UK Basketball - A Return to Glory

This past Saturday night the University of Kentucky lost to West Virginia in the Elite Eight of the NCAA basketball tourney. After the loss, I was flooded with a wave of emotions (as well as a lot of text messages) ranging from frustration, anger, and sadness. However, I've since had some time to reflect on this past season and I've changed my feelings on how things went. But in order to explain why I feel this way, I need to step back and explain where UK was.

It was almost a year ago that UK had just finished what some may call as the worst season in recent history. Billy Gillispie had just been hired the year before and managed to lose to teams that no program like UK should ever lose to (Gardner Webb and VMI) and lose horribly bad to Indiana and UNC. However, it wasn't so much the losing that drove UK fans, boosters, and the administration bonkers, as much as it was what was going on in and around Gillispie. There were a few things that led Gillispie down a path that only led to him being fired.

As documented on another blog (KentuckySportsRadio)
They were:
1. Lack of relationships with boosters and staff - "Within his first two months, he refused various meetings with influential alumni, cancelled a 60 year tradition of the Kentucky coach speaking at the Lexington Rotary Club, refused mutiple requests to do “program building” appearances at various in-state events and generally balked at doing all things that were not basketball related".. Additionally, he pissed off many members of the booster club and event some of the athletics dept.

2. Derrick Jasper situation - Jasper was coming off microfracture surgery, the same surgery that Greg Oden had as well as many other basketball players have had. Usually, the down time for a player after this surgery is a year to a year and a half. Additionally the blog states that " Gillispie challenged the young man a great deal on his “toughness” and if he was going to keep “letting his injury be an excuse.” The treatment turned Jasper off and he made the decision to transfer….thus taking away Kentucky’s best point guard prospect and, potentially even more importantly, a teammate that was well-liked" (Keep in mind that Jasper came back from this surgery after only 5 months of time off)

3. Not being liked by the media - Billy G not only managed to piss off boosters and fans, but he also managed to piss off the media. This was building for a long time as there were many issues that went on behind closed doors but a lot of it came out in the open on national tv one night in Oxford.

4. Player Relationships - Many people have said that 7-8 players were going to transfer out because of how horrible Billy G treated the players. He made kids sit in stalls in the bathroom locker room during halftime. He told a player that he had to walk back to the hotel from the arena on an away game. He kicked a player off the team for smiling during a game. There have been many more reports of abuse by Billy G as well.

5. "I'm not an ambassador to Kentucky" - Most consider this to be the straw that broke the camels back. After meeting with the President of the University and the AD, he came out saying this. This is what most people believe ultimately did him in. Billy G never embraced being the coach at UK and any fan of any major college program will tell you that a coach is the face of the program. In Kentucky, he's the face of the state and is more popular than the Governor.

With all that being said, Billy G was fired after not making the NCAA tourney for the first time in 18 years.

Enter John Calipari. He was a perfect fit for this job. Without getting into all the stuff that went on with the hiring and the players that followed...I'll save that for another blog. What I'll say is that he really put some much needed life back into the program. Say what you want about Cal, but anyone that has been around him knows that he puts a lot into philanthropy and the community. Cal started the telethon "Hoops for Haiti" and helped raise over 1 million dollars for the Haiti relief fund. Additionally he really brought the players to closer to the community than ever before and they were embraced more than ever before. Sure, there were maturity problems with those young players along the way, but these guys really did care about the fans that supported them.

Case in point...a lot of people that I talked to think that Demarcus Cousins is going to be arrested in a few years because of attitude problems and that he's selfish. You tell me if this is the same guy that is labeled selfish?


That was DeMarcus Cousins, Mark Krebs, Josh Harrellson, and Darius Miller going to the student basketball courts this past Sunday night (The day after their season ended) and played pickup basketball with the students. Not only that, but if you look at the video, they've got one extra player on their team. It's a boy with down syndrome and they're teaching him how to play. If that doesn't give you a special feeling about these players, I don't know what will. Not your typical "One and Done" selfish player if you asked me. The bottom line is these players care about their university.

So with all that being said, I'm happy. Happy that UK is relevant again on the national landscape and happy knowing that I believe my Cats are in good hands. We've got a great coach and I believe we're going to win championships with him. People can say what they want about him and our players, but I wouldn't trade them for anyone.

Thanks Coach Cal. Thanks Patterson, Wall, Cousins, Bledsoe, Miller, and the rest of you guys. Thanks for giving me a lot of fun and memories this past season.