John Clay's Sidelines

Ok, I’ve gone back and watched the UK-LSU tape yet again trying to figure out Billy Gillispie’s post-game statement in which the coach claimed he lost the game by substituting the “wrong guy” on Saturday.

Here again is the quote:

“I made a critical, critical, critical substitution in that time when we had a 10-point lead and played the wrong guy. Ramon was hurt. I thought he knocked his shoulder out of place, or closed his shoulder out of place, or something, so I subbed. That was what had gotten us in the position we were in in the first place and that’s what got us in the end. Bad mistake by me.”

I’ve been told that Gillispie was not talking about A.J. Stewart, who along with Kevin Galloway did not properly execute their defensive assignments when LSU’s Tasmin Mitchell hit the open three-pointer with 9.8 seconds left to put the Tigers up by three points.

Instead, after watching the second half yet again, I now believe the mistake Gillispie is talking about is not a substitution, but the fact that he left Perry Stevenson in the game when he made changes at the 11:05 mark with UK up 54-44.

With the exception of a brief respite given to Jodie Meeks, when Stewart subbed for Meeks just before the uner-16 TV timeout, Gillispie had gone with the five players he had used to start the second half — Meeks, Patrick Patterson, Ramon Harris, Darius Miller and Kevin Galloway. It was that five that turned an eight-point deficit into a 10-point Kentucky lead.

Then with 12:24 remaining, Gillispie decides to give both Patterson and Meeks a brief rest before the upcoming TV time. He subs in Stewart and Stevenson.

At 11:05, after Stevenson scores on a post-up to make it 54-44, LSU calls time out. That was when Ramon Harris was clutching his chest. During the time out, Gillispie puts Meeks and Gillispie back in the game. Stewart comes out. But instead of Stevenson, Gillispie takes Harris out of the game, thinking that Harris is injured.

With 6:35 left, Gillispie gets Harris back in the game in place of Galloway. But by that time, LSU has cut the lead to 58-56. At 3:18, Gillispie puts Galloway back in, this time for Stevenson.

As Matt Jones at Kentucky Sports Radio writes, after the Gillispie press conference we thought the coach was talking about Stevenson. Others weren’t so sure, thrown off by the “at the end” comment.

And then, as my friend Rick Bozich writes in the C-J, there is the whole issue of a coach throwing a player under the bus like that. Sure, Billy said it was his “critical, critical mistake,” but by singling out one player, even unnamed, it deflects the attention, as well.

Here’s a blog comment from loyal reader Gary on that subject:

It irritates me when anyone publicly criticizes individual athletes on the college or high school level (including coaches who say that they should not have subbed one player….we can figure out who he subbed when LSU made their comeback!)
The game yesterday was not won or lost on one shot or one blown defensive assignment. You can go all the way back to the beginning of the game and Coach Billy G not starting his best line up. Good coaches make adjustments….look at Duke and Coach K making changes with his point guards this late in the season.