Kentucky Basketball Drama

The new University of Kentucky basketball coach is... Billy Gillispie, former coach of Texas A&M. Yeah, I've never heard of him either.

This past few weeks has been a strange trip for UK fans. Rumors came from various quarters that Billy Donovan and wife had been touring the Bluegrass last week (like he didn't have anything better to do such as, oh, prepare for the Final Four!), that they'd been house hunting in the area (why the rush? - did they expect to be chased out of Florida with pitchforks as soon as the announcement was made?), and that they were going to live on a horse farm, of all things. (Everyone knows that all Kentuckians live on horse farms, just like all Irishmen live in thatched roof cottages.) On the flip side, there was a particularly ridiculous rumor that Donovan didn't want to take the job because he'd have to play his former boss, Rick Pitino, every year. *snort* I didn't believe a word of it. There was no reason why he'd want to leave Florida; a respectable, winning program with money and sunshine - what more could you want?

I have to say though that I really didn't care who the new coach would be. My one and only choice was Pitino, and there'd be no way he'd admit he made a mistake in leaving back in 1997. The strangest coincidence in all of this is that it was Gillispie (Tubby Smith's successor) who ousted Pitino (Tubby's predecessor) from this year's tournament - and on UK's home floor, no less. Weird, huh?