Taking Shots at Gillispie, UK
December 18th, 2007 at 4:55 pmBy Chris
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Kicking someone when they are down is usually looked upon with poor taste except when it comes to sports and sports fans. With UK Basketball getting off to an inauspicious 4-4 start, a beginning that includes a current three-game losing streak, a lot of folks are getting in line to take pot shots at new coach Billy Gillispie and the program as a whole.
As Truzenzuzex pointed out at A Sea of Blue, even Florida basketball fans are getting in on the act. Discussing UK freshman Patrick Patterson–who picked UK over Florida and Duke–”GatorPilot” offers these sour grapes:
The problem is that Patterson plays for a team which isn’t even close to his level. Kentucky is a train wreck under Billy Gillispie in his first year as head coach. Since I cover SEC hoops for FanHouse I’m required to give Kentucky objective consideration, and generally I feel I’ve done a pretty good job of that.
My assessment? Not revolutionary: the ‘Cats suck. They’re off to a 4-4 start. It’s important that Kentucky is given credit for scheduling teams like North Carolina and Indiana; had Florida played those two teams, I see at least a 1-1 split (loss to UNC and win against IU) but either way, the ‘Cats faced the music while the toughest team UF has played in the pre-season is FSU. Problem is, in addition to losing to two clearly superior teams, they were blown out by Gardner-Webb at Rupp and just lost to Mike Davis’ UAB Blazers at Freedom Hall in Louisville.
Yes, this season’s UK basketball team has suffered through some embarrassing losses, while suffering key injuries to players who were expected to be in the starting five. I’d like to see any team function successfully without two of their better players, especially a college basketball team.
With a full squad, UK has just enough complimentary and primary talent to be a Top 30-40 team, much like the current make-up of Gators, who sit at 10-1 after feasting on a schedule full of cupcakes, something Deadspin forgot to point out. The one decent team Billy Donovan’s team has played–Florida State–resulted in them getting beat.
In the process of trying to paint Kentucky in such a poor light, Pilot decides to do so while extolling the virtues of the Florida head-coach, saying all kinds of grand things about the coach with the Eddie Munster hairline; except, of course, Donovan’s handling of the Orlando Magic situation.
Moving on.
Truzenzuzex’s defense continues when he calls out Billy Reed for his Perez Hilton-like post about the rumors of Gillispie’s Lexington nightlife and Tru should be applauded for doing so. Whether Reed has confirmed these rumors or not isn’t the point.
Posting stuff like, “I’ve heard a bunch of them, and my sources are people whom I trust and believe…” isn’t doing anyone any good. Either show and prove or just keep quiet. Even the sports bloggers of the world seem to understand this.
Proof is in the pudding. No one cares about what you believe.
As for defending Coach Gillispie, there’s not much that can be said right now. UK just needs to get everyone healthy and win some games. If either of these two things happen, the voices will quiet themselves. Gillispie has done a lot of work on the recruiting front and only with a full roster can you expect this to pay dividends. As he continues to sign players in the mold of Patterson, Darius Miller and DeAndre Liggins, UK will not stay down for long.
Maybe that’s what concerns them.
Update (10:25pm CST):
Yes, UK got whipped tonight by Houston by the score of 83-69 … but like Lavin just said, UK’s season so far is just like Murphy’s Law. We get Meeks back and he plays pretty well, but guess what, PATRICK PATTERSON IS OUT BECAUSE OF A BUM ANKLE. Needless to say, UK was out-rebounded by a pretty wide margin and Houston proceeded to score over 20 second chance points - IN THE FIRST HALF.
I just listened to Scott Van Pelt remind UK fans they got what they asked for when they said they didn’t want Tubby Smith as a coach any more and boy, I really don’t know if I have an answer yet. Four straight losses for the first time since 1989-90 doesn’t look good on any resume, especially one that works at UK.
As it stands, I’m willing to give the coach they call BCG (Billy Clyde Gillispie), an opportunity to field a team with a full roster before I throw him under the bus - something he hasn’t yet had the luxury of experiencing.
Not much choice, really.
December 18th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Thanks for the link, Chris.
I hope Gillispie can right the ship, and I believe he can. Getting our two fine guards healthy would probably go a long way toward making this team more competitive than GP’s Gators would like.
Time will tell. Keep the faith.
December 18th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
[...] relation to all this, I agree with Chris at Intentional Foul: “Either show and prove or just keep quiet. Even the sports bloggers of the world seem to [...]
December 19th, 2007 at 1:34 am
With as many talented teams as Billy Don choked with I would be surprised Florida fans would open their mouth. They were blessed with four juniors who could play, just like Roy Williams Billy D is overhyped, that’s why he left Orlando, he would have been fired in a year.
December 19th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Van Pelt and the other talking heads have made up their minds that Tubby Smith was run off and if he were still at UK things would be better. Smith left because it was a good career move. Surely he realized that after this year he would have been fired. He left no center, no power forward, and no effective point guard. He has a contract til retirement. People are criticizing Bobby Petrino for leaving a sinking ship in Atlanta, but Tubby did the same thing. The only difference is Tubby created the sinking ship at UK. There are only two good players now, Patterson and Meeks. In the glory years even the best of the rest would have been on the end of the bench, if on the team at all. Gillispie is not God. He wasn’t my first choice, John Pelphrey was, but let’s give Gillispie a chance to clean up this mess he inherited.
December 19th, 2007 at 9:53 am
I’m sorry, but a team featuring a HEALTHY Jodie Meeks, Derrick Jasper, Joe Crawford, Ramel Bradley, Patrick Patterson, AJ Stewart, Ramon Harris and Perry Stevenson is not bereft of talent, regardless if these players are playing well or not.
A team with just these players on its roster is still talented.
The problem is, of course, injuries and players like Stevenson, Harris and Stewart have not progressed. At all. Well, with Stewart, you don’t know because he never gets to play, but I digress.
However, I’m not going to turn this into a Tubby versus Billy discussion. Like I said in the post, as long as Gillispie continues to sign players like Patterson, Darius Miller and DeAndre Liggins, we will not be down for long.
The question is, are Cat fans willing to be that patient.
December 21st, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Okay so if I understand this right. Billy G takes over aggies that are 7-21 and 0-16 in conference. He turns it around in the following year going 21-10 and 8-8 in conference.
He comes to UK and takes over a team that was 22-12 and 9-7 conference. So far he is 4-5 with loses to Gardner-Webb and UAB.
Tubby Smith goes to the gophers and takes over a team that went 9-22 and 3-13 in conference. So far he is 7-1.
I’m confused?!? So the aggies had better players than the wildcats when he took these teams over?
Granted it’s still early in the season. I’m just not buying it. So put away your money, credit cards, and checkbooks.
Tubby got blamed for not getting the big name recruits. Anyone know where Carruth, Jason Parker, or Randolph Morris is? I do know where Tayshaun Prince, Keith Bogans, and Chuck Hayes are. Let him get the players he wants and not the players the fans want.
Also you can have all the jimmy and joes you want. You better be good at the x’s and o’s. If talent is better how did Villanova beat Georgetown, Indiana over Syracuse, Kansas over Oklahoma, and Duke over UNLV just to name a few.