GEORGETOWN — Wandered over to Georgetown College this morning to check out the Cincinnati Bengals’ first practice of the day and found a little company.
UK basketball coach Billy Gillispie was there, as well.
In fact, Gillispie was there with the entire UK coaching staff observing the first Bengals practice of camp that included wide receiver Chad Johnson, trying to work his way back from ankle surgery.
After practice, Gillispie chatted with Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis, then took some time to talk to backup quarterback Jordan Palmer, right, who was the quarterback at UTEP during Gillispie’s stay as basketball coach at the El Paso school.
So what was Gillispie doing at camp?
“Observing,” he said. “The organization that you have with such a large number of players is phenomenal to me, and you can definitely learn something from that.”
Gillispie said he met Lewis last year when the Bengals’ coach came to a UK game. He said the two then spent a little time together when Lewis had an off day.
“He seems just like an unbelievable person,” said Lewis. “The thing that strikes you about him is how nice he is and how caring he is. They have really big fish to fry right now and he’s taking time out to say hello. That just tells you what kind of person that he is.”
Gillispie took time to search out Jordan Palmer and tell him hello.
“I saw him I believe from the time he came in as a redshirt freshman (at UTEP),” said Gillispie. “He was held in very high regard and had a fantastic career there. We were talking about some good times and those kinds of things, and how much we both liked El Paso during the time we were there.”
Just to keep up on basketball matters, we did ask Gillispie about the status of freshmen DeAndre Liggins and Kevin Galloway, but the coach re-iterated that he does not talk about players’ individual academics.
