I just watched Kentucky barely survive at home against UNLV in an N.I.T. game. During the last 7 minutes of the game, I saw several things that told me everything I need to know about the prospects of Billy Gillispie as a big-time college basketball coach.
Wasting time berating his players during timeouts. Does Billy think for one second that a Kentucky basketball player does not know he messed up when he made a 40-foot balloon pass in the offensive zone that turned into an easy transition bucket for the opposition? How does Coach Gillispie not know that he should be coaching instead of acting like a jerk, making a point that absolutely did not need to be made? Bear in mind that this occurred when the Kentucky lead, which had been 20 at one point, was 6 points…and it was a T.V. timeout (i.e., a free opportunity to provide some extra coaching for your team that just turned a 20-point lead into a 6-point lead).
Kentucky players picked up their dribble and got trapped on 6 out of 7 possessions. This happened with no fewer than 3 time outs taking place between the first instance and the sixth instance. Do you think the players of a top flight college basketball coach would do that a second time, much less a sixth time, during the final 7 minutes of a tournament game in their own gym?
Billy Gillispie was standing up on the sidelines wringing his hands during play. While I was watching this, I was at first reminded of Jerry Tarkanian’s towel. Then, as I started to think about it more and more, it occurred to me that for some reason, it was endearing with Tark, whereas Gillispie looked like the geekiest 6th grader in school contemplating exactly what level of rejection is about to befall him as he works up his nerve to ask a girl to dance for the first time…or maybe an alcoholic just trying to get to the end of his workday and taste that sweet first drink of the night. It was, without a doubt, the least confidence-inspiring thing I have ever seen a college basketball coach do at any time.
Players dunking with an insurmountable lead at the end of the game. Ahead by 9 points, Patrick Patterson executed a dunk with 20 seconds left on the shot clock and under 30 seconds left on the game clock. When your coach is a punk, I guess you can’t really expect your players to behave any other way.
Kentucky is better than their coach will ever be. They need to cut their losses, pay Gillispie whatever it takes to make him go away for good, and call Bobby Knight. If you want to still be considered a top 5 program, get yourself a top 5 coach. Your current coach had a nice run down there in College Station where the expectations were easy to exceed…he does not have the intelligence, intestinal fortitude or coaching skills to achieve success at a top flight college basketball program.
By all means, if you want to have a future of partying in the streets every March and watching the games on T.V. every April, then you have your man. If you would like to restore your program to its once-proud traditions, then you need a coach capable of matching the big boys (Calhoun, Calipari and Self) in the big games. Gillispie has proven time and again that his big game coaching ability is somewhere between Division II and YMCA.
FOOTNOTE
You will note the absence of Rick Pitino, Tom Izzo, Billy Donovan, Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski from the list of “big boys” in this article. That is because the only time I have seen any of these coaches win a big game is when they absolutely, without question, had the better team…but they usually lose several big games every year, and one in the tournament almost every year, to inferior competition…that does not make you one of the big boys in my book. Sure, they are some of the big-time coaches, and any program would be lucky to have a guy that can recruit players and assistant coaches like those guys, but in the biggest games of all, they have never, ever been capable of making a team exceed their capabilities…only reach them. Obviously, The General, if and when he returns to coaching, goes on the list of big boys.
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