Kentucky Wildcats' Season is Anything but Miraculous

At the end of the 2007 season, Tubby Smith bolted to Minnesota after, in the eyes of Kentucky fans, another failed season. It didn't matter that the Cats were in the tournament again and it didn't matter that Smith had another 20-win season.

These might be the expectations of Minnesota, but not Kentucky. Here, it's Final Fours and National Championships, and Tubby hadn't taken his team there since 1998.

So the crazy race for a coach began. Everyone—including me at one point—believed that Billy Donovan was heading to Kentucky.

It seemed right. His old mentor, Rick Pitino, had found great success here. Donovan wasn't receiving the support from the alumni at Florida after winning two championships and it seemed that Billy D always wanted to coach at UK. It all made sense.

Well, all of that fell through when Billy D decided to coach the Orlando Magic...wait a minute, I mean the Florida Gators.

So a few names began to float around Lexington: Tom Creane, Tom Izzo, Mark Few, John Calipari, Billy Gillispie. You would think that a coach would run to Lexington, but this was not the case as most of those names remained committed to they're schools.

So in comes Billy G.

Gillispie is a good coach. You might as well call him the Jesus of basketball coaching because he has turned water to wine. Example: Texas A@M. But Kentucky didn't need fixing, it needed some toughness and Billy G brought that.

Immediately the T-shirts were made and Gillispie was welcomed to Lexington as a hero. Our savior was here and we had nothing to worry about. The new coach brought some much-needed young talent with him as Patrick Patterson and Alex Legion signed with Kentucky. Everything looked great.

The mood of the fans started to shift when injuries slapped the Cats in the face. Two of the Cats young guards, Derrick Jasper and Jodie Meeks, were lost before the season started.

Then came the loss to Gardner Webb. Who? Gardner Who? Then came the losses to Houston, UAB, and San Diego. The non-conference games were ugly and Kentucky barely made it out alive. Alex Legion, one of the solid recruits from this year, decided to transfer. Meeks played a little, but was still hurt. Japser was slowly rehabbing his way into the starting lineup and the Cats limped into SEC play.

Gillispie made the most of the situation and produced a 12-4 SEC record. Except for the blowout by Vandy, the games were close, and Kentucky prevailed against tough opponents like Tennessee, Vandy (at home), Arkansas, and Ole Miss.

Everything seemed to finally click and then...down goes Pat Patterson. Our freshman phenom was out for the remainder of the year.

Kentucky lost to Georgia in the first round of the SEC Tourney and then in the first round of the NCAA Tourney to Marquette.

The Cats were 18-13 under Gillispie in his first year, hardly the miracle we all expected. The Cats did endure a lot this year and overcame obstacles, which a lot of us seem to forget.

A new coach and a new system were tough for Kentucky this year and injuries plagued the Cats all season. For seniors Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley, it was anything but a miracle season.

t was a tragic ending.