations. Yet, Wooden will never be investigated. What is the difference between Papa Sam and his relationship with Bill Walton and the Reggie Bush situation or the recent O.J. Mayo “scandal.” There is no difference. Except that Wooden was an untouchable. Much like Coach K and his golden boosters giving away 6 figure salaries to receptionists and signing for homes for the parents of Duke Basketball recruits. Chris Duhon and others spring readily to mind.
Speak to me of hypocrisy. These supposed professionals cowardly destroy the reputation of one man after his death based on fallacies and lies. All the while, they anoint another despite the hard truths behind his grand, yet tainted, achievements.
INDIANAPOLIS — Everywhere Jerry Tarkanian goes at this Final Four, the blue and gold, the magical four letters, the thunderous U-C-L-A chants on the streets, bring Tark back to college basketball’s greatest dynasty, back to a name most synonymous with the championship seasons.
Only, it isn’t John Wooden.
Or Lew Alcindor.
Or Bill Walton.
“I think about Sam Gilbert,” Tark said Sunday afternoon.
And that’s the name that causes a roomful of frolicking Bruins boosters and fans to go uneasily quiet. Sam Gilbert, the two dirty little words of the dynasty.
For the record, Tark will go where others genuflecting at the altar of John Wooden will never journey. He’ll say the name that amid the hype for tonight’s UCLA-Florida national championship game, you’re guaranteed to never hear on CBS. The NCAA tournament loves its nostalgia, its mythology and you’ll be getting the full force of this farce from the RCA Dome.
“To people, John Wooden is a god,” Tark said.
It is a losing proposition to suggest that UCLA’s 10 national championships under Wooden were won with anything but the talent of great players and the lessons and leadership of a legendary coach. It just is never talked about — out in the open, anyway.
It was what it was, though: Sam Gilbert was a Los Angeles construction man who lavished the Wooden-era UCLA players with money, cars, gifts, the run of his mansion, whatever. Anything those players wanted, the dynasty’s sugar daddy was reputed to provide it.
“To this day, what blows me away — what still makes me angry — is that Sam Gilbert never tried to hide what he was doing,” Tark said. “But the NCAA was never going to investigate UCLA. They were the marquee team. They had all of the games on television. But I lived 20 minutes away in Long Beach and I knew what was going on there. The whole country, the NCAA, they all knew what Sam Gilbert was doing at UCLA.
“Hell, he bragged about it to a lot of people. He bragged about it to me. Once, he liked my point guard [Robert Smith] and said, ‘Why don’t you send him over to UCLA so I can take care of him?’ The NCAA was always harassing me, but Sam Gilbert was violating more rules than anyone in America.
“I was told that John Wooden used to always say that he wished Sam would stay away from the program. I was told that he went to [the AD] J.D. Morgan about it, and Morgan told him that he would take care of it. But it went on and on.”
These days, Tark is hardly on the UCLA warpath. Truth be told, he loves the Bruins’ coach, Ben Howland. As funny as it sounds, Tark will be sitting in Howland’s seats for the game tonight.
What’s more, Tark’s never had a personal problem with Wooden, who always was very nice and very generous with him through the years. His issue isn’t with Wooden, but a system that selectively punished cheaters.
This isn’t to absolve Tark by means of some great conspiracy to get him. He is a well-deserved and well-decorated NCAA probation loser at Long Beach, UNLV and Fresno State. I covered him for 2½ years in Fresno, had my drag-outs with him, but the years have taught me that some of the most respected names in the sport — some of the so-called giants — are the biggest crooks going. Tark always told me, and only in the last few years have I come to agree with him.
Ultimately, Tark thinks that if you want to believe that his four Final Fours and his 1990 national championship are tainted, then you have to take a look at UCLA, too. I always believed that his fight with the NCAA wasn’t so much about his own innocence, but the fact that there were competitors of his who had been deemed untouchable and never got popped too.
If you think this is just Tark barking at the moon, trying to justify his own misdeeds, consider a different source, someone whose agenda is beyond reproach. While working with Tark on his memoir “Running Rebel,” author Dan Wetzel dug up a Bill Walton quote from a 1978 book, “On the Road with the Portland Trail Blazers.”
If you ever want to debate that there is a double standard between the chosen programs and those branded as renegade by the NCAA, consider this stunning passage.
“UCLA players were so well taken care of — far beyond the ground rules of the NCAA — that even players from poor backgrounds never left UCLA prematurely (for pro basketball) during John Wooden’s championship years,” Walton said. “If the UCLA teams of the late 1960s and early 1970s were subjected to the kind of scrutiny Jerry Tarkanian and his players have been, UCLA would probably have to forfeit about eight national championships and be on probation for the next 100 years.
“… The NCAA is working night and day trying to get Jerry, but no one from the NCAA ever questioned me during my four years at UCLA.”
Here’s the thing, too: This doesn’t make Wooden less of a philosopher, less of a teacher, less of a great American icon. To me, it doesn’t change the fact that the afternoon I spent in his condo two years ago rates as one of the best days I’ve ever had in this business. It’s just a reminder there is no Camelot in sports. And there are no saints.
Wooden is 95 years old, bigger and more beloved than ever, and as Tark said one Hall of Fame coach told him this weekend, “People won’t really start talking about [Wooden's] legacy until he’s gone.”
Wooden is still the kind of man, just like those Bruins were the kind of champions, who never will be duplicated. The banners are still hanging in Pauley Pavilion, the 100 years of probation that Walton swears would’ve been warranted never did come. Admire the UCLA history tonight, but don’t let yourself get lost in the mythology. There was no Camelot in college basketball, no saint.
Another year, another NBA Draft. Another year with no Kentucky players being projected to be drafted.
Neither Joe Crawford nor Ramel Bradley are projected to be drafted. Bradley has no chance. He won’t even get a cup of coffee in the NBA. This will make Tubby fans sad. They are so proud when Tubby Smith “gets’ guys into the NBA in this manner. They literally fall over themselves pointing out that both Erik Daniels and Gerald Fitch spent 5 or ten minutes on an NBA roster.
Joe Crawford may geta late 2nd round draw. If not, he will get a couple of calls for free agency before he has to head to Europe to play ball. I think Joe will get on in the same manner as Chuck Hayes.
OF course, the mindless Tubby drones will all credit Orlando. Saying that he is the reason. Another Tubby recruits gets in the NBA due to Tubby and his excellent development skills. I laugh at the thought.
Joe came out of High School highly regarded. His growth was retarded by Smith. Later, Billy Gillispie accelerated his growth. 4 years under a Coach (Gillispie) who knows how to develop, utilize and SHOWCASE talent and Joe Crawford would be looking at the late First Round and guaranteed money.
The Tubby era saw two Orlando recruits go First Round for the guaranteed money. One was a guy who stayed the course through four years of turmoil and dissent that was not seen even in the Probation years–Tayshaun Prince. Is there anyone who would argue that Prince was not a steal when Detroit swooped him up. Then there was Rondo, more team turmoul and another Draft where a UK player was a steal for a team in the late first round.
I’m hoping those days are over. Patrick Patterson should go high first round. The recruits that Gillispie and his team are bringing in should see UK back in the top of the draft. That in turn will help recruiting. Recruiting is a machine that feeds off of highlight reels and draft potential. If a Coach can get his recruits into the NBA, more and more high talent will fall in line for that Coach. More talent translates to deeper runs in the tourney.
Talent combined with good or great coaching will translate into Championships.
Good Luck in the Draft, Joe. I hope some team sees your skill and talent and picks you up.
Joe Crawford: Made things happen with the ball in his hands, scoring 19 points in 26 minutes. He was his team’s most aggressive player and showed nice versatility mixing up his perimeter shooting with his slashing ability.
Crawfords year under Billy Gillispie put him on the NBA radar. Just imagine what four years would have done for him. He might have left early.
I always have to wonder what a real coach could have done with guys like Morriss, Rondo, Bogans and Prince. Imagine a driven coach with the talent of that 2001 Turmoil Team. Pitino would have added a Final Four at least. Tubby let it slip through his fingers through piss poor management.
Smith did a disservice to guys like Prince, Rondo and Bogans. Crawford and Morriss as well. These guys are NBA Talent who under a coach who knows how to develop and showcase talent would have been higher draft picks. Hayes has proven that he should have been a First Rounder. Rondo and Prince should have been lottery pics. Bogans should have had guaranteed money. Bradley could have been a 2nd Rounder. He may still make it. But it won’t be due to Smith. It will be due to his year under Gillispie.
The 6′6″ 180lb prospect commits to play for Billy Gillispie and the University of Kentucky. Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about. I can’t remember the last time that a Kentucky Kid committed to the Home State University this early.
Yes! It’s a new day. Kentucky is returning to being Kentucky. Instate talent no longer has to ponder whether being yoked by Tubby will hurt their career or NBA potential. I think that Hopson will be the last of the big time Kentucky and Regional talent to snub Kentucky.
Congrats to both Coach Gillispie and Jon Hood on a bright future together.
Howard Avery uttered those two words into his phone last Monday after Kentucky basketball coach Billy Gillispie offered Avery’s son, Michael, a scholarship. Avery had called to follow up on an encounter with Gillispie at a LeBron James-sponsored tournament in Akron, Ohio, the previous weekend. NCAA rules forbade Gillispie from discussing Michael’s play with Avery at the tournament site.
Gillispie could, however, field Avery’s call two days later, after the family had returned home to Lake Sherwood, Calif., Gillispie told the proud papa that after watching Michael, a 6-foot-4 combo guard with a sweet shooting stroke, play in a pair of games with the Indiana Elite travel team, he had seen all he needed to see. Gillispie wanted Avery’s son to come to Lexington. The brevity of the evaluation didn’t cause the elder Avery to question Gillispie’s tone, though. Neither did the fact that such a momentous occasion was taking place during a phone call instead of during a campus visit.
Avery simply couldn’t believe the University of Kentucky head coach had just offered a scholarship to an eighth grader who had never set foot on campus and who still had yet to decide where he would attend high school. By now you know Michael Avery accepted that scholarship offer. When the news hit the Web shortly after Avery committed last Thursday, criticism rained on Gillispie and Avery.
The questions were pointed but predictable:
1. How could Kentucky — college basketball royalty — stoop to offering a scholarship to an eighth grader?
2. How could that child’s parents allow him to accept a scholarship offer 40 months before he can sign a Letter of Intent?
3. Will this turn into college basketball’s version of the subprime mortgage crisis with coaches (banks) trying in four or five years to excavate themselves from the wreckage of a series of bad offers (loans)?
Here are the answers:
1. Gillispie offered because he was worried someone else would beat him to the punch. In this case, “someone else” translates loosely to USC coach Tim Floyd, who accepted commitments in consecutive years from players who had yet to suit up for a high school team.
2. After three days of deliberation and discussion, Avery’s parents were quite comfortable with their son’s choice. Howard Avery — who said he wasn’t comfortable allowing his son to be interviewed for this story — will explain further in a few paragraphs.
3. Possibly, depending on how well coaches can project 13- and 14-year-olds. For the time being, get used to the early offers. “These aren’t aberrations,” Rivals.com national recruiting analyst Jerry Meyer said Monday night, minutes before he called Greenfield, Ohio, ninth-grader Vinny Zollo for a story about Zollo’s commitment to Kentucky. “It’s like an arms race,” Meyer said. “You’ve got to offer first.”
Sometimes early commitments pan out. Sometimes they don’t. Huntington Beach, Calif., forward Taylor King committed to UCLA prior to his freshman year at Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.). Two years later, he told the Los Angeles Times, “I made my decision way too early. It was too early to know what I wanted.” King eventually signed with Duke. After spending much of 2007-08 on the bench, King announced last month he would transfer to Villanova.
This guy hits it pretty much exactly as I see it.
And you’ll notice that Gillispie wasn’t the first to do this and 8th Grade is not the youngest recruiting commitment out there. But Dick Vitale and the other talking heads often open their mouths before they know all of the facts.
In sports, there is not much investigative journalism. There are a mass of pinheads who are paid to shout at the top of their lungs of the greatnress of Coach K or Duke or UNC or insert any ACC school. Sports “journalism” is a collective of arrogant loud mouthed hooligans who get paid to shout the company line and to react to scandal.
Dookie Vitale and the rest are charlatans, BABY!
Finally, one guy at CNNSI spends a little time and effort and uncovers the real story behind this rising recruiting trend.
Dick Vitale in his usual reactionary, superficial manner tells us that this was nothing more than “headline grabbing” and that it is unhealthy. Vitale is one of the worst columnists in the biz. The guy is as deep as a mustard stain on Michael Moore’s favorite t-shirt.
Dick Vitale and the rest of his cronies should learn the facts before they wail and lament the downfall of civilization or college basketball as we know it.
Smith couldn’t recruit well enough. Billy Gillispie is recruiting too much, too fast, too soon. Huh!?!
Everyone complained that UK under Smith was not getting the recruits. UK wasn’t on the radar of the Elite Recruits. Smith seemed to wait each year to the end to start his recruiting. Either he cherry picked de-commits from other schools or he was recruiting left overs in the Spring. The guys never seemed to get caught up on recruiting. I don’t know if he even tried.
His best class in his tenure was a group of guys who seemed to choose UK in spite of Smith. Rondo wanted to go to UL but Pitino chose to go after Telfair instead. Morris chose UK because it was easier than Georgia Tech. Crawford chose UK then tried to leave. Ramel Bradley was the third Guard in a class that needed a Forward. That year saw Corey Brewer go to UF because according to Smith “Brewer wasn’t big enough to play in the SEC.” Chris Lofton chose UT that year because no one in the State of Kentucky believed that Chris could make it at the D1 level. Not the finest moment in talent evaluation for either Smith or Pitino.
Smith and his projects. Smith and his spring recruiting of Tyrone Nash and clones. Smith and his sons.
Kentucky fans complained and complained.
“Spring” forward to the present.
Billy Gillispie has UK in the mouth of top recruits all over the Nation. He’s got talented kids committing .
Patterson committed to Gillispie. Not to Smith. Darius Smith was close to committing to Illinois. Another Kentucky kid going out of State because of the ineptness of Smith and his merry band of incompetents. Gillispie and his merry band of magicians reeled Darius back in and received the commit. Liggins, if he qualifies is a serious talent. He’s brought in two highly regarded JUCOs who I’m betting are going to help in ways that no JUCO ever helped a Smith team. Smith trolled the JUCO ranks and struck out each time.
I’d love to see Antoine Barbour under a hard working, dedicated coach like Gillispie.
Dominique Ferguson is the #8 overall Prospect from the Class of 2010. K.C. Ross Miller is a Top 25 talent. Euton is a highly regarded talent.
Vinny Zollo and Michael Avery are two talented kids who have committed to the program early. Some say too early.
This is one year of recruiting under Gillispie.
I’m sure the lack of a surprise element each Spring is going to hurt some of the recruiting blogs. So I can see their concern. Slower site. Fewer hits. That’s gonna hurt the bottom line. But I think it will eventually even out. People are going to want to follow these kids. See how their panning out. Follow their development.
Not all early recruits are going to level off talent wise or regress as in the cases of J.P. Blevins and Adam Williams. Both Avery and Zollo are taller and more talented than those two were in their Senior years of High School. I’m thinking that Zollo and Avery both could come in right now and start over either of those guys.
The recruiting landscape is changing. It’s been changing. Williams, K, Self and others have been adapting to this change all along. Smith was behind the power curve. Gillispie is bringing UK back up to speed. He’s making UK a major threat on the recruiting trail once more.
I say it’s about damn time. Before fans of any other programs start throwing stones, you might want to look at the walls of your house. Lots of glass out there.
Personally, I don’t need surprise recruiting sagas from hell…
I don’t care so much about recruiting. As long as Gillispie keeps it legal, I’m for letting him do his job. I’d rather know who is coming. I’d rather coach have the time to develop a plan of action on how to incorporate those players into his system. Recruiting is a tool to get there. It’s a means to an end, not the end itself. That is unless you are a blog or website dedicated to recruiting. Gillispie is recruiting to win Championships. It’s a take no prisoners endeavor.
Winning Championships is what should fuel BG. Bring on Number 8.
The 6′4″ Avery is in the 8th Grade. That fact has caused a mini-uproar from some UK fans. It seems some are offended by this early commit. Some line has been crossed, they say.
I say it’s a sign of things to come. No longer will Duke and UNC, Kansas and UCONN and UCLA be looking in their rear view mirror laughing at a UK coach playing catch up in the annual spring recruiting cherry picking contest. That was the specialty of our former coach. The new guy. He likes to get in early.
If that’s not reason enough to celebrate.
This may be.
It seems that Gillispie wasn’t actively recruiting Michael Avery. Young Michael and his father recruited UK and Coach Gillispie. They sold Gillispie on Michaels skills.
Some are worrying that it’s too early. How do we know that Michael Avery is nothing more than an Adam Willams type? I’d counter with the opposite. How do we know that he’s not an OJ Mayo, Lebron or Kobe Bryant type phenom? This kid is playing on the under 17 teams with kids who are being recruited for the 2009 and 2010 classes. That’s how he was noticed. And yes, UCONN fans, Jim Calhoun has been spotted following his games. As has UCLA, USC, UNC, KU and others. So you may want to step down from that precarious pedestal.
Smith and his inept player evaluation and lazy recruiting are no longer at UK. Get used to getting them early and getting the good ones. Gillispie is now filling up the 2010 class. Euton, Ross-Miller and Ferguson are all committed to the Cats and in the case of Euton and Ross-Miller have been for a while. Gillispie is waiting for no one. He’s running wild on the recruiting scene. He’s a man in motion.
It’s about time we had a coach who could recruit with the likes of Self and Williams, Calhoun and K.
Anyone complaining about this signing is suffering from Smith withdrawal and should turn in their blue, head North and don the gopher maroon.
P.S. to the UCONN fans who linked here. If you don’t believe this. Go to Kentucky Ink. Listen to the podcast of Avery’s father. He states that HE called Gillispie. Not the other way around. Gillispie wouldn’t/couldn’t return his calls because of NCAA recruiting rules. So he missed him several times.
Like I’ve said before. Kevin Garnett, OJ Mayo, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James. All of these guys had college recruiters AND NBA scouts following them in the 8th Grade. I’m not saying that this kid is the next phenom of that level. I’m saying that no precedent has been set by Gillispie. The precedent was set years ago.
Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a man who was a fixture of Kentucky basketball, with a fervent passion for competition and a fast loyalty to his country, his State, and his beloved University of Kentucky Wildcats.
Bill Keightley, affectionately known as “Mr. Wildcat,” passed away recently at the age of 81. He embodied the spirit and tradition that is Kentucky basketball. Born William Bond Keightley in 1926, Mr. Keightley was an All-State center for the Kavanaugh High School basketball team in his hometown of Lawrenceburg, KY.
He later enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and bravely served his country during World War II. After the war, Mr. Keightley spent much of his young adulthood working as a mail carrier.
Then in 1962, his friend and fellow postman George Hukle asked him to help out washing jerseys and towels for the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team. Over the next 4 1/2 decades, he proved himself indispensable as the school’s top cheerleader, ambassador of goodwill and confidante to players and coaches alike.
“Mr. Bill,” as he was called by friends and family, witnessed three national championships, befriended six head coaches, and cared for hundreds of players over his long career.
Loved by fans and respected by opponents, he earned a permanent seat on the Kentucky bench at every game. In fact, Mr. Keightley attended more than 1,400 UK basketball games, nearly 60 percent of all games ever recorded. And former UK basketball coach Orlando “Tubby” Smith points out that “it has been . . . us [coaches] sitting next to him,
not him sitting next to us.”
Mr. Keightley often served as a father-like figure to the players, and many recall his talks with “his boys” on anything from Kentucky sports to lessons of integrity and pride. “Players, coaches, and athletic directors come and go, but Bill Keightley was constant,” says Kenny Walker, a friend and former UK player.
John Pelphrey, member of the “Unforgettable” 1992 Wildcats team and now head coach at Arkansas University, says: For 48 years, Mr. Bill looked over coaches and student-athletes with love and care that only a father could give…every time we had an encounter, there was a hearty hello,a hug, and a laugh, every single time, just like the first time.
In 1997, Mr. Bill’s jersey was elevated into the rafters of Rupp Arena, making him one of only two people to receive this honor without having taken to the court to play the game.
In 2005, he was entered with the charter class into the UK Athletics Hall of Fame. The equipment room in Lexington’s Memorial Coliseum was named in his honor, and he humbly presided over it until his unfortunate passing this past March 31.
Noted Lexington sportscaster and friend Dave Baker says of Mr. Keightley:
He knew just when to lend a hand to the young man from Appalachia who was adjusting to the big city, or a young man who had been recruited from out-of-state and was getting accustomed to a brand new life in Kentucky. Mr. Keightley lived his life as a celebration.
Perhaps the most lasting tribute to Bill began in 2002, when the University of Kentucky athletic department presented its first Bill Keightley Award to the individual “who exemplifies the pride, respect, and positive attributes” associated with the University of Kentucky basketball program. They still present this award annually, to honor Mr. Bill.
UK followers and basketball lovers across the Commonwealth have lost the sport’s No. 1 fan. And I know I speak for all of them when I say our prayers and best wishes of support go out to his family, including his wife, Hazel; and his daughter and son-in-law, Karen and Alden Marlowe.
UK President Lee Todd, Jr., best expressed what many Kentuckians are feeling when he said that we have “lost someone who was not only the face of Kentucky Wildcat basketball, but the University itself.” I second his words, and add to them my own: We will not soon forget the loyalty, passion, and dedication to excellence that Bill Keightley
exemplified.
“He’s done more for me than a lot of people in my life,” Crawford said. “He changed the outlook everyone had on me. He changed me as a person. He got me believing. He’s done so much for me and I love him for that. I don’t know how I could repay him, ever.”
UK pulls out a tough 63-58 road win over Dennis Felton and the Georgia Bulldogs to go 10-9 on the season. Gillispie and the boys need to pull out 8 or 9 more wins. If the boys in blue can win 9 of the next 13 possible games. Preferably winning the SEC Tourney or at least making it to Sunday afternoon. They can make a nice run in the NCAAs. That gives Gillispie a fairly respectable first season and builds momentum going into next year.
Kentucky pulls out the win over the Bulldogs with a hobbled Joe C. and more importantly without Ramel and Jodie. Big man Pat pulls out another nice game for Gillispie. This team is there emotionally. If they can ever get 100% healthy, look out. I think they can surprise. Sneak up on a couple of teams in the tournament. Like ‘Zona did in ‘97. I don’t think Kentucky has a title run in them this year. But I think they could make a surprise run to the Sweet 16. Maybe get lucky and meet up with Minnesota and send them home to Gopher land.
Defeating UGa in a much needed road win. That’s 3 straight wins. Taking the Cats to 4 and 2 in the SEC.
Florida is getting taken to the woodshed by John Pelphrey and the Razorbacks. By the end of the day, UK may be tied for 2nd in the East. For now, I’ll take it.
Easy to get frustrated. But don’t do it. Keep the Faith.
Those of you who can. Turn Rupp Arena into a mad house on Tuesday. Scare the shooting slump right back into Orange Chris. Everytime Smith or Crew or anyone else gets close to the rim roar so loud that they lose their balance.
This is the time for all of the Big Blue Faithful to come together and cheer our Boys on to Victory!
Ramel, Joe, Jodie, Pat, DJas…it’s time to step it up a few notches and make this victory happen. Time to take it to another level of play.
Coach. It’s time to coach the boys up. Raise their level of intensity. Create a plan. Show the fans and the team that you can will your team to victory. Show us the future.
So a few days have passed since the Mississippi Game. Sure it was a loss. And I do not believe in moral victories. The game did however show that the team is coming along and improving as a whole. Still have a ways to go. But the kids are getting it. Gillispie growing into the job. Good signs.
The Vandy game showed that the Cats were capable of winning in the Gillispie “run at them hard and don’t let up” style and system. Imagine if all of the guys were healthy. Imagine if they’d been healthy all year. I’ve said all along that Coach Gillispie will get it together. It’s happening. It will continue to happen.
Being in Afghanistan, I don’t get to watch many games. I’ve watched three this year. Even so, I read all of the game reviews. It seems to me that the seniors are finally getting the Gillispie philosophy. I don’t think it’s been a case of them “buying into the system” so much as comprehending the “never say die, never stop” intensity of Gillispie. After the last few years of a complete lack of intensity and lackadaisical attitudes of the previous coaching regime, it’s difficult to adapt swiftly to a system which espouses hyper-activity, high energy, give it your all at every second intensity. So the Seniors can be forgiven for not seeing instantly what Mark Coury was able to see from the beginning. When you are allowed to skate by on your talents for 3 years and finally someone comes along who expects you to give it your all–ALL THE TIME, it’s a difficult transition.
So here we are. 15 games into the season. About to play Florida. The evil nemesis of the ‘00 Decade. They have a team of Frosh and Sophs. UK is starting over in a new system with the majority of it’s starters Frosh and Soph along with two Seniors who are starting to groove in the new system. Seems to be an even match experience wise. Florida, unfortunately, has a coach who can recruit his butt off. He’s also proven that he can coach a bit. Even if he is a bit indecisive career wise. I won’t even attempt to try to break the teams down. Not my thing.
What I wanted to say was that all of you who were saying that Gillispie can’t do it or should be fired. All of you who were impatient and expected miracles this year. Sit back and watch as it all comes together over the next couple of years.
I think the cats will surprise us and take one away down in Gainesville. Patterson will have a great game against Speights. Bradley and Crawford want this and you can’t blame them.
The future of Kentucky is a team that runs teams out of the gym. The future of Kentucky is athletes who are elite and uber-talented. The future of Kentucky is fear in the eyes of the opponent. The future of Kentucky is Billy Gillispie. He’s going to bring the elite recruit back to Kentucky. He’s going to restore intense, run ‘em out of the gym play to UK. He’s going to bring back that killer instinct. He’s going to bring back attitude. He’s going to restore UK to the elite ranks of College Basketball. He’s going to re-take the SEC. Coach Gillispie is going to bring Number 8.
Championship Basketball is the future of Kentucky. Thank God. It’s been too long.
![[rupp-lastyear.jpg]](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qabLhHFbzAY/SmeaSVlRHEI/AAAAAAAADVQ/MLS5jdeuHM8/s1600/rupp-lastyear.jpg)
Then we have John Calipari. Recruited Derick Rose. Check. The NCAA granted him eligibility. Check. Then Calipari played Rose on a team that broke records and made it to the Championship game.
I found this picture while searching the web for an Adolph Rupp photo. I couldn’t help but laugh and remember. For a while, Kentucky fans were salivating over the prospect of Billy Donovan coming to UK. Also, Patterson and Lucas dominated the recruiting talk for months.
