Shame on You Kentucky

Billy Gillispie is fired already? Wasn't it just yesterday that he was the savior of Kentucky Basketball? Fans held signs outside of Rupp Arena saying just that fact, but just two years later the marriage from hell is over. To me there isn't one party to blame for this disaster of epic proportion. Billy Gillispie didn't fit in Lexington. Who's fault is that? Well that has to fall on the Kentucky Wildcats.

When AD Mitch Barnett started his search for the replacement to Tubby Smith, it didn't start off so hot. Barnett and Kentucky were turned down by the likes of Rick Barnes, Billy Donovon and
Jay Wright...who now all look like geniuses for staying at their schools, especially Wright who has Villanova in the Elite Eight. Kentucky didn't know where to turn when their legendary program was turned down by three different coaches...they needed a shoo-in. Enter Billy Gillispie. Maybe a little background check would have caught those DUI's?

Gillispie isn't the man that "fits" the Wildcat program. They need a guy like a Rick Pitnio, who is open and knowing that as the head man at Kentucky, your life is public and what people want to know. Gillispie went through a divorce right around the time he took the UK job and heard lots of questions about his personal life...which wasn't much of one. He didn't like that, he liked to keep to himself.

The marriage started out rocky, got better and then hit rock bottom. It was Billy's way or the highway, he would never adjust to his players. It all started with a loss to Gardner Webb in just his second game in Lexington, but Gillispie's Cats rebounded to go 12-4 in the SEC and earn Billy the SEC Coach of the Year. The Wildcats extended their NCAA Tournament streak, but were one in done, falling to Marquette in the first round. You don't go one and done at UK.

Or you don't miss the tournament? That is what the Wildcats did this season despite having an All-American in Jodie Meeks, despite starting 5-0 in the VERY weak SEC. They finished 3-8 after that hot start. Suddenly the top recruits that he pulled in no longer wanted to play for a guy that Patrick Patterson called a "jerk". Alex Legion bolted to Illinois the previous season already. Anybody know where that 8th grader he recruited is at?

The three most foreign letters in Lexington are N I T. It should tell you something about this program, that they still made the NIT with the second most losses in school history. Maybe winning the NIT would have saved Gillispie, but that ended with a ten point lost to Notre Dame in the quarterfinals after knocking off UNLV and Creighton to get there.

Can anyone name the last time Kentucky was in the NIT? That would be the 1949-50 season when the NIT was more prestigious than the NCAA Tournament. The last time Kentucky missed the big dance was Pitino's first two years when they were banned from being invited or his second team would have made it.

Some people just aren't suited to coach at the legendary programs like Kentucky and Billy Gillispie certanily is one of those coaches. Don't get me wrong...the coaching jobs he did at UTEP and Texas A&M was phenominal...but he only one 3 tournament games, not Kentucky material. Gillispie will get another job somewhere soon, somewhere where you don't have the incredible expectations like in Lexington.

But for now...the pressure is on Mitch Barnhart to correct his mistake or he will be looking for a job soon. Can anyone say Rick Pitino? John Calipari? It's going to be a fun off-season with legendary programs like Arizona and Kentucky looking for coaches....we'll see if anyone wants those jobs after seeing the Gillispie story.