Lost amid the kerfuffle overtaking John Calipari, Memphis, and Kentucky is the question that everyone should be asking: Is your average athletic director smart enough to handle their job given the intense pressure and attention that now descends upon the position?
Once Kentucky finally showed Billy Gillispie the door last week, rumors immediately turned to Florida coach Billy Donovan as his successor, for obvious reasons. It took Donovan mere hours to say he wasn't interested in leaving Florida, and ever since then the hot name in the rumor mill has been John Calipari. A Memphis TV station even put up a streaming video feed outside Calipari's office.
Depending on where you get your information, Calipari is either ready to be offered the job, or he hasn't yet met with officials from Kentucky. We do know that, Monday, the Wildcats' brass received permission from Memphis to talk to Calipari.
BOSTON -- Tubby Smith is much too dignified to laugh out loud, or LOL in the text-message age. But for all the abuse he took at Kentucky during a decade that was absolutely dreadful -- a national championship, a 263-83 record, an NCAA tournament appearance every season, just horrendous stuff -- who could blame him if he wanted to giggle to himself Friday?
Seems the bluegrass has turned to fertilizer in Lexington.
After just two seasons at the University of Kentucky, Billy Gillispie has been shown the door. According to a televised report on ESPN, Gillispie has been fired, effective immediately. There is a press conference scheduled for 4:30 PM Friday afternoon.
The move comes a few days after Kentucky was bounced from the NIT by Notre Dame. Yeah, the NIT. At Kentucky. Obviously, fans and prominent alumni weren't too excited at the direction of the program under Gillispie. He had compiled a 40-27 record (20-12 in the SEC) in just two seasons in Lexington. According to several reports, though, this move wasn't all about wins and losses.
A report has been circling around the Internet the past day that says Kentucky basketball coach Billy Gillispie could be out after just two years on the job because of a players' mutiny against the coach.
Leoweekly.com reported late Tuesday afternoon that a source with some University of Kentucky connections who has been "spot on in the past" said that Gillispie is "Going, going gone...only way, I'm told to prevent mass exodus....expect announcement soon." After the initial report, the website came back with another post, this time with even more confirmation.
I think we can all agree that Billy Gillispie doesn't exactly scream "Rocco Mediate-style interviews." Billy Clyde looks like he wants to win games, coach kids and, well, that's about it.
Last night, with Gillispie's Wildcats up 39-37 at halftime, ESPN reporter Jeanine Edwards caught up with the UK coach. Edwards asked about Jodie Meeks, and, as you will now see, Gillispie thought Jeanine just chose her question poorly.
Update: Harris is "alert" but Gillispie isn't talking much about his condition.
Ramon Harris didn't play during the second half of Kentucky's 61-51 win over Alabama today. That's because he was en route to the hospital after collapsing outside the locker room right before halftime.
During his post-game radio show, Coach Gillispie said that Harris is resting at the local hospital. "They said everything looks good. They're concerned, obviously. He's alert. After he threw up he felt better," said Gillispie.
Texas Tech was struggling to make layups against Stephen F. Austin to other night. So during a timeout, Knight looked in the crowd and welcomed a 12-year-old fan to join his team's huddle.
Knight asked the boy whether he could make layups. The boy said he could.
"I was just tired of having 18- or 21-year-olds miss layups that a 12-year-old could hit, so I brought a 12-year-old in to let them know that he could hit layups," Knight said. "He's 12 and he can hit layups, so why can't you when you're 18 to 21?"
The tactic seemed to work. Tech would start hitting their layups and pulled out a 69-55 win over SFA.
No word on if Kentucky's Billy Gillispie has offered the young man a scholarship.
Last season, the Indiana Hoosiers pulverized the Kentucky Wildcats at home, and this year UK returned the favor. In fact, this non-conference rivalry hasn't meant a lot in quite some time. Sure, there was a Mike Davis-running-on-the-court-like-a-mad-fool with some Dane-Fife-ties-the-game-with-a-three instances, but for the most part this annual game has lacked drama or national interest in recent memory.
This season, the Wildcats are looking to improve in their second year under Billy Gillispie, and the Hoosiers are in a serious transition as Tom Crean attempts to pick up the scraps left by Kelvin Sampson's sabotage of the once-mighty Hoosier program.
As Indiana failed to score a single point for about the first seven minutes yesterday, and Kentucky eventually opened up a ridiculous 32-6 lead, it was evident just how unimportant this game presently is. Give it time.
It's rare that a meeting between the two winningest programs in college basketball history would be missing something. Yet, there were a few things that weren't available when Kentucky took on North Carolina in the Dean Smith Center.
First was Player Of the Year Tyler Hansbrough. Psycho T has a stress reaction in his shin and was held out of tonight's game. He really wouldn't be missed as Deon Thompson and the Tar Heels beat down the Wildcats, 77-58. The Heels jumped all over Kentucky early, built a 15-2 lead and never looked back.
The stat of the game were the 28 turnovers Kentucky committed. North Carolina trapped Kentucky to force mistakes that turned into quick points for the Tar Heels. Carolina feasted on the fact that Kentucky has no real point guard right now.
Once Kentucky finally showed Billy Gillispie the door last week, rumors immediately turned to Florida coach Billy Donovan as his successor, for obvious reasons. It took Donovan mere hours to say he wasn't interested in leaving Florida, and ever since then the hot name in the rumor mill has been John Calipari. A Memphis TV station even put up a streaming video feed outside Calipari's office. 
BOSTON -- Tubby Smith is much too dignified to laugh out loud, or LOL in the text-message age. But for all the abuse he took at Kentucky during a decade that was absolutely dreadful -- a national championship, a 263-83 record, an NCAA tournament appearance every season, just horrendous stuff -- who could blame him if he wanted to giggle to himself Friday?
UPDATE: Kentucky confirms coaching change
A report has been circling around the Internet the past day that says Kentucky basketball coach Billy Gillispie could be out after just two years on the job because of a players' mutiny against the coach.
Update: Harris is "alert" but Gillispie isn't talking much about his condition.
We knew that Bobby Knight was good for some interesting motivational tactics during his coaching career. Apparently his son can do the same.
It's rare that a meeting between the two winningest programs in college basketball history would be missing something. Yet, there were a few things that weren't available when Kentucky took on North Carolina in the Dean Smith Center.
