kentucky hoops

right now i am watching my wildcats play georgia at rupp. i meant to write about the state of uk basketball before today, but was too pissed to get my thoughts together.

i have never been so disgusted, uninspired or depressed with a kentucky basketball season, and it's nothing new. at least not lately. i was never really on board with the billy gillispie hire. i was like, who IS this guy? i had never heard of him and wasn't impressed with his coaching credentials. now almost 2 seasons in, i am REALLY not impressed. we have no heart, no will to win, and our coach has no class.

the pitino era was the most fun, exciting, meaningful time in kentucky basketball history for me. i started watching the cats when i was maybe 8, when eddie sutton was coach and rex chapman was uk's golden boy. i was instantly hooked. after probation and the first losing season in over 60 years, pitino resurrected the program and made it something to be proud of again. his first few teams were my favorite ever. i loved our championship teams of 96 and 98, but pitino's bombinos and the unforgettables moved me to tears. pitino inherited a team of walk-ons and benchwarmers and made them into a team that played in the Greatest Game Ever Played, in my opinion. It was the stuff of movies and fairy tales, albeit without the happy ending.

now, years later, i watch a team which suffers from contant turmoil and drama. players are kicked off, then reinstated. others transfer after only 6 games. i don't buy the hype of "waiting til gillispie gets his own recruits." see above. great coaches work with what they've got. they make what they're given into winners, like pitino did with the good ol' kentucky boys he was "stuck" with when he came in as head coach. we have the best one-two punch in the SEC with patrick patterson and jodie meeks, yet we are barely above .500 in a conference that is way down from years past.

our coach throws his players under the bus after a loss and takes none of the blame. whereas pitino broke his players down, he built them back up and made them the absolute best athletes they could be. as a result, they had an undying loyalty to him and would give everything on the court to make him proud and bring the team a W. his former players become his assistant coaches, and then become some of the best head coaches in the game. now it seems gillispie tears his players down, but he doesn't know how to build them back up. it seems they end up resenting and end up so scared of making a mistake and risking getting lamblasted, they don't give their all on the court. these guys are kids and dont deserve to be made to feel like scapegoats in the kentucky media.

pitino was not only a master coach, he was a master psychologist. he knew how to handle players and their different personalities. his first year as uk head coach, john pelphrey got screamed at for every mistake anyone made. the team's best scorer, derrick miller, could be streaky, and would become withdrawn and down on himself if he was criticized. as a result, pelphrey took his beatings, and it worked. pelphrey could take it, whereas miller could not, yet both players became better for it. gillispie has no idea how to employ such strategies. he is just hard-nosed, balls to the wall, bulldog mean to everyone, with different results.

our coach also lacks class. he has been rude and condescending to media on national tv and on his own uk radio and tv networks, the very individuals who run his radio and tv shows. pitino was a master spin doctor, and a PR dream. he knew what to say and how to say it. even when he was being sarcastic and maybe a little rude, it was funny when it came out of his mouth, and not a turnoff. gillispie does not have this talent.

this is not to say gillispie will fail because he is not pitino. i'm not saying he should even try to be. what's disturbing is the state of the program pitino helped build back to dynasty level. now we are almost laughable. we might not make the ncaa tournament for the first time in 18 years. we haven't been ranked consistently since tubby smith's last season. we get blown out by subpar SEC teams and lose 5 home games in one season, the most ever. it's embarrassing. i think gillispie is in over his head and has no idea what to do. sometimes i even question his ability to coach. and i get pissed when i think about the possibility of everything we have built since the mid 90s being torn down.

right now we are clinging to a two-point lead at home against lowly georgia. we have lost 6 of our last 9 games. if we end up losing this game, the last iota of faith i have in billy gillispie's coaching abilities will be gone.