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Kentucky hires Texas AM Head Coac Billy Gillispie as basketball coach

sports.yahoo.com — "Kentucky's restless fortnight is over. The new leader of Big Blue Nation has a heart as big as Texas, and he'll need it to help restore some of the luster to college basketball's all-time winningest program.Billy Gillispie was hired as Kentucky's sixth coach in the last 76 years on Friday, a person familiar with the search process told AP..."

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  • wastelake, on 10/12/2007, -22/+2basketball sux.
    • flashpointbob, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5basketball does not suck, you just sucks balls
    • FoxifiedNutjob, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4""basketball sux.""
      ------------------------------

      Ahh, another disgruntled Ohio fan.
  • mattyoung456, on 10/12/2007, -4/+20this is very disheartening for us here in aggieland
    • Niten, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I know how you feel... some of us Gators were a bit concerned that Donovan was going to accept Kentucky's offer. That would have been a sucky day.

      I don't know what percentage of my tuition is going to that man's salary now, any frankly, I don't care to know.
    • Artimusbill, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Living in El Paso where Gillispie coached UTEP for two seasons, I know how you feel. But I can't hardly blame him. It is Kentucky, after all. Lind of like a catholic priest getting promoted to the Vatican.
    • WUThad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7aggieland and aggieville both lost coaches today. Huggins at KSU and Gillespie at aTm. That really sucks for the Big 12. Even as a KU fan, I was upset to see Huggins leave after one year and especially see Gillespie gone. Good luck in finding a new coach, hopefully you'll be able stay up towards the top and not fall back to where you were before he came.
    • FriedTurkey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Fellow Aggie here. Gillispie did an amazing job of getting a A&M basketball out of being a joke. Before he came A&M didn't win a Big 12 game. Students actually attend games now. He deserves it. Hopefully A&M's reputation increased enough that we won't lose recruits to Baylor anymore.
    • anonymous6237, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4As an Aggie, I am extremely disheartened to see Coach G go. I am also upset to see how he went. I mean a text message to his PLAYERS telling them he was leaving. I do, however, see how he could make the decision. A&M will always be a Football school and Basketball will always take a backseat. Coach G made the Basketball team what it is, and now we're back to square one. Oh well.
    • gallagherFTW, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3as someone attending University of Kentucky....

      (Macaulay Culkin slides on his knees, pumps arm) "YESSS!!!"
    • suprememilo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3uhh im an Aggie too and I hope everyone in this thread realizes that all things aside, hes gonna be getting about $700,000 a year more, from a financial standpoint thats impossible to say no to, at A&M he would have been the 2nd best paid coach in the Big XII at Kentucky he will be one of (if not the, im not looking it up) highest paid coaches in NCAA basketball.
    • LowRentDiggs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"I don't know what percentage of my tuition is going to that man's salary now, any frankly, I don't care to know."

      Florida's athletics department netted $4.2 million in 2005-2006. They could hire 2 more top basketball coaches and still not cost you a dime through tuition :P

    • gparkla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0UK coaches are usually the highest paid coaches in all of NCAA basketball. Last year Tubby was guaranteed $2,073,307, the highest by around $250,000 over Rick Barnes of Texas and Thad Matta of Ohio State. Though Billy Gillispie was NOT much further down list: He was 12th highest paid coach during the season. So its not like he'll be making allot more but It is definitely a step up, and a step in an awesome direction.... GO CATS!
  • KYGrace, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8I love UK and hope this will be good move for them!
    • kkaabboomm, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5being a diehard uk fan, i can say i was disappointed by not getting billy D, but looking long and hard at billy G's record, rep, lifestyle, and persona over the last half a day has instilled great confidence. give us 3 solid years, we'll be final four champions. c-a-t-s cats cats cats!
  • swiftekho, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2He's a good coach, but Billy Donovan is better :'(
  • amcartemis, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Must be getting more than $2 mil a year because that's what A&M offered him.
    • condorhauck, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5It's rougly 2.5 million / year @ 7 years with up to $750k incentives, and $100k academic incentives.

      He said that one big thing was the prestige of the program. Being a UK fan, and living in Lexington I can say it is a big deal around here. Memorial Colliseum (The old arena) was packed for a pep rally to introduce him today.
    • AlphAssassin, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3GO BIG BLUE...

      bring back patino :(
  • bizsumpark182, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Well, he seems to be very excited to be at Kentucky. Lets see what he can do for us.
  • skologinczak, on 10/12/2007, -7/+13im an Aggie....Billy Gillispie is a lieing sack of *****....the Aggies fork over the doe to give him a state of the art fascility, he agrees to the school to stay then turns and stabs the whole aggie family in the back and goes to UK.....Aggies would have doubled his sallary if he would have asked.....so good ridance....hope we can kick the ***** out of Kentucky next season.....
    • mv10, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12Do a fellow aggie a favor and stop wasting our oxygen.
    • agpc, on 10/12/2007, -11/+5Thank you for demonstrating the cluelessness of aggies.

      In regards to stabbing aggies in the back, welcome to the real world...want a cookie? just kidding, we don't give away free cookies in the real world.

      I just wish he had twisted the blade a little harder on his quick sprint out of the absolute ***** cesspool that is College Station.
  • bsmsmbaphd, on 10/12/2007, -8/+0Really? True?
  • elzilcho, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3My father and I were talking about this all day.

    And skologinczak, learn to spell.

    Doesn't anyone use the spell check?
  • ThePDW, on 10/12/2007, -13/+1Why is this on the front page?
    • AlphAssassin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Because it's news you ***** dumbass.
  • coolant, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6Guck Fillispie.

    He could of been such an amazing coach at A&M and led a up-and-coming basketball program, but he leaves our program after making a VERBAL agreement to stay.
  • FlaG8r, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Wildcat fans must be mildly pleased that they got their second choice.
    • jasoneisen, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Wildcat fans are never pleased. There's always something to whine about.
    • AlphAssassin, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Coming from someone who had a team get their ass whipped by UK.
  • harperg, on 10/12/2007, -10/+0whooop de fracking doo
  • pglowiak, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1I can't understand why anyone would want to come to Kentucky after the crap Tubby Smith went through. There was no way after two NCAA Championships that Donovan was going anywhere, since he could write himself a blank paycheck at Florida.

    Yeah, I was kind of wondering how this made the front page, too??????
    • demetriM24, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0tubby smith got so much crap because he inherited the uk program in championship condition, but steadily declined the program to where we were 8 seeds two years in a row. he cannot recruit witch is huge in college basketball so he eventually made the smart move and left
  • MegaMark, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13Billy G demanded better facilities. Bill Byrne is in the process of building a multi-million dollar expansion at Reed Arena. Billy G gave his word that he would stay. Now he's wearing Kentucky blue. Billy G said that he felt at home at Texas A&M and he considers his players his family. This morning on Sportscenter he was high-fiving the Kentucky mascot and saying things like "these players HERE are my family". Billy G "always talked to [his players] about being adults and being men". He sent them a damn TEXT MESSAGE to his players telling them that he accepted the position at Kentucky. Josh Carter said it best: "You would think as a man he would have called his players and talked to us about it".
  • fuzz2010, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2As a very proud Kentuckian I have to say that I'm fairly pleased with the new coach, looking forward to a new season.
  • mrsmegz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Thanks to BG, we can actually get a good coach to come here, not one known for rebuilding programs. The next coach will have a 2x easier time than Gillespie since they will have top notch facilities, and you don't have to coax the students to come to the games anymore. I mean you cant really blame him for going to UK, sure TAMU can dump money like nobody else on any program they want, but UK has that legacy status any coach dreams of working under. But one thing is for sure, putting 2.5m on a coach that has no won a sweet sixteen game is quite a gamble, for the UK, it might make that a little bit easier.

    Its also funny watching digg turn into a Texags post.
    • kskatzke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I know, talk about the last place I would've expected to see a "gig 'em".

      A little birdie told me that pretty much everyone in the athletics department, from Byrne on down, knew that Gillespe would be gone the minute he was offered the KU job. The little birdie and friends were crossing their fingers, but they knew they had no hope. Gillespe's behaviour was reminiscent of a few car dealers I know, anyway.
  • ontheplains, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2i'm still having a fit of laughter over the state of affairs at Kansas State and Arkansas - their continually-ballooning egos have both been popped.

    KSU fans thought they'd win the championship this year with Huggins and what they called GRCOAT (Greatest Recruiting Class of All Time), which in their delusional world included OJ Mayo.

    Arkansas fans were 100% sure they'd have their pick of Billy Gillispie, Bill Self and John Calipari. They ended up not being able to keep Dana Altman after he'd already agreed to coach them and flow to Arkansas.

    seriously, the phrase "rotflmao" was custom made for this situation.
    • jam1n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Well, I cant really blame you for laughing at Arkansas. We were all pretty sure we would have Gillispie. Although after he changed his mind and went back to A&M, we couldn't entirely blame him. But when he went to kentucky instead....

      guess i can agree with a rotflmao on this one. we deserve it.
  • HinDeSky, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2The Aggies suck and I'm glad BG left he wasn't going to stay they have no history of basketball at a&m.
  • HellifIno, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1They're hiring a coac head?
  • jme2224, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Back to the cellar of the Big 12 for A&M, just like the good ole' days. They still only have one win in the Big 12 Tournament. Shame.
  • aquahell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"Billy G said that he felt at home at Texas A&M and he considers his players his family. This morning on Sportscenter he was high-fiving the Kentucky mascot and saying things like "these players HERE are my family"."

    He did the exact same thing to UTEP when he took the A&M job. He went all over local TV saying that he loved El Paso, wasn't considering leaving, and that money wasn't an issue, getting to coach an up-and-coming UTEP team was his mission. Less than a week later, he signed with A&M. His leaving to UK really isn't a surprise to anybody here in El Paso, and really shouldn't have been a surprise in College Station, either.
    • fuzz2010, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2He doesn't have a family himself so I would imagine anywhere he went that he would treat his players like family, and devote all of his time to them. Don't make it sound like he is a traitor.
  • lwillo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky, is full of info on Gillispie today. One columnist said UK can use his kind of passion. "Kentucky just hired from Texas A&M a native Texan who would have ridden a bucking bronco to Lexington from College Station to accept this mammoth responsibility." http://www.courier-journal.com
  • jkavvy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4So Gillespie is a traitor for leaving Aggieland to go to Kentucky, but...
    Franchionne was applauded for leaving 'Bama for Aggieland?
  • abnoid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I can't blame Billy G for leavin Texas A and M. UK is obviosly an elite coaching job he could not pass up.
  • triple6vampyre, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0pUKe land of the hillbillies...wonder why they didnt interview a black coach ??
    • UKFanForLife, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I would expect the "Hillbilly" comment from someone who is ignorant about the people living in Kentucky. But to have someone who is supposedly a U of L fan making that comment just proves how stupid Loosaville fans really are. The only reason you are upset is the fact that U of L under the "Dawahares' Model - Pitino" couldn't beat UK. And it looks like your chances have gotten a little slimmer. So, I guess just beating Lossaville isn't a major factor for keeping your coaching job at UK, as you "Red Bird" fans would like to think. Everyone in Kentucky knows that U of L is nothing but another school in Big Blue Country.
  • catsrule77, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It's nice to see that you don't uphold any kind of stereotypes about the Bluegrass state. I didn't put the Minnesota Golden Gophers down when Tubby Smith jumped ship and decided to be their coach. I never was a 'Tubby basher', either. And, wow, I live in a county where over 40% of folks are African American and I haven't had a problem with one yet! Imagine. Oh, and I not only wear shoes, but I have a college education. Go figure.
    • UKFanForLife, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Question: How many Black Coaches has U of L had? Answer: Zero
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