The Omnigeek

Today the University of Kentucky athletic department and the men’s basketball head coach, Billy Gillispie separated ways. The separation was announced at a 4:30pm press conference after several days of speculation. You can follow the Lexington Herald-Leader’s coverage here!

There are numerous reasons why they needed to part ways but they can all be summed up with the fact that the program was going in a direction that Kentucky did not like and Gillispie was not the right coach to change that direction. Tubby Smith drilled a hole in the bottom of the ship and started it sinking. Gillispie was brought in to try and plug that hole, but the ship was still sinking. Now Kentucky needs to find someone who can save things.

But who will that be?

Florida’s head coach, Billy Donovan has been mentioned. He has built a strong program at Florida, a football school. Donovan is a Rick Pitino protege having been his assistant at Kentucky during their magical run. Is he interested? Would he fit in at Kentucky? Even with his National Championship, he is high profile enough? Can he be consistent? Florida didn’t make it into the NCAA tournament this year. That folks is a huge red flag. If Billy G’s failure to make the dance got him chased out of town, why do we think Billy D will be any different? He does come with strong UK cred having been a well respected assistant.

On the subject of assistants, does Kentucky court Leonard Hamilton, the current head coach at Florida State? He was Joe B. Hall‘s long time assistant at Kentucky? He’s partially responsible for one of the banner’s hanging at Rupp Arena with the 1978 National Championship. On the other hand, 1979 was an NIT year (though in fairness, it was a 40 team field, not a 64 team field, so it was harder to get to the big dance. Again, Hamilton doesn’t have the name power to bring in the McDonald’s All American’s needed to be a consistent Top-10 team. Also a major Geek negative, Hamilton’s Wikipedia page is abysmal. If a coach doesn’t have a decent Wikipedia page, how good can he be anyway?

How about convincing Rick Pitino to come home? Joanne will never go for it. So he would have to commute the one hour drive from Louisville to Lexington. I’m sure a private helicopter would be ponied up to make it happen. Arizona is reported to be chasing Pitino, but I doubt Joanne would put up with Tuscon if she couldn’t handle Lexington. But with Pitino just getting Louisville back to national prominence (sure Louisville wants to be a Football School!!!) he would be a fool to win and run.

Pat Riley? He could do the job, but has no interest in college basketball. He’s too used to life in Hollywood East, er. Miami. Lexington would be too simple for him.

Coach K? He would be met at the border with loaded shotguns. Roy Williams? He is the new evil overload of college basketball (though you have to respect him. He is a very good guy to be the arch-devil…..) but he is so happy at UNC, he wouldn’t give it consideration.

Jim Calhoun? The NCAA is looking at his program at UCONN for rules violations. Kentucky can’t risk that route.

John Calipari? He certainly puts together winning teams. He’s yet to win the big one, and in each of his coaching stints, he’s needed two to three years to get the teams to the NCAA. He has the most wins behind Roy Williams among active coaches. His two college jobs lasted 8 and 9 years respectfully, so based on his history, he may be ready to move on.

Bring Bobby Knight out of retirement?

Who ever it is, it can’t be someone who has built a low pressure school to making the dance. He has to be a proven winner. Someone who consistently, year-in and year-out produces a champion. It has to be someone who can thrive under the extreme pressure that is the Kentucky Basketball faithful yet not mind living in a small farm town. Kentucky doesn’t need a builder, it needs a star and those are few and far in between.

What do you think? Chime in by posting a comment on the blog.

Its time for the NCAA‘s Big Dance and time for Billie Gillispie to dance out of Lexington.

“March Madness” is a wonderful time of year for sports geeks.   This week, hundreds of thousands of people will be filling our their “Brackets”, studying records, trash talking their friends as they all enjoy four weeks of basketball tournaments.

The first week has just finishing up as each conference plays out their conference tournaments.  For some conferences they will get to send only one team to the 65 team national tournament so winning your end of season conference tournament is their only way to the show.  Other conferences, primarily those of the bigger schools will get to send multiple teams to the tournament so their best teams, win or loose, still get to play.

And of course some teams are always expected to be there, such as Kentucky.  Its been 17 years since Kentucky last failed to make it to the NCAA tournament.  That was their probation year, a time most Kentucky fans would like to forget.  It ended the Eddie Sutton era, leaving the program with a NCAA death sentence for violating recruiting rules.  But on the other hand, it meant the beginning of the Rick Pitino era which brought the Wildcat’s back to national prominence.

But Kentucky’s record would have gotten them into the tournament that year, had they been eligible.  You have to go back to 1979, 30 years ago to find the last time they missed the tournament on their record.

Thats a pretty good showing.  There are a lot of schools who would love to have Kentucky’s dominance.  But as most people know, the Wildcats have been on a downward slope and are at risk of allowing the UNC Tar Heel‘s to claim the most all time wins.

This slide started when Rick Pitino left Lexington to go back to the pros.  Kentucky hired Tubby Smith to replace Pitino and Kentucky won a national championship.  Of course it was a team of Pitino recruited players.  Smith was allowed to explore other opportunities in 2007 and was replaced by Billie Gillispie.

Most Kentucky fans had been calling for Tubby to be dismissed for several years when it became apparent that he was not recruiting the level of talent to keep Kentucky at the top of college basketball but they were still making “the show”.

Gillispie had shown an ability at Texas A&M to bring a program in trouble back to life and this is what made him an attractive coach to Kentucky.

But Kentucky needed more than a turn around.  It needed an image recovery.  College basketball success is based a lot on recruiting the best talent.  The best talent goes to schools who are always the best.  But with the downward spiral, the best recruits were not choosing Kentucky.  There was hope that Gillispie would be able to do this.  But he hasn’t.

Most of you might be saying, its just his 2nd year and he’s still dealing with a lot of Tubby players.  True that, but he’s not got the clout to get the big recruits.  He’s not been able to manage his talent well and now unless there is some grace of the NCAA bracket gods, Kentucky will be not be going to the big dance.

UPDATE: The basketball gods did not shine on Lexington and UK did not make the 65 team field. Is it too much to ask for UK Basketball to be in the top 65 teams in the country?

Are we to the point where Gillispie needs his walking papers?  In most cases, no, two years isn’t enough time to do anything.  But this isn’t most cases.  This is Kentucky.  They need a big time coach with a big reputation that can get the caliber of players necessary to dominate.  I don’t know who that is but the powers that be in Lexington need to be giving a serious look if they want to remain the Mecca of College Basketball.

Billy, you’re a nice guy and I believe there are a lot of colleges where you could do a great job.  Kentucky isn’t right for you.  Lets recognize this and get you to a school where you can be successful and get a coach in at Kentucky who can be what Kentucky needs.