John Clay's Sidelines

The Bluegrass State Basketball blog is predicting that John Calipari will be named UK coach this week:

I have a source close to the Kentucky basketball program that thinks there will be a new coach announced this week. My source feels that an announcement will be made before Wednesday.

He said that he firmly believes Kentucky will be announcing someone from their “A List” as the next coach. He added that if he were a betting man, he would put his money on John Calipari from Memphis. He thinks that Kentucky targeted Billy Donovan as the first choice, but Donovan opted to stay at Florida.

My friend Shannon Russell of the Cincinnati Enquirer shoots down the message boards. Russell covers Xavier and reports that Xavier coach Sean Miller was not in Lexington, as rumored, last night. In fact, Miller sent Russell a text message saying nothing was up.

Also, commenting on Shannon’s post, former Xavier beat writer Dustin Dow, who knows his stuff, wrote this:

But the UK job is the sort that Miller isn’t likely to pursue. It certainly doesn’t fit his personality. That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t listen if Kentucky came calling. But there is no indication that that has happened or even will happen. In fact, there’s a strong indication from Miller that “nothing” is happening on that front. He’s made it quite clear that he likes his situation at Xavier. While I don’t think he’s going to retire on XU’s sidelines, I do think he’s sending strong signals that he has every intention of returning next season, if not beyond, to see how far he can take this program.
As for the UK, I think Mitch Barnhart really screwed up with hiring Billy Gillispie and should share more blame that Gillispie for the way things are in Lexington right now. I’ll have more to say on this matter in the next couple days, but the last think Barnhart needs to do is make a rushed decision on a coach who really doesn’t want to be in Lexington in the first place.

In case you missed it, a blog commenter passed along this link in which ESPN’s Andy Katz writes:

A source close to Xavier just told me that one school, either Arizona or Virginia, called XU athletic director Mike Bobinski, but head coach Sean Miller told Bobinski to say thanks but no thanks. He said he’s staying put.

Richard Justice

This from Richard Justice’s terrific blog at the Houston Chronicle:

So Aggie Doug calls up 1560 the other day and makes a plea for the Aggies to bring Billy Clyde Gillispie back to run the basketball program. There’s absolutely no chance Bill Byrne would ever have Billy Clyde back, but that’s beside the point.

Within an hour, we heard from a bunch of other Aggies saying the last person they want running their basketball program – other than maybe Dennis Franchione – is Billy Clyde Gillispie.

Aggies may not be completely in love with Mark Turgeon. After all, he has been there two whole years and hasn’t been to the Final Four even once. For the most part, though, they seem happy they’ve got (a) a really good coach and (b) a really good guy in charge.

. . . One of the hot rumors out there is that Billy Clyde will land at Texas Tech to replace Pat Knight. I don’t believe this one.

Stumbled across this Friday post from Dick Weiss of the New York Daily News.

An exceprt:

Kentucky apparently has not waited long to hire a new basketball coach. And it’s a huge name.

Sources told the Daily News that Florida players were just pulled out of class and told Billy Donovan was leaving that SEC school to become the ‘Cats’ new basketball coach. We believe it.

This would be a home-run hire.

Turned out that wasn’t the case, as we know now.

Continue reading ‘Sometimes you just get it wrong; or do you?’

Just for the sake of discussion, let’s say Xavier’s Sean Miller is a serious candidate for the position of UK basketball coach.

If so, how did Miller’s Xavier team compare to Billy Gillispie’s Kentucky team this past season?

A chart:

The rumor mill heated up with talk Saturday about Xavier coach Sean Miller as a viable candidate for the Kentucky opening, with even rumors that Miller was meeting with UK officials.

(I like the idea, by the way.)

Here are some facts on Miller:

• He turned 40 last November 17.
• Miller is 120-47 after five seasons as head coach at Xavier.
• He took the Muskies to the Elite Eight last year and to the Sweet 16 this year.
• Xavier is 56-14 over the last two seasons.
• Miller was a point guard at Pittsburgh from 1987-92.
• He is third all-time in Big East history in assists.
• He was an assistant at Wisconsin in 1993, then joined Herb Sendek’s staff at Miami of Ohio in 1994.
• He spent one season as an assistant at Pitt (1996) under Ralph Willard, then re-joined Sendek at North Carolina State the following year.

Continue reading ‘A look at Sean Miller’

H-L photo/David Stephenson

Big Blue Links for Sunday:

• Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader reports that Gillispie’s attorney expects big buyout.
• Tipton’s notes writes that Mike Pratt will help UK swing for the fences in coaching search.
• My column on Gillispie’s final press conference.
• You can find the video of Gillispie’s press conference at Kentuckysports.com.
• Mark Story writes that now is not the time to throw stones.
• Chip Cosby reports that Rick Pitino pushes Travis Ford and John Pelphrey for the job.
• Rick Bailey reports on UK baseball’s doubleheader split with South Carolina.
• Jay Mariotti of AOL calls Kentucky job the worst in college basketball.
• Gil Lebreton of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes that Gillispie’s dream job was more of a nightmare.
• Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press thinks that Tom Izzo would listen to UK, but not leave for UK. (Hat tip to Tom Leach.)
• Also in Free Press, Drew Sharp writes that Rich Rodriguez should take note of Gillispie saga.
• Thayer Evans of the New York Times writes that UK now spins the coaching carousel.
• Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News writes that hasty hiring of Gillispie hurt Kentucky.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Billy G. farewell and what comes next’

SEC links for Sunday:

• J. Michael Falgoust of USA Today reports on Vandy’s loss to Maryland in NCAA Women’s Tournament, leaving no more league teams left in the men’s or women’s tournament.
• Randy Rosetta of The Advocate reports on LSU’s baseball win over Ole Miss.
• State columnist Ron Morris lists the 10 most influential figures in USC athletic history.
• Ian Rapoport of the Birmingham News writes that Alabama football coach Nick Saban is impressed with new Alabama basketball coach Anthony Grant.
• News columnist Kevin Scarbinsky wonders if Grant is a better choice than Missouri’s Mike Anderson.
• The News’ Charles Goldberg reports on Auburn’s eighth NCAA swimming title.
• Tennessean columnist Joe Biddle writes that Vandy pulls a smart play on baseball field.
• Robbie Andreu of the Gainesville Sun reports that Florida football is looking for playmakers.
• Drew Edwards of the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports that UT quarterback Jonathon Crompton says he’s having more fun this spring.
• News-Sentinel columnist John Adams writes that Tennessee must spring ahead to forget bad memories.
• In the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Tom Murphy writes that quarterback Ryan Mallett was impressive in Razorbacks scrimmage.
• Michael Carvell of the AJC reports that Joe Montana and his son Nick, a top prep quarterback, visited Georgia.

Have to get working on my column for the paper, but before I do here’s five quick impressions from Gillispie press conference:

• 1.) Gillispie took the high road, but then it reminds me of a comment Phil Simms once used. He was doing the color on a Browns’ exhibition game back when Tim Couch and Kelly Holcomb were in a competition for the starting quarterback job. Jim Nantz commented that Couch had said all the right things about being forced into a competition after being the starter. Simms blurted out, “What’s he going to say?” Same thing with Billy. He wants someone else to hire him. It doesn’t do any good to burn bridges in a public forum.

• 2.) It doesn’t matter if the public side of the job was spelled out to him or not. What the public side of the job meant was to be more respectful, easier to deal with, and, yes, nicer. Does that really need to be written out?

• 3.) I asked about his relationship with AD Mitch Barnhart. Gillispie said he liked Mitch. Jerry Tipton followed up by asking what he liked about Mitch. There was a long pause.

• 4.) He will be better off at job where he can coach and recruit, and doesn’t have to worry about much else. That’s not a knock on Gillispie, that’s just a fact. He’s just not cut out to be a public speaker, or a glad-hander. It’s not his way. And that’s fine. That doesn’t mean he can’t succeed.

• 5.) Speaking of that, he’ll get another job. My guess is a Big 12 job, or one in Texas.