Lexington Happenings

I really should check the weather more often. I knew it was supposed to be cold this week, but I was still a bit surprised to walk out of work into snow. As is normal with me, I had neglected to wear a coat. Or jacket. Fortunately, I don't really mind the cold except those two times I had hypothermia. That really sucked. Actually, I think it's cheaper to heat my apartment than to run the air conditioner, so being the cheap bastard that I am, I might subconsciously prefer it cold. To tell the truth, the air conditioner isn't that expensive because I keep the thermostat pretty high. Well, except that long ago September when I had a daytime-only roommate who would put the thermostat down to about 60 degrees while I was off at the toy mill which led to my September electric bill being almost twice my August one. Since I'm sure he's embarrassed by such wasteful behavior, I won't mention his name, but his initials are P as in Phil and D as in Deskins. However, I didn't hold the extra expense against him (okay, I kept his fantasy football winnings one year). Besides, one of the advantages of apartment living is that, unlike some people, electric bills generally don't run high (as long as you keep the thermostat well above 60). Of course, it also means I don't have a heated pool which would be nice right about now.

After seeing that snow was falling in April, a guy at work did make the joke that UK had rehired Rick Pitino and Hell was freezing over. I did take the side of UK basketball fans over Tubby Smith leaving. However, I don't want to take it over the way a lot of them were acting when Billy Donovan turned down the UK job. I said he would consider it, but I didn't know which way he would go, and I was right. The fact that he didn't turn it down until a couple of days after the Final Four is pretty good indication that he was thinking about it. He simply decided he didn't want to make a change. Yet, UK fans acted like friggin' lunatics. Some were accusing him of leading UK on to gain some kind of advantage even though he gave them a pretty quick decision. Some were wailing that not getting Donovan meant the end of any chance UK had at getting back tot the top. Right. Jim Larranga can get George Mason to the Final Four, but no one except Donovan can get UK back. Real smart. Especially since two years ago, most UK fans would have been pissed if Donovan had been named UK's coach after he had lost in the first or second round of the NCAAs five straight years.

However, I think the real nutball factor was how many fans were outraged that Billy Donovan would turn UK down. My favorites were the ones who felt some type of betrayal. They seemed to think he owed it to UK because he spent five years as an assistant at UK. Sheer genius there. Five years as an assistant should always trump 11 years as a head coach. Others were angry because he crushed their egos by not taking the job and publicly declaring the UK head coaching position as the best in the country. Do I need to remind anyone that Donovan has spent the past 11 years at Florida? I said the UK job is better than the Florida one, but that really only takes affect when someone is deciding which job to take. Eleven years at one job will certainly trump that. Eleven years and you put down some serious roots. No reason to hold that against Donovan, but I'm sure the vast army of nutbags will.

I was actually impressed with Mitch Barnhart's job search. He obviously had Donovan number one which is smart, because he's won two titles and made three Final Fours since 2000. Even if you don't get him, at least you tried. Getting turned down by a guy coming off two titles at the school he's at is not a humiliation. And worries about the guy you do get being viewed as Plan B is borderline retarded. If Billy Gillispie does well, the fact that he wasn't the first choice will just be trivia. Most people I know who are UK fans are unaware that two other coaches were offered the job before Rick Pitino. However, it's apparent he had a backup plan in mind. With Gillispie as the backup plan, Barnhart could actually wait on Donovan because Gillispie was the proverbial coach-who-would-crawl-over-broken-glass for the UK job. That means you can wait on your number one choice, but immediately move to number two.

So, is Gillispie a good hire. I think so. After Donovan, I would have gone with Bruce Pearl, John Calipari and Rick Barnes, in that order. Well, after Saul Smith of course. I said before that Calipari wouldn't even get a look (and he didn't). Word is that Barnhart wasn't interested in Pearl because he was afraid Pearl's ego would clash with him (that's a stupid reason). Seems to be some dispute whether Barnes withdrew because he didn't think he would get the job or because he didn't really want it. I believe the former because Gillispie had negotiated a new contract with Texas A&M, but wouldn't sign it, so he obvioulsy believed he had a real good shot at UK. That makes me think Gillispie was the solid number two option and Barnes figured that out. I put Barnes ahead of Gillispie because he does have more experience. However, there are questions about Barnes' in-game coaching, and Gillispie does have a lot more potential, so I wouldn't put Barnes much ahead of him. To tell the truth, Gillispie has a lot of the things I liked about Pearl. He's a basketball junkie. He can recruit. He's good with the quick turnaround. I just think Pearl's personality would be a better fit for the pressure that comes with the job, and his track record is a bit longer.

Ironically, I think Gillispie could easily have a better season next year than Billy Donovan (trust me, he will have a better season than Tubby Smith). Donovan is losing his top six players from last year. He does have a good incoming class, plus last year's was ranked pretty high. Still, he's only got one player returning that made much of an impact last year. Gillispie built his A&M squads around guard play, and guards are what he's got a lot of at UK. Also ironic, but I think he still finishes behind Pearl and Tennessee who only lose one guy.