I don't know about the contract. It was just peculiar that he waited this long. Everything I've read says that Barnes was "the" plan B, noone else. But, whatever makes you feel better.
This sucks for the Big XII and Texas basketball, in general. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2827764 Source: Wildcats to introduce Gillispie on FridayBy Pat Forde ESPN.com Kentucky has announced it will hold "a pep rally and a press conference" on Friday afternoon to announce the hiring of the program's 21st head coach. And according to a source at Kentucky, Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie is the man the Wildcats will introduce to Big Blue Nation. Kentucky honed in on Gillispie to replace Tubby Smith at the end of a whirlwind Thursday that began with a rebuff from Florida's Billy Donovan and included Texas coach Rick Barnes withdrawing his name from consideration. Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart asked for and received permission to talk to Gillispie on Thursday night, according to Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne. "Coach Gillispie is one of the top coaches in the country, and we certainly do not want to lose him," Byrne said in a statement released by the school Thursday night. "At the same time, I don't want to stand in the way of anyone in the department who wants to explore another option if he or she feels it's in his best interest." Gillispie was supposed to be en route Friday to Los Angeles for the John Wooden Award celebration Saturday. The Aggies' Acie Law IV is one of five finalists. A source close to Gillispie told ESPN.com late Thursday night that Gillispie would accept the Kentucky job if it is offered. Gillispie recently agreed to a lucrative contract extension with A&M after being wooed by Arkansas, but he did not sign the deal. His name had been on the "B" list of candidates from the beginning at Kentucky after Smith unexpectedly resigned March 22 to take the job at Minnesota. Kentucky's clear first choice was Donovan, who would not consider the job until after his Florida Gators won the national title Monday night. Thursday morning, Donovan met with Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley, and the school announced around noon that Donovan would remain in Gainesville. Later Thursday afternoon, speculation moved to Barnes as Kentucky's top choice. But by early evening he had withdrawn his name, saying he would stay at Texas. Sources have given conflicting information about whether Barnes decided he was not interested on his own, or if he learned that he was not at the top of Kentucky's list. Gillispie has worked a swift makeover at Texas A&M, going 70-26 in three seasons at a school that had little history of success. The 2006-07 Aggies went 27-7, earning a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and reaching the Sweet 16. It was the school's first Sweet 16 birth since 1980. Prior to that, Gillispie was the head coach at UTEP for two years, and he previously worked as the lead assistant to Bill Self at Tulsa and Illinois. Other names believed to be on the Kentucky list were Michigan State's Tom Izzo and Marquette's Tom Crean. Barnhart and Byrne have a long history together. Barnhart worked under Byrne at Oregon in 1983 and considers him something of a mentor. Byrne's son, Greg, worked under Barnhart at Kentucky for a couple of years, and Bill Byrne helped facilitate the hiring of former Oregon coach Rich Brooks as the UK football coach in 2002, after Barnhart had struck out on several other candidates. Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at ESPN4D@aol.com. ESPN.com senior writer Andy Katz contributed to this report.
Look, I wanted BCG in Arkansas, but didn't think it would happen. As it is -- has there ever been a more hyped coach that has a career total of three NCAA tournament victories?
it's more than that. it's taking a program that was absolutely in the gutter and making it into something it never was before in a very short timeframe. it's all about potential with this guy. i think he'll do very well in kentucky. i'll be rooting for him.
It is still a BIT of a risk for Kentucky and a bit of a fall. After all they thought they could just waltz in and hire Billy Donovan or Barnes, top coaches from firmly established programs. Maybe UT can get the stud big center from Episcopal High (Jordan?), Gilepsie's biggest recruit ever, who A&M beat out UT for. UT was supposedly his second choice. Then Durant could come back and UT would be a legtimate contender for national champs
No hard feelings for BCG for taking this at all. How many of you thought that 3 years ago our BASKETBALL coach would be hired away by Kentucky. If you are going to be a stepping stone, you might as well be a stepping stone to the Kentucky, Duke, UNC, Kansas, UCLA type program. A few years ago, we were at the bottom of the ocean. According to Andy Katz on ESPN, the Aggies are still considered a good job because of the number of fans and the new committment to basketball from the administration. I'd like to see if the fan support remains if we have a non post-season team before I believe our fans committment. I sat through way too many games as a student with 2000 people in the arena to believe that it completely changed. He says they are initially looking at the following: Floyd (USC): Hahahaha ... yeah he is not coming to A&M. End of story. Dixon (Pitt): I think this is a long shot. Pitt is at least a good a job as A&M from the basketball standpoint. The thing we have going for us is that he is a Texas guy and we could pay him way more than Pitt (he is only getting something like $800,000 now). Fox (Nevada): This is a possibility, but we'd have to overpay to get him if he would come at all. Not sure where the best place to go is, but I personally just hope they bring someone in with the committment to recruit the state of Texas because that is really what BCG did to make him successful. I'm not sure how that is going to translate at Kentucky (given their expectations).
Actually local recruiting might be something that he can excel at here as well. UK fans like to see KY high schoolers do well in blue and white uniforms. If he can get a couple of gems from the state here (which will probably be easier than convincing them to play at A & M) that will do well to help him win over some fans. Look at how much slack Tubby took for not signing Chris Lofton. Mr. Kentucky basketball and he ends up at Tennessee. I am hoping this signing gives us Jai Lucas for certain next year. He was hedging after Tubby left, but maybe a former Texas A&M coach coming here will help to make his decision. Patterson may still end up at Florida if Billy D has the scholarship to offer (which I think does). So Billy G is going to have to work hard to find some recruits to bring with him.
Actually the point I was making was that BCG came up through the high school coaching ranks in Texas and supposedly knew just about every high school coach in TX, which gave him a huge edge in recruiting. Not sure how well that will translate into Kentucky. Kentucky's huge edge is that they are Kentucky, but that didn't do Tubby much good on the recruiting front. Should be interesting to see how well BCG does in getting the nations top talent. I'm sure he'll be bringing more Texas talent your way as well. He did that at Illinois in recruiting the Big 3 that took them to the Final 4 getting Deron Williams from out of Texas I believe.
Ah.. gotcha. Well, just the fact that he was a high school coach will make it easier for him to talk to them. I am sure that he will plus Texas has a pretty strong young talent level if you ask me
haha ... are you getting any joy out of this? BCG left UTEP to go to an A&M program that had just went 0-16 in conference, had just lost in a non-conference game to TAMU-CC, and had NOTHING going for it. That says a lot about UTEP. BCG left A&M for one of the top 3 programs in the country. A&M will be fine.
TAMU could be fine. If Jordan doesnt leave and we sign someone who is absolutely perfect. I have my doubts...
Interesting blog entry by Justice: http://blogs.chron.com/sportsjustice/archives/2007/04/good_riddance_b.html
