ESPN.com first reported that Kentucky has fired coach Billy Gillispie after two seasons with the Wildcats. Kentucky finished its season March 25 with a 77-67 loss at Notre Dame in the NIT, giving the Wildcats a final record of 22-14. Kentucky reached the NCAA Tournament last season and lost to Marquette 74-66 in the first round. In his two seasons in Lexington, Gillispie had a 40-27 record. Those losses included shocking early-season defeats to Gardner-Webb, San Diego and VMI.
Gillispie arrived at Kentucky in April 2007 after leading Texas A&M to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments. Gillispie had a 100-58 record in five seasons at UTEP and Texas A&M before coming to lead the Wildcats. And 24 of those losses came in his first season as a head coach at UTEP. Since that season, Gillispie is 134-51, a 72.4 percent winning percentage. Gillispie captured his fifth consecutive conference coach of the year award in 2008 when his peers named him as co-SEC Coach of the Year.
On the recruiting trail, Gillispie had received commitments from three talented players that formed the No. 14 recruiting class for 2009, according to Rivals.com. Center Daniel Orton, Rivals’ No. 22 player overall and No. 3 center, figured to be the heir apparent to Patrick Patterson, if the sophomore opts to go to the NBA.
ESPN and the Associated Press added some of the university’s perspective on Gillispie’s tenure:
School officials had been quiet about Gillispie’s job status after the Wildcats tumbled through the second half of the season to finish 22-14, tied for the second-most losses in the program’s 106-year history.
The Wildcats imploded down the stretch, losing eight of their final 11 regular-season games despite having two of the top players in the Southeastern Conference in center Patrick Patterson and guard Jodie Meeks.
Gillispie took most of the blame for Kentucky’s struggles, but not all of them. He pinned a two-point loss to LSU on an unnamed player he inserted into the game sometime in the second half. His seemingly random substitution patterns seemed to mystify the 24,000 assistant coaches who pack Rupp Arena every winter.
A sometimes testy relationship with the media didn’t help. He endured a couple high-profile run-ins with a female TV reporter during the season, not exactly the kind of behavior some expected from the state’s highest-paid employee.
During a press conference this afternoon, Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart made it clear that the decision to fire Gillispie involved more than his performance on the court. Barnhart cited a philosophical discrepancy that he didn’t think Gillispie would overcome. He added that the Kentucky coaching job requires more than winning, losing and recruiting, as Gillispie had said he wanted to focus on.
President Lee Todd also answered questions during the press conference and echoed Barnhart’s comments about Gillispie. The coach had a “lack of understanding that this job is a complete job that requires a lot more than coaching and recruiting. Nobody exactly writes out what you have to do, but there’s a lot to it,” Todd said.
