Kentucky Basketball and Billy Gillispie Rumors

Rumors abound whether Kentucky's head basketball coach Billie Gillispie will still have his job for the 2009-10 season. After starting out 5-0 in SEC play this past season, Coach Gillispie's Wildcats lost the next three games against Ole Miss, South Carolina, and Mississippi State and would finish SEC play at a woeful 8-8 record. Although the Wildcats regular season record of 20-13 was improved over Billy G's first season, they were four games worse in conference play and failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1992! The Wildcats finished the 2008-09 season with a quarter-finals loss to Notre Dame and a 22-14 overall record.

Billy Gillispie Rumors - Will Billy G Stay, Get Fired or Quit?

Only the Kentucky administration knows what will happen with Billy Gillipie for next season. Many of the freshman players on this year's team were expected to play at a much higher level of performance than displayed during the 2009-10 season. This along with the woeful play out of the point guard position helped Kentucky lead the SEC in turnovers per game most of the season. Couple this with erratic substitution patterns by the coach along with random benching's of the players that have performed during the season, and fans start to wonder if the right coach is at the helm of the basketball program? Many fans would just be happy to start next season without starting out losing to a minor-division school as has happened the last two years (Gardner Webb and VMI).

If Billie Gillispie is Fired, Who's the Answer?

A decent debate when you look at it. Many fans and pundits are saying that two years isn't long enough for Billie Gillispie to turn around the Kentucky basketball program. Although this may be true to some degree, former-Kentucky coach Tubby Smith was run out of town after ONLY winning 22 games his last two years leading the program! Not making the NCAA tournament with two eventual first round NBA draft picks in your lineup (Jodi Meeks and Patrick Patterson), is not the way to keep your job running the Winn ingest basketball program in the country. A lot of fans would like to see former Kentucky player and current Oklahoma State head coach Travis Ford, hired if Coach G is let go. Others would prefer Arkansas's John Pelfrey brought in to re-establish the program similar to when Coach Pitino re-birthed Kentucky basketball in the early-1990's. Another former-Pitino assistant, whose name was in the press a fair bit when Coach Tubbs left the program, was Florida Coach Billy Donovan. We'll have to wait and see what decision the administration makes on Coach G's future, but if a new coaching search is commenced fans will demand a new coach that has greater ties to Kentucky than Coach Gillispie.

References:

http://www.collegehoopsvideo.com/Mens/NCAA/March_Madness/Final_Four/irish-alive-in-nit-gillispies-kentucky-finale

http://www.collegehoopsvideo.com/kentucky-wildcats/

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=96

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4017976&name=katz_andy