Nobody asked me, but…
- Now we know exactly how weak the Southeastern Conference was this season. Louisville 69, Tennessee 50. So much for the league’s best team and last NCAA survivor. I said all season the Vols were too selfish to win it all. To get the ball, Chris Lofton practically had to steal it from one of the Headband Brothers.
- Bruce Pearl is a charming and interesting fellow. We need more like him in college
basketball. But that doesn’t make him a great coach. So let’s not start saying he ranks with the game’s best until he at least, you know, makes it one Final Four. - I wish Western Coach Darrin Horn would reject the inevitable offers to leave Bowling Green and announced that, like Uncle Ed Diddle, he loves Western and plans to stay for the long haul. But that’s not going to happen. I’ll be surprised if he’s still the Hilltoppers’ coach by Derby Day.
- I’m sure Courtney Lee will be thrilled to learn that he has earned a spot on my all-time Hilltopper team. My other four starters are Clem Haskins, Dwight Smith, Jim McDaniels, and Tom Marshall.
- Georgetown College deserves enormous credit for going unbeaten until the semifinals of the NAIA tournament. Coach Happy Osborne certainly has carried on the great tradition started under Dr. Bob Davis in the 1950s and carried on by Jim Reid in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
- I’m picking North Carolina to beat Louisville in the East final, but my heart’s not in it. The Cards, who lost to Georgetown in the regular-season final game and to Pitt in the Big East tournament, have been replaced by a juggernaut that has Final Four stamped all over it.
- Not to brag, but my vote for Rick Pitino as national Coach of the Year is looking better all the time.
- I was there last season when Xavier got robbed of an NCAA victory against eventual national runner-up Ohio State. The Musketeers missed some key free throws, but they also got shafted when the officials failed to call a flagrant foul on Buckeye center Greg Oden. That would have given Xavier the possession it needed to seal the victory.
- Anyhow, I’ve been pulling for the Musketeers all season and I’ll be pulling for them again against UCLA. I’m just sorry my friend John LaFollette, a Xavier student from Louisville, is part of a Xavier group studying in Africa this semester. John loves both his future alma mater and his hometown Louisville Cardinals. I hope he’s at least getting the games on the internet.
- Indiana’s next coach should be someone with impeccable credentials both on and off the court. He must be the sort of person who can restore the Hoosiers to the special exalted status they enjoyed under Bob Knight. The best choice for the job? Bob Knight. Hire him to coach five years. Then allow him to walk away with dignity and class. It’s the perfect way to heal the wounds that have never healed since Knight was dismissed seven years ago.
- If not Knight, then who should get the job in Bloomington? The Hoosiers could certainly do worse than Dan Dakich. It’s not his fault that the IU players were so loyal to Kelvin Sampson that they quit on him. But somehow I think the IU administration will opt for someone else. My pick would be Steve Alford. It’s time for him to come home.
- With all due respect to the job Billy Clyde Gillispie did in his rookie year at Kentucky, the idea that he did better than Tubby Smith in his last two seasons is only an illusion. I mean, that 12-4 SEC record doesn’t look quite as thrilling in the light of what’s happened in the postseason. Then, of course, there’s the 6-7 non-conference record, the loss to Gardner-Webb, the humiliation at Vanderbilt, the first-round exit in the SEC tournament, and the first opening-round NCAA exit in 16 years.
- When Gillispie reneged on his promise to take the Arkansas job, the Razorbacks’ consolation prize was John Pelphrey. The former UK star inherited far less talent in Fayetteville than Gillispie did in Lexington. The same for Tubby Smith at Minnesota. But Pelphrey and Smith did brilliant jobs that had to make the fans at Arkansas and Minnesota every bit as happy as the Gillispie fans at UK.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Brian Wells // Mar 29, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I agree about Gillispie 1st year at UK not being as great as people are saying. The SEC turned out to be a joke. The SEC next year will be much better than this year.
I think Gillispie needs a 23-25 win season next year at a minimum and a regular season SEC title or a SEC tourney title. He is going to have to out recruit both Billy donovan and Bruce Pearl to survive at UK past 5 seasons. I am not at all convinced at this point that he can out recruit either one of those coaches.
Saying that, I do like the new coach and think he will eventually do a good job here. I just hope that he realizes that this is not like his last two stops, he must win & win quickly. The honeymoon and the “tubby excuses” are now over.
Speaking of tubby whom a bunch of my friends love to hate. I have a $100 bet going with one and here it is: Tubby in 10 seasons with uk has the following stats: 1 NCAA title; 5 SEC reg. season titles; 5 SEC tourney titles; 4 Elite 8 appearances; 0 1st round losses in NCAA tourney. Average wins and losses over 10 year period, 26 wins/yr. 8 losses/yr.
If coach Gillispie makes it 10 years in the hotbed that is Kentucky he will not match the above stats. but will be much more loved by its fanbase.
2 Brian // Mar 29, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Billy, I have been a fan of your work for a very long time, but your continued angst with U of L has got to end. You seem to always have a chip on your shoulder with the Cards, and it is time to let the past go. Would it not be great for you to talk about how wonderful this team has come together, and how they are on the verge of returning to the Final 4?
I know that you have a special place in your heart for UK and that has never stopped me from enjoying your work. Let it go. You are one of the finest writers in the history of Louisville (Kentucky) sports, but your inability to be fair is going to be remembered.
3 BravoBigBlue // Mar 30, 2008 at 9:20 am
You are missing the point as to why Kentucky fans are generally OK with the job Gillispie did this year. We were coming off 2 miserable years and Tubby fatigue had overtaken even his most ardent supporters. The recruiting had become abysmal and the program had fallen from among the elite in the nation. It could strongly be argued that we were the #1 program when Tubby took over. But he did not recruit to keep it near that level. Back to Gillispie. Cats fans now see some hope for our return to prominence. He will recruit the players needed to sustain a great program, and he showed in the 2nd half of the season that he can develop players and coach from the bench. Good luck to Tubby, but I am so tired of that subject, and look forward to our return to greatness under Gillispie.
4 Sam C // Mar 30, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Billy- You are a good friend but your continuing
effort to rewrite history by constantly defending the medicore coach that brought the program to medicoreity is wearing thin with many UK fans.
“Corrupt” M. Newton brought us the Tubster
when the program was one of the top five programs in the country and now the program reflects lazy recruiting and inept coaching and
and player developement. It will take Billy G.
a few years to bring the program back but he has made more effort to recruit in one year than your coaching hero did in the last five suffering years we had to tolerate him.
5 S.Smith // Mar 31, 2008 at 7:59 am
I think you should look at the time periods between National Championships. Who cares how many sweet sixteens, elite eights and final fours. What kind of trophy do you receive for those, other than a contract bonus? Between Rupp and Hall what 19 years? Between Hall and Pitino what 17 years? Between Tuby and Billy it is now 10 years plus, just add on another 10 years and UK should have another National Championship.
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