Billy Clyde Gillispie should know that University of Kentucky basketball fans have gotten a bad rap for being impossible to please.

They understand that every season isn’t going to end in the Final Four. They acknowledge, however grudgingly, that the Cats can’t win ‘em all. They really do know that Adolph Rupp is dead.

But they also have standards. Very high standards. They live in the same neighborhood as Duke, North Carolina, UCLA, and Indiana. Heck, their program built the neighborhood.

So while losing to Gardner-Webb at home may be forgiveable — that has yet to be determined — it’s also completely unacceptable. UK simply does not lose to hyphenated teams. No excuses accepted. Period.

I don’t agree, as some are contending, that the loss to G-W was the biggest upset in UK history. It was certainly one of the most embarrassing.

But considering that nothing was really at stake except pride and a trip to New York, I can’t rate it above the 1955 schocker to Georgia Tech that ended UK’s home winning streak at 129, or the 1952 loss to a St. John’s team that the Cats had drilled by 41 earlier in the season.

Still, the Gardner-Webb loss was an important wake-up call. It told UK fans to stop mentioning Gillispie in the same breath with Rupp, Hall, Pitino, and even Tubby Smith. And it told Gillispie that what might have been acceptable in Texas is a grounds for widespread alarm in Kentucky.

I mean, Gardner-Webb? How can an unknown program who has never even been to the NCAA tournament come into Rupp Arena and drill the Cats by double digits? If you’re a UK diehard, this is beyond shocking. It’s obscene.

It should be obvious by now what Gillispie needs to do with this team. He can find the answer by studying tapes of Rick Pitino’s first Wildcat team, the 1989-’90 bunch that came to be loved as “Pitino’s Bombino’s.”

Gillispie inheirited far more talent from Tubby Smith than Pitino did from Eddie Sutton. In the wake of NCAA sanctions due to recruiting and other violations, UK’s best returning players — Chris Mills, Laron Ellis, and Sean Sutton — all transferred.

That left Pitino with a roster so bereft of talent that Cawood Ledford, the legendary UK play-by-play announcer, predicted there was no way Pitino could win more than five or six games.

Like the current bunch, that team didn’t have a strong inside presence. Reggie Hanson was a center in name only. He was a willowy 6-foot-8 kid who relied on finesse more than muscle. Current freshman Patrick Patterson is much stronger than Hanson was.

The perimeter players — Derrick Miller, John Pelphrey, Deron Feldhaus, Sean Woods and Richie Farmer — weren’t especially quick or slick. But they all could shoot, they all worked their tails off, and they all took pride in wearing the Kentucky jersey.

So Pitino put them in the only system with which they had a chance to win. On defense, they pressed fullcourt for 40 minutes. On offense, they lived and died by the three-point shot. The 6-5 Miller had the green light to shoot anytime, from anywhere.

The players loved the system and the crowd loved to watch it. As the season wore on, the players’ confidence grew until they were a dangerous team to play against. Their final record of 14-14 was horrid by UK standards, but amazing considering their pre-season prospects.

So why can’t history repeat with this team?

By all accounts, Gillispie has worked them into excellent shape. So pressing should be no problem. Neither should shooting. He just needs to stop over-coaching and turn them loose.

Sophomore Jodie Meeks could be the Derrick Miller of this team. Seniors Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley both are good outside shooters. Sophomore Michael Porter and freshman Alex Legion only need more confidence.

Inside, Patterson has sophomore Perry Stevenson, freshman A.J. Stewart, and maybe chronically injured 7-0 junior Jared Carter for help. This team has better inside-outside potential than the 1989-’90 bunch.

The big problem is point guard. UK doesn’t have one. Bradley tries, but he makes too many turnovers and poor decisions. Sophomore Derrick Jasper, sidelined with an injury, last season gave UK the only point guard in the nation who wouldn’t shoot.

Maybe, if Gillispie forces him to shoot, Jasper can be the answer when he returns. Then again, maybe UK simply doesn’t have anybody who can run the team the way Woods ran the 1989-’90 team. The answer might be to have no point guard, but three guards who can share the responsibility.

If the Cats must lose, everybody would rather see them go down in flames, running and gunning, forcing the issue, instead of sluggishly reacting to what the opponent does and letting the opponent set the terms.

This team has too much potential to let another Gardner-Webb happen. This team can be very good. But now that he’s torn them down mentally and physically with his preseason “boot camp,” Gillispie must build them up again, quickly.

He must put them in a system in which they can take advantage of their strengths and minimized their weaknesses. He must instill in them pride in wearing the Kentucky jersey. He must not let them get uptight, playing not to lose instead of playing to win.

He must do something because, make no mistake, the Gardner-Webb fiasco simply is not acceptable. It isn’t at all unreasonable for UK’s fans, especially the ones who pay those exorbitant ticket prices, to expect far, far better than what they’ve seen so far.

Welcome to Kentucky, Mr. Gillispie. Too bad about the short honeymoon. You’ve proven you know how to build programs that were never much good. Now you must prove that you know how to achieve excellence at a place where it’s virtually a birthright.

I mean, Gardner-Webb? Unacceptable. Completely, totally, utterly unacceptable.