Billy G is Pathetic!!!!

[elnutsmalljaws]

I have been saying it BEFORE he even showed up, he has done NOTHING to change my mind, even Mike Casey in todays Lexington Herald is asking how long will Mitch Barnhardt and Lee Todd continue to let this idiot run our beloved UK Basketball program. Never won any title of any kind in any conference, regular season or post season, before he comes here, not going to win anything while he is here, Alex Legion and Derrick Jasper leave on his accord, side line antics with Jenene Edwards of Espn and again with Tom Leach, just shows his BUTT. Flat out embarrasses his players in the media, has not signed his contract and he has been her almost 2 years, lets a player refuse to re-enter a game then plays him 27 minutes the next, starts a point guard that has more turnovers than points, more turnovers than assists and probably more turnovers than points plus assist. Keeps the walking wounded Harris in the lineup who not only can't play a lick but gets hurt 6 times a game. Are you kidding me??? Has the Big Blue fallen this far down the ladder??? First to admit that I was, am and always will be a Tubby fan, for he sure did win more than this idiot and when we lost we did with CLASS and INTEGRITY, which is way more than I can say for Billy G. My buddy said it best, some times you rise to a level of incompetence. Billy is way over his head and Mitch and Lee does not have a clue on what to do about it. Who in their right mind would come here and coach after what he has done to the program. I do believe Tubby left enough that they made the big dance last year and we have 2 of the top 15 players in the country on the team this year and we lose to Georgia at HOME. Georgia, 2-12 in the conference at HOME. Take a look at the ALL TIME worst home losses in UK HISTORY and I bet 5 of the top 10 have come under the Billy G command. Pathetic. One thing is for sure we are the only team in the United States that has the same post season tourney name as our head coach, NIT!!!!!!!!!!! Yes I know tonights loss was again the fault of Tubby Smith. All I hear at work is how bad we are due to Tubby, how bad Tubby left us, how bad Tubby did this and that and it will take years for us to recover. I don't think our last coach was named SUTTON, I do believe we made the big dance every year for the past 17 or 18, which ends this year, I do believe that Tubby took a 6-21 Minnesota team to the Nit finals the next year and on the verge of making the NCAA this year (certainly closer than the Big Blue), and no way anyone will convince me that with Meeks and Patterson and any other 3 players with a DECENT coach can't make the big dance, certainly does not lose to a 2-12 Georgia team with an interim coach at HOME. Get to go back to work in about 6 hours and listen to all the crying of how bare the cubboard is, blah blah blah, Liggins was not Tubby's, Harrelson was not Tubby's, Galloway was not Tubby's, Miller was not Tubby's, Meeks was Tubby's and Patterson was started by Tubby. Time to root for the University of Alaska outdoor diving team or the Harvard University Debate Squad, anything but putting myself thru the Bill G era of Patheticness.

[mhall]

You are correct and this post will get zapped count on it. Billy is in waaaaay over his head. He really acts down right weird at times. Here's one for ya, Kentucky was 18 point favorites last night, 18 points, OUCH! Somebody made some jack on that game. Way too many off the court antics to for a head coach.

Tubby was three times the coach BCG will ever be, just my opinion.

[MrSplitshot]

I'm OFF the Billy G Bandwagon...so no flack from me over this thread. I tried, really tried, to hang in there and see things his way...

[Tim_T]

The crowd was throwing bottles at Billy Clyde as he left the court. Wonder if he picked any up to see if he could get a shot from one!

[stoner]

I'm still wearing the blue, but only for the players. I liked Tubby just not his style of offense he had great defensive teams though.
BCG got lucky with A&M. The old saying is that even a blind squirel gets a nut every once in a while.
I heard negatives from some contacts I have at UK regarding the coach before he ever stepped off the plane at bluegrass airport.
When ESPN announced him the coach on a Thurs morning (if memory serves me) I kicked and yelled because he was not the choice I expected. My wife said what in the is wrong with you. Being the nice guy that I am I supported him whole heartedly and hoped for the best.
I've watched his post game conferences and he doesn't even know how to coach himself thru those, you cant say the things that he says and expect to be thought of as a knowledgable basketball coach.
His therory is if we lose it's because they didn't execute his plan accordingly. Thats just it he has only one plan feed the post. He does not know how to motivate his players or change playing style when needed.
I think we had better start looking for a coach or we will be seeing alot more of the NIT in the future (if we are that lucky).

Stoner

[Col Forbin]

It's pretty sad when a team with two potential All-Americans will not make the tournament. I don't think he has done a good time managing his talent, and having them play to their potential. I hope he gets the recruits he thinks he is, but after this season, I am sure many of those (especially the two top 50 recruits) are having second thoughts.

[Tim_T]

here is an interesting article about the situation and the writer makes some great points. It is from the Bleacher Report:



Two days before Easter, 2007, Billy Gillispie was announced as the 20th head basketball coach at the University of Kentucky.

Thousands of fans and students poured in to Memorial Coliseum to see the new coach and one student showed up with a sign reading:

"GREAT FRIDAY

our savior

BILLY G"



A savior with only five years of head coaching experience?

A savior whose greatest coaching accomplishment was beating Louisville in a second round NCAA Tournament game?

A savior with rumored personal problems centering around excessive drinking and two DUI arrests?

However, he was a savior nonetheless.

Ten years under the leadership of Tubby Smith had become two years too many for Kentucky fans, and Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart agreed.

Tubby Smith's sin wasn't that the program descended into a trainwreck like North Carolina did under Matt Doherty.

His sin was that he didn't give Kentucky fans what they felt they were entitled to.

There is a common belief among Kentucky basketball fans that "the name on the front of the jersey wins games," that the tradition and history of the program is what makes it elite, and that somehow Tubby Smith threw it all away because he was lazy and stubborn.

In Smith's last two seasons, Kentucky finished 44-25 and won 63.8 percent of their games with schedules ranked 12th and first in the nation, respectively.

The sky was falling.

In the state of Nebraska, football is just as important as college basketball is in Kentucky.

Nebraska is a football state with no pro teams and the entire state literally stops on Saturday afternoons in the fall. The same is true with Kentucky and their love for the Wildcats on the hardwood.

For 24 years, Dr. Tom Osborne could do no wrong and was easily the most popular man in the state of Nebraska.

With a record of 255-49-3, a .836 winning percentage, and three National Championships, Osborne was a man impossible to replace.

Frank Solich, Osborne's successor, was a man with an impossible job. He was a very good coach who was hampered with one major problem.

He wasn't Tom Osborne.

In six seasons at Nebraska, Solich went 81-45, winning 75 percent of his games, yet he was a victim of Tom Osborne's success and fan entitlement.

Like Kentucky basketball fans, Nebraska fans wondered how Frank Solich could screw things up so badly, and there was no doubt he had to go.

Solich was an incompetent coach who had allowed the program to slip, and any coach would be better than what they had.

During his 10 years at Kentucky, Tubby Smith had a 263-83 record, a National Championship, and a .760 winning percentage, ranking him second among all Kentucky coaches with more than one year of tenure.

However, in retrospect, Tubby Smith was a man with an impossible job. He was a very good coach who was hampered with one major problem.

He wasn't Rick Pitino.

However, at some point he became an incompetent coach who had allowed the program to slip, and any coach would be better than what they had.

Enter the Bills.

Bill Callahan and Billy Gillispie took over programs where they were going to become the saviors. After all, they couldn't do any worse than the two jokes who came before them.

Page 2 of 2)

Solich and Tubby were the men who killed the golden goose, and the Bills were going to be the saviors who would take their programs back to where fans felt they deserved to be.

However, things didn't work out that way.

Callahan came into Lincoln with a stubborn determination that he was going to run a high octane offense at a school with players suited to run the option. The result was a four-year tenure with a 27-22 record.

Gillispie came into Lexington with a stubborn determination that he was going to play only man-to-man defense and center his offense around guards that would shoot 20 times a game. The result has been a two-year tenure of 37-23 and a team at risk of missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 17 years.

As bad as Nebraska fans felt Solich was, he was nowhere near as bad as Callahan, and as bad as Kentucky fans felt Tubby Smith was, he was nowhere near as bad as Gillispie has proven to be.

Solich never had a losing record, he never had home losses to schools like Southern Miss, and he never was an utter embarrassment to his fan base.

Tubby Smith was never in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament, he never had home losses to schools like Gardner-Webb, San Diego, and VMI, and he was never an utter embarrassment to his fan base.

The root cause of these problems rests not in the Bills who were both clearly in over their heads at their respective schools, but rather with the fans.

Fans who became too spoiled and too arrogant with their past success.

Fans who felt entitled to wins and had an overinflated view of their respective programs, and fans who never recognized the realities of college athletics.

The fact is that elite programs become elite not because of the size of their fan base or because of their name value.

Programs don't make coaches elite, elite coaches make programs elite.

Coaches like Bob Devaney, Tom Osborne, Adolph Rupp, and Rick Pitino made their respective programs, and to use a cliche, they don't grow on trees.

There are only a handful of these types of elite coaches and the fact is that most Mike Krzyzewskis and Pete Carrolls aren't going anywhere, so at some point programs might have to be content with just being pretty good.

However, "pretty good" wasn't good enough for Nebraska football and Kentucky basketball fans, so they rolled the dice and got what they deserved.

Bill Callahan and Billy Gillispie.

[mhall]

Ouch that article stung a bit, lol. Also don't think that win over UofL in the regional final wasn't thought about when they hired that joker either, I guarantee it. Kinda like that radio commercial where Andre Woodson say's...'' One of my fondest memories from last season was coming back to beat Louisville ''. Have you heard that one yet (puke), the hatred runs deep my friend very deep, it is a sickness.

[kent]

I didn't understand a lot of what BG does as a coach. But I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and back him anyways. After all, he's supposed to be a basketball genius. But the Vandy game was the last straw for me. You bench Harrelson after 2 minutes ans spend the rest of the game trying to guard Olgilvy with Galloway or Liggins depending on which one was in the game. He's 6' 11" and arguably one of the best centers in the SEC and you put a 6-6 guard (either one) on him? Didn't work and he KILLED us. OK, on to SC for 1st place in the East. Get DESTROYED in every aspect of the game. WE've got 2 of the best players in the country, 3 All Americans, and 7 top 150 players. SC has no All Americans and 1 top 150 player. On top of that, you sit the 3rd best scorer in the nation on the bench down the stretch for 7-8 minutes? Now we get beat at home on senior night by Georgia who ranks last in SEC in everything? And it's the same explanation over and over. "THe guys didn't do what I wanted them to do so we lost. We just got whipped. It's my fault." Well, that is the only thing Billy G has right, it is his fault. He's been asked several times what thew teams thoughts are or where they're minds are and he always says he doesn't know. What kind of coach doesn't know what the players think and how they feel? Then you throw in 3 bad interviews with Jeannine Edwards and now 2 with Tom Leach. He got hateful with Leach last night for no reason. If another school is recruiting a kid that we are after, you think they won't show those hateful interviews to that kid? Losses to Gardner Webb, VMI, San Diego, Houston, and this georgia team? Blowouts by Vandy and South Carolina? I'm a much of a UK fan as most, but I'll gladly chip in on a one way ticket back to Texas for Billy G.

[cra97]

I would be willing to BUY THE TICKET for BG to leave!!!!

[Tim_T]

I would be willing to BUY THE TICKET for BG to leave!!!!

I will chip in if he takes Steve Kragthorpe with him!

[mhall]

I will chip in if he takes Steve Kragthorpe with him!

I'll add to that fund......