Billy Gillespie being shown the door?

Looks like as soon as tomorrow Billy Gillespie's days as Kentucky basketball coach are done. They of course, are going to try to lure away Billy Donovan again... Rick Pitino isn't walking through that door...

Man, I thought for sure when they brought Tubby in he was the guy. No one ever filled Pitino's shoes. Man they used to be able to drain 3's back in the day. Kentucky/Duke/NC were awesome games to watch.

Sadly no surprise here. UK basketball fans are the equivalent of Alabama football fans. Because of past tradition the expectations are insane. Every year there is talk of a national title and if it doesn't happen the season is a failure. They want a big name coach and they want Final 4 appearances or someones head is gonna roll.

Like Rex Chapman said last month on Rome about when he played at UK, Eddie Sutton, when he first started coaching at UK in the 80's, brought out a box full of Southwest conference hardware that he had won. Rex said he laughed to himself when he saw it because he knew UK fans could careless about conference titles. It's national titles and final 4 appearances or bust.

Unfortunately, that's true. Final four or you're out... and quickly. Does Billy Donovan want to sign up for that this time after Florida got bumped out of the NIT?

techierick wrote:Unfortunately, that's true. Final four or you're out... and quickly. Does Billy Donovan want to sign up for that this time after Florida got bumped out of the NIT?

Yeah that rumor is going around pretty heavily about Donovan bolting from Gainesville. I really have to wonder why he would do that. Sure football is king at UF but he's a legend there. Three national title game appearances and he won two of them. They were nothing before him besides that Final Four run they had in the early 90's under Kruger. Supposedly one rumor is that he'll leave to go to UK and then his former assistant of 10 years, current VCU coach, Anthony Grant will then come take the UF job. Grant was leading candidate to take it after Donovan left for Orlando but we all know how that went.

I have to say I'm rooting for Donovan to stay because Grant is being courted by Alabama right now as possible new head coach and he was actually in Tuscaloosa yesterday touring the campus. I think Grant would be a good fit at Alabama and he has done really well with VCU getting them to the tourney twice now. Another rumor is that Calipari is going to leave Memphis for UK. That's hard to believe too considering he has all the recruits he wants at Memphis. But UK is one of the pinnacles of college basketball and if you could lead them to a title they would deify you there unless your name is Tubby Smith.

Hard to get on board with UK jumping on the Calipari wagon after memphis turned out the be a slutty cheerleader at the prom... aka 'got done at the big dance'

I don't see Mizzou doing them like that, they played horribly in the first half, and that kind of thing gets you death threats at UK.

techierick wrote:Hard to get on board with UK jumping on the Calipari wagon after memphis turned out the be a slutty cheerleader at the prom... aka 'got done at the big dance'

I don't see Mizzou doing them like that, they played horribly in the first half, and that kind of thing gets you death threats at UK.

Yeah I know alot of Bama fans would love to get Mizzou coach Mike Anderson but the further they get in the tourney the less likely that pipe dream is. He coached at UAB so I think that is why there is hope that he might come to T-town but I doubt that. Supposedly Alabama has given Grant till the end of today to make a decision on whether he'll coach there. He may be waiting to see what Donovan is gonna do before making up his mind just in case the UF job opens up. Either way i'm getting the feeling Grant won't be heading to Alabama.

Donovan released a statement saying he wasn't going to be the coach at UK. We've heard that before but I'll tend to believe him this time.

Looks like it's Calipari. They met with him yesterday, he's meeting with Memphis today, and word is a contract offer is forthcoming from UK.