matt colvin
03-25-2008, 09:51 AM
Yin and yang in Gillispie's first season | POLL
PHILOSOPHY SEEMS TO BE DEMAND, CONQUER
By John Clay
HERALD-LEADER SPORTS COLUMNIST
There is the Billy Gillispie as a demanding taskmaster with the sharp tongue and quick temper, holding knockdown, drag-out practices on game day, running his players until their feet bleed.
And there is the Billy Gillispie who dissolves into tears when asked how it feels to make the NCAA Tournament with this team.
There is the Billy Gillispie who has stood up prominent sponsors of the athletic program, who blew off alumni events and speaking engagements, who couldn't settle on anything more than a memorandum of agreement with his employer.
And then there is the Billy Gillispie who, upon finding out that a UK booster had just been diagnosed with cancer, called the man he barely knew and said, "OK, how are we going to beat this thing?"
Who is the real Billy G.?
After a year of Gillispie's stewardship of Kentucky basketball, the only thing for certain is that this small-town guy with an uncomplicated love of basketball is one complicated coach.
So this is going to be one of those columns I hate to read, or write, the on-the-one-hand followed by the on-the-other hand. In this case, it can't be helped. There were things that were troubling about this first season of the Billy G. era. There were things that were encouraging.
There were days when you were sure his players hated Billy G. There were games when you couldn't imagine those very same players competing any harder for any other coach.
Gillispie's methods are often, well, maddening. Those demanding practices. The game-day workouts. The abusive language. The way Gillispie booted a walk-on off the team at 2 a.m. after the team returned from a 41-point loss at Vanderbilt.
Troubling, too, was the impression the coach often gave that some of his players were too soft to play through pain. That Kentucky suffered three stress fractures, a broken nose, a couple of concussions, a knee injury, and foot problems this campaign speaks to the physical toll Gillispie demands.
The excessive amount of minutes Gillispie extracted from his best players would fit into that category except it's hard to be sure how much of that was Billy G.'s way, or the product of the unusual circumstances that befell his first season.
Same thing with style of play. Gillispie's teams aren't likely to score in the triple-digits. But the work-the-shot-clock, value-every-possession mentality adopted by this year's team might have had more to do with personnel than philosophy.
More here: http://www.kentucky.com/276/story/354744.html
PHILOSOPHY SEEMS TO BE DEMAND, CONQUER
By John Clay
HERALD-LEADER SPORTS COLUMNIST
There is the Billy Gillispie as a demanding taskmaster with the sharp tongue and quick temper, holding knockdown, drag-out practices on game day, running his players until their feet bleed.
And there is the Billy Gillispie who dissolves into tears when asked how it feels to make the NCAA Tournament with this team.
There is the Billy Gillispie who has stood up prominent sponsors of the athletic program, who blew off alumni events and speaking engagements, who couldn't settle on anything more than a memorandum of agreement with his employer.
And then there is the Billy Gillispie who, upon finding out that a UK booster had just been diagnosed with cancer, called the man he barely knew and said, "OK, how are we going to beat this thing?"
Who is the real Billy G.?
After a year of Gillispie's stewardship of Kentucky basketball, the only thing for certain is that this small-town guy with an uncomplicated love of basketball is one complicated coach.
So this is going to be one of those columns I hate to read, or write, the on-the-one-hand followed by the on-the-other hand. In this case, it can't be helped. There were things that were troubling about this first season of the Billy G. era. There were things that were encouraging.
There were days when you were sure his players hated Billy G. There were games when you couldn't imagine those very same players competing any harder for any other coach.
Gillispie's methods are often, well, maddening. Those demanding practices. The game-day workouts. The abusive language. The way Gillispie booted a walk-on off the team at 2 a.m. after the team returned from a 41-point loss at Vanderbilt.
Troubling, too, was the impression the coach often gave that some of his players were too soft to play through pain. That Kentucky suffered three stress fractures, a broken nose, a couple of concussions, a knee injury, and foot problems this campaign speaks to the physical toll Gillispie demands.
The excessive amount of minutes Gillispie extracted from his best players would fit into that category except it's hard to be sure how much of that was Billy G.'s way, or the product of the unusual circumstances that befell his first season.
Same thing with style of play. Gillispie's teams aren't likely to score in the triple-digits. But the work-the-shot-clock, value-every-possession mentality adopted by this year's team might have had more to do with personnel than philosophy.
More here: http://www.kentucky.com/276/story/354744.html