While the NCAA tournament field was cut to eight teams on Friday, speculation about offseason coaching changes heated up as well as Kentucky canned Billy Gillispie after only two years at the helm.
Gillispie, who once upon a time was an assistant at Illinois under Bill Self, had previous successful head coaching stints at UTEP and Texas A&M. But his hard-ass personality seemed to rub the good ol' boys down in Kentucky the wrong way. A 14-loss season and an NIT appearance this year gave the university the excuse it needed to cut ties with him.
I'm certain Gillispie (left) will find work somewhere next year. He's a good coach. But he may have to take a job somewhere in the Atlantic 10 or Conference USA to restore his reputation.
A bigger question: What's next for UK? Will it be able to lure a top coach? It doesn't sound like Florida's Billy Donovan is interested, and who can blame him? He's got a great gig with the Gators. Thanks to the back-to-back national championships he won in 2006 and 2007, Donovan can go to the NIT and not fear for his job security.
Other names that have been mentioned are John Calipari from Memphis, Travis Ford from Oklahoma State, Tom Izzo from Michigan State and, of course, Rick Pitino from Louisville. Most of the UK fans would probably love to bring Pitino back, but that probably won't happen.
Dustin Harris, one of our Web editors here at Fox Valley Publications, is a UK grad. His first choice is Mark Few from Gonzaga, although Dustin acknowledged he doesn't think that will happen. Few has basically a bye into the NCAA tournament every year at Gonzaga. Would he give that up for the UK pressure-cooker? Unlikely.
Likewise, Izzo would be insane to give up his gig at Michigan State. Ford, who did a fine job of leading an undersized Oklahoma State team into the second round of the tournament this year, would be a logical choice. He played at UK. He knows the fan culture there. The one problem -- he's only been at Okie State for one year. He doesn't have much big conference experience.
There is one other top-notch job open this year: Arizona. The Wildcats were soundly beaten by Pitino's Louisville squad in the NCAA tournament tonight.
Everyone knows interim coach Russ Pennell is just keeping the seat warm at U of A. Whoever takes that job faces a major rebuilding, as an entire recruiting class jumped ship when Lute Olson retired. Arizona will lose its top two players, Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger, to the NBA.
Olson figures to cast a shadow over the Arizona program as long as he remains alive. It will be interesting to see who wants to take that challenge on. And it will be interesting to see whether UK can coax a top-flight coach to come on board.
It was time for Gillispie and Kentucky to part ways. The damage was done, and there was no need to keep the charade going. Gillispie alienated his superiors and the boosters, and there was no need to keep a guy at the school if no one likes him. It was also Gillispie's own good that he had to leave. I thought he did a decent job at the school, but Kentucky fans want a national championship or at least get to the Final Four, which is why Tubby was sent packing since he could not deliver.
Kentucky has to get the deal done with Calipari. It's obvious Cal is intrigued about coaching at Kentucky. To me, either they hire Cal or Jay Wright. If they can't get either one, this is going to be a disaster because the other candidates don't have the people skills to be at Kentucky while with Cal or Wright, at least either of them have the charm to impress boosters and recruit guys, which is a job requirement of coaching Kentucky basketball.
BTW, Lip Man I (Mark Liptak) of White Sox Interactive has done a great job of posting the coaching saga of Kentucky basketball. I enjoyed reading the sources that he has been getting at Kentucky.
Interesting couple of events that took place concerning the University of Kentucky this week.
First, Gillispie plans on suing the University of Kentucky concerning his contract, and Kentucky is filing a countersuit of their own. Everyone had to know Gillispie was not going to go away quickly, and good for him because he should get every money that is owned to him.
Second, Kentucky new hoops head coach John Calipari could be in trouble with the NCAA after the latest incident concerning Chicago
's golden son, Derrick Rose. Calipari apparently arranged someone to take the ACT test for Rose. I am sure Calipari will find a way to get away with it because he always does, but this can't be good for Kentucky basketball, which is always in a big microscope, and if Cal does the same thing at Kentucky, he might get his. Knowing Cal, he will do just that, but it won't be easy. It will be unfortunate that Memphis will be in a lot of trouble while Cal gets away from it in leaving Kentucky. I hope Kentucky gets more in trouble for years to come.
Know what's interesting? The sophiscated Chicago sports fans, which HeatherinChicago allegedly like to proclaim Chicago sports fans, are out in force in defending their golden boy, which is funny because just few weeks ago, everyone at WSI were savaging O.J. Mayo for taking money from Tim Floyd to come USC. I guess Chicago sports fans like to apply this credo of if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying, eh.
Let the good times roll at Kentucky, and Chicago's golden boy will always be held in shame.