For the record, I think Billy Gillispie is a great basketball coach.
There is no doubt in my mind that he will continue to make improvements at Kentucky. While he clearly has work ahead of him, I see the Wildcats becoming a force again in the near future.
That said, the recent naming of Gillispie as SEC Co-Coach of the Year this season (along with Bruce Pearl) is a travesty.
Before you Kentucky fans get bent out of shape, how were you feeling about Gillispie after the Gardner-Webb debacle?
How about after the four-game losing streak that ended with UAB and Houston—and left your overall record at 4-5? How did you feel January 19th, after your seventh loss in a row to Florida brought your record to 7-9?
I don’t recall many "Billy Gillispie for Coach of the Year" signs floating around Rupp Arena then. If anything, ‘Cats fans were calling for Gillispie’s head.
“Ten-loss Tubby”? Gillispie had 10 losses by January. Speaking of Tubby Smith, Kentucky was 22-12 last year, including an easy first round tournament upset over Villanova and a second round loss to top-seeded Kansas.
The only significant player lost from last year was Randolph Morris, who averaged 16.1 ppg and 7.8 rebounds per game. Patrick Patterson, one of the best freshmen in the nation, put up almost identical numbers at 16.4 and 7.7 this season. So Morris’s loss is a wash.
The myth that Gillispie inherited a bare cupboard couldn’t be more untrue.
In addition to the freshman phenom Patterson, Gillispie also benefited from the return of Kentucky’s dynamic backcourt—Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford, who averaged 13.4 ppg and 14.0 ppg, respectively, last season.
This season, both players upped their point production. Bradley not only averaged 16.0 ppg, but he was also named to the SEC defensive team. Joe Crawford led the team in scoring with 17.1 ppg.
Bradley was named to the first team All-SEC while Crawford and Patterson were named to the second team. Kentucky is the only team other than Tennessee to have three players represented on those teams.
Plenty of coaches would love to deal with the problem of having three all-conference players. Yet Gillispie somehow gets credit for “getting so much out of so little.”
From there, it’s almost creepy how similar last year’s stats are to this year’s stats for the rest of the team.
Overall, it’s essentially the same team, even down to Jodie Meeks’ inability to play up to his potential. And save the “he was injured!” argument. Injuries are a part of the game. We’re talking about a kid who averaged eight ppg last season.
So Tubby gets run out of town after going 22-12, but Gillispie gets an award for an 18-11 record? Am I the only one confused by this logic?
Gillispie had success this year from January 22nd to March 9th—or roughly 37 days of a 121-day regular season—when Kentucky ripped off wins in 11 of their last 13 games.
Of those 13 games, only three were against ranked opponents (two against Tennessee and one against Vanderbilt), and Kentucky went 1-2 in those games. The win over the Vols was huge, but the 41-point embarrassment at Vanderbilt is inexcusable.
A 41-point loss to a 10-6 conference foe in the midst of a big win-streak? Let’s start handing out trophies to Mark Gottfried and Jeff Lebo while we’re at it.
The other 10 teams the Wildcats beat had a combined conference record of 48-72. In other words, Kentucky was feasting on bottom-feeders of the mediocre SEC.
Billy Donovan is a humble guy, and he certainly wouldn’t voice his displeasure to the media, but the man has to be irritated—and perhaps his recent negative comments about his own team are indicative of this.
After all of his accomplishments, Donovan has never been named SEC Coach of the Year, which continues to be one of the biggest jokes in SEC basketball history.
Donovan has a career winning percentage of .717 at Florida. He owns four SEC East titles and three overall SEC titles. Before this season, Donovan’s teams had won 18 straight postseason victories, including nine in a row in the SEC tournament.
Most importantly, Donovan has taken Florida to three Final Fours and three National Championships. Last year’s team was the first to win back-to-back National Championships since the Dukies did it in the early 90s.
Yet Gillispie, the guy who was Plan B for Kentucky (to Donovan, of course), wins the award in his first SEC season, in a year when the SEC is arguably at its lowest point in some time.
Gillispie isn’t leaving Lexington anytime soon. To me, it seems premature to give him Coach of the Year now, when there was already a clear-cut winner in Bruce Pearl. One could even argue that Mississippi State’s Rick Stansbury had more claim to the award than Gillispie.
Why not wait to see if and when Gillispie can actually put together a year that all Kentucky fans are waiting for?
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3 months ago
While Tim Pollock may know something about writing, and a little about sports, his article proves without a doubt he knows very little about college basketball year in and year out, and knows absolutely nothing about Kentucky basketball. Anyone who has watched KY basketball over the past 5-6 years saw an obvious decline in the program under Tubby Smith and a total lack of preparation and motivation by Tubby and his coaching staff. At least Gillispie has brought basketball IQ back to KY. Mr. Pollock has the right to voice his disagreement, but he should respect the opinions of the true experts that gave Billy G. the honor. Mr. pollock should know these decisions are not made by one person in a vacuum, and I am sure they have forgotten more about the game than he'll ever know.
3 months ago
As a true SEC fan believe me when I tell you the SEC is a strong conference this year. Also, without taking too much time to point out the inaccuracies of the article, Mr. Pollock couldn't be more wrong about this being the same team Tubby had. Harris, Jasper, Patterson, Meeks, Crawford, and Bradley all missed multipe games this year. Better homework by Mr. Pollock would have discovered this.
3 months ago
First Anonymous guy: My article was not about the state of KY basketball over the last 5-6 years, but I do agree it has declined. This article was about Gillispie this season. I have no idea what your decision/vacuum sentences is supposed to mean. Whose opinions are you talking about? Who are these experts?
Dear "True SEC fan": Please point out the inaccuracies. I'll help you with the missed games. I mentioned Meeks in the article, so I'll ignore . As for the others: Bradley missed 1 game; Crawford missed 1 game; Harris missed 4 games; Jasper missed 10 games (he averages 4 ppg, by the way).
JP Prince, of Tennessee, missed 11 games and managed to get 6th man of the conference this season.
Furthermore, find me a team in the country that got through this season without injuries.
Other than Tennessee and Mississippi State, how can you possibly tell me that the rest of the SEC is "strong"?
3 months ago
Well done, dude. Nearly flawless article. I wish you could add an update to the bottom of your article which indicates who won the SEC tourney. The SEC is a real powerhouse this year. Since I live in Atlanta, I think I'm gonna jump on the UGA bandwagon and start touting them as the cream of the crop. Looking forward to your bracket. Don't laugh when I send UGA to the great 8.
3 months ago
How did Bruce Pearl not take home this hardware on his own?
Tennessee basketball was NOTHING nationally unless you had a pony tail until Bruce Bruce came along.
Believe me... i can't stand any of them and while Dennis Felton was absolutely the Coach of the Week and Gillespie deserves major props for righting that sinking ship (that Donovan could NOT do with a much more talented crew of young'ins), the "other" big orange one in Knoxville should probably get that trophy.
3 months ago
I think it is entirely reasonable that Gillispie won coach of the year in the SEC. Shouldn't the *SEC* coach of the year be judged on the strength of his coaching during the conference rather than the widely disparate non-conference schedules that members school play? I think so. To cite Kentucky's non-conference struggles as reason for Gillispie disqualification is inappropriate. When discussing a conference award, you must limit the criteria to the conference season.
You attempt to equate UT's loss of their sixth man with the loss of five Kentucky starters (Meeks, Jasper, Bradley, Crawford and Patterson). Even the most ignorant sports fan would find striking fallacy in that argument.
--BK
3 months ago
Agreed, Scott, Pearl deserves it alone hands down.
Anonymous Coward:
Enough with the "we lost five starters" business. Like I said, Bradley and Crawford each missed one game. Patterson missed three.
The comparison of Prince was to Jasper, not the entire group.
I love when anonymous guys sign their initials at the end of comments.
3 months ago
S. Smith // Mar 17, 2008 at 7:36 am
“I didn’t realize that was going to be a technical foul,” said Gillispie. “I didn’t know the rule. That was my fault.”
I do not believe this for one second from a guy who married one of his cheerleaders. I can not believe that UK goes to the big dance and Illinois State does not. Billy does not know technical. I guess this excuse will cover UK when they are found out for recruiting violations. Hope Billy can get some free dance lessons because for now his players walk real good with the ball.
SEC COACH OF THE YEAR DOES NOT KNOW TECHNICAL !
3 months ago
Tim,
The injuries DID play a significant part in the season and therefore deserve to be considered. You could argue that the losses at Mississippi St (by 5), Florida (in OT) and Tennessee (by 3) would have gone the other way without the injuries. A healthy Meeks, Patterson and Jasper probably would make up those points, in my opinion.
Tim, it isn't that I disagree that Pearl should have won the award, I disagree with your assertion that Gillispie had no business being considered for the award. But reasonable people can disagree.
BK (Bill Kristal)
3 months ago
Loss to FL:
Meeks: 24 minutes
Patterson: 44 minutes
Jasper: 23 minutes
Once again, every team in the nation has injuries. Ask UCLA.
3 months ago
Good article Tim. Pearl is the most deserving of the award. Gillespie still hasn't proven to me that he is a legit keeper.
Don't worry, Kentucky will be a first-round exit this year. Tennessee will at least make it to the second weekend.
3 months ago
Tim, I think you are very confused about UK's injuries this season. Your claim: "Overall, it’s essentially the same team, even down to Jodie Meeks’ inability to play up to his potential," is simply inaccurate. Jasper and Crawford were not fully operational from off season surgery until after the new year, and some might easily argue that Jasper is STILL not playing up to his skill of last year. Meeks...well, regardless of what game he played this or that minutes has not even practiced consistently with the team since his injury during the Gradner Webb game much less played in real games and is not anywhere near his 8ppg presence that he was last year. (And let's get this straight: if Meeks was healthy ALL year, UK wins the SEC....period.) You take all three of these kids out until after the new year and yes the talent pool left for Gillespie is vastly different than last year! Your original claim was that Gillespie shouldn't get credit with the same team Tubby had and won more games with simply ignores the actuality of the injury situation. Am I saying that UK should be giving any special credit for having a half healthy core group of players? No, and as you say, that's just a part of sports. Am I saying that your characterization of Gillespie's task was inaccurate given the reality of the injury situation? Very much so!
Furthermore, Gillespie's team beat the superior Vols once and almost did it again without Patterson. It may be "confusing" to you....but it's not ridiculous to think that Gillespie's coaching job this season was as good if not better than Pearl's.
3 months ago
I hear you, Ron, although I still disagree.
Poll 100 UK fans and they would probably say the same thing.
Poll 100 other non Cat fans and I have a feeling the overwhelming majority would disagree with you.
3 months ago
Gillispie did a mediocre job his first year at UK at best. Should the co SEC coach of the year lose in the first round? With almost a week to prepare? I think not.
The cats will be flat line next year, another double digit loss season, no doubt.
3 months ago
Don't bother arguing with Tim....he's an idiot.
3 months ago
"Buck," is that you again?
So clever...
2 months ago
Tim - I'm a Western Ky University fan and was proud of their success this year, but while living in Kansas last year, I did see some UK games. This year's team was completely different than last years team. In addition to 6-11 junior Morris, they lost all the rest of their front court, that saw significant playing time, to graduation - Bobby Perry, 6-8; Sheray Thomas, 6-8 and Orbzut, 7-1. You don't replace seniors with inexperienced freshman and sophomores. You don't replace a 6-11 junior (Morris), who is playing in the pros, with a 6-8 freshman. You also have to consider that these inexperienced, as well experienced, players had to learn a new system. Due to lackluster recruiting the last couple of years, this was not a deep team, making injuries more of a factor. This teams ability to improve and compete throughout the year was a tribute to Gillispie's efforts. I'll concede that the Vandy game was embarrassing, but the configuration of that court creates one of the best home court advantages in the nation, and is especially difficult for young players. This is apparent from Vandy's home court record (19-0) versus their road record (7-8) this year. All this being said, I agree that Bruce Pearl deserved the honor outright, but when you put "SEC" in front of the award, Gillispie deserved strong consideration.
Joe
2 months ago
Tim - I'm a Western Ky University fan and was proud of their success this year, but while living in Kansas last year, I did see some UK games. This year's team was completely different than last years team. In addition to 6-11 junior Morris, they lost all the rest of their front court, that saw significant playing time, to graduation - Bobby Perry, 6-8; Sheray Thomas, 6-8 and Orbzut, 7-1. You don't replace seniors with inexperienced freshman and sophomores. You don't replace a 6-11 junior (Morris), who is playing in the pros, with a 6-8 freshman. You also have to consider that these inexperienced, as well experienced, players had to learn a new system. Due to lackluster recruiting the last couple of years, this was not a deep team, making injuries more of a factor. This teams ability to improve and compete throughout the year was a tribute to Gillispie's efforts. I'll concede that the Vandy game was embarrassing, but the configuration of that court creates one of the best home court advantages in the nation, and is especially difficult for young players. This is apparent from Vandy's home court record (19-0) versus their road record (7-8) this year. All this being said, I agree that Bruce Pearl deserved the honor outright, but when you put "SEC" in front of the award, Gillispie deserved strong consideration.
Joe
2 months ago
Shifting gears, how do you feel about Horn coming to the SEC?
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