Though he praised his players' effort -- as he had after a pair of exhibition victories -- he said the Cats continue to make too many mental mistakes. He wasn't happy with an offense that shot 40 percent in the first half, nor impressed with the defense even though the Bears made just 10 of 50 shots.
"Their 20 percent (shooting) wasn't enough us," Gillispie said. "It was more them."
Nor was he ecstatic about the mental mistakes he said are plaguing his team.
A 27 point win had him unhappy. Then the 16 point loss tonight to Gardner-Webb -- on his 48th birthday -- may have Gillispie popping Prozac like chiclets. Last year, Gardner-Webb was 9-21 and finished 7th in the Atlantic Sun Conference.
There are a lot of Kentucky fans canceling their trip to NYC for next week. It was expected that Kentucky would roll through the first couple home games tied in to 2K Sports College Hoops Classic before getting some nice early season challenges. Not happening.
Sometimes people ask why I write so much about Kentucky both here at FanHouse as well as at my personal blog, OrangeandBlueHue.com.
The answer is simple. There's never any shortage of fascinating things happening in the Big Blue Nation. From the absurd to the amazing to the awe-inspiring, you'll find it if you're covering Kentucky. Seriously, the stories write themselves.
In Gary Parrish's July 04 entry to his 'Parrish Thoughts' blog, he mentions a comment received by a Kentucky fan in response to one of his recent columns on Billy Gillispie. The commenter, 'David,' wrote that he bought a summer home in Arizona just so he could register his car there. Why Arizona? Well, it should be obvious, you big dummy! It was the only state with the '4KYCATS' license plate still available.
Parrish noticed the comment and emailed 'David' asking for more. His response (scroll to Parrish's July 04 entry) says it all:
A real estate agent told me how to go online and check the states' computers for personalized plate combinations. I was looking for a summer home and had tried other Rocky Mountain States for months to come up with a combination that would look cool on a red corvette, but everything is taken by all the wildcat fans. Found a home near Sedona, Arizona. Looked on the state's MVD computer, and lucky me there was 4KYCATS. Everywhere I drive that car I meet Kentucky bball fans. Bottom of Bryce Canyon national park: Ky fans. Top of the capitol dome in Denver: Ky fans. Ran out of gas on a charter boat in the mangrove swamp of the Florida Keys. Who comes to my rescue? Ky fans who saw my Ky jersey and towed me back, told me if I had been a Duke fan they would have left me there to die.
You just can't do any better than that. Thank you, David, for making the wacky world of college basketball fandom a better place.
This week, FanHouse is taking a way too early look at the top teams heading into 2007 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. It's a time-honored filler for the off-season, and who are we to buck tradition? Today we look at teams 15 through 11.
With Billy Gillispie whipping Kentucky fans into a frenzied elation over his masterful early recruiting strokes, some believe the Wildcats are poised for a return to national prominence in '08.
However, for that to happen, Gillispie will need to transform streaky and inconsistent seniors Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley into reliable and productive players who can lead both on and off the court. Last year Ramel Bradley's inability to distribute the ball, especially near the :38 minute mark, cost the Wildcats some games. This year he may be replaced at the point by incoming frosh Alex Legion (6' 5") but given Gillispie's track record for turning things around wherever he goes, expect to see a totally different look for Bradley, who will probably play a combination of point and shooting guard. Senior Joe Crawford needs to find his magic touch on the perimeter, while sophomores Derrick Jasper and Jodie Meeks need to take their games to the next level in '08.
Jasper started strong for the 'Cats as a freshman but lost his confidence midway through the season, never to return. Jodie Meeks was a star in the making for Kentucky, and stands ready to be a leader on the '08 team. Think of Chuck Hayes with more athleticism, but the same fierce determination to win.
This is a couple weeks old, but the Friday before a long weekend feels like the right time to post it. The Sporting Orange has carefully studied the relative attractiveness of the female student-athletes at SEC schools and pronounced Kentucky the No. 1 school in the conference.
The Sporting Orange looked at every female student-athlete at every SEC school, so this was an arduous task. Kentucky's softball, swimming, and golf teams are the ones that put the school over the top. Alabama came in second and Florida third. At the bottom of the list were Mississippi State in 11th place and Ole Miss in 12th.
Ashley Judd really has nothing to do with this story, other than, you know, she's hot and she's a Kentucky graduate. I am not aware of any such lists of the hotness of male student-athletes, but if I find one I will gladly post it.
I don't know much about Patrick Patterson, the high school power forward who committed to Kentucky last week. But I know I like him, now that I've read that ESPN gave him the opportunity to make a big deal of last week's announcement and he turned the Worldwide Leader down.
The cable network offered to televise the player's announcement if he would reveal the choice a half hour before the 3:45 p.m. news conference.
That way, ESPN gets a scoop to put on a crawl at the bottom of the screen, while Patterson gets national exposure.
"Thank you, but no thank you," the player's mother, Tywanna Patterson, said she told ESPN....
Patterson described his mother's reaction as telling ESPN, "You can come to the news conference like everybody else."
Although I'm not naive enough to think big-time high school basketball has any relationship to the ideals of amateurism in athletics, I'd like to think there are still a few teenage hoops players who haven't bought into their own hype. Patterson sounds like a good young man in addition to being a good player.
In the last few years Ashley Judd has probably garnered more attention for being a Kentucky basketball fan than she has for her acting. But now she's not just a Kentucky fan, she's also a Kentucky graduate. Judd, who attended Kentucky from 1986 to 1990 but left without graduating, has completed the last class she needed for her degree in French.
I'm usually cynical about celebrity sports fans -- how many Lakers games would Jack Nicholson attend if they weren't on TV? -- but Judd has always struck me as a real fan, not just someone trying to leech off the attention a sports team gets.
So even though I'm not sure what use Judd has for a French degree at this point in her life, I think this is cool. Congratulations, Ashley.
The University of Kentucky athletic association board of directors has approved its 2008 budget, and that budget includes a $300,000 increase in spending on men's basketball recruiting. The reason? Kentucky is looking to buy a private plane so new basketball coach Billy Gillispie will have an easier time on the recruiting trail.
"Right now we're examining the ability to get around privately," athletic director Mitch Barnhart said. "We've found just in the last 2 ½ weeks ... how difficult it's been for (Gillispie) to get around. A lot of people have helped us with their planes in getting him where we need to go."
Kentucky officials say the $300,000 increase isn't enough to buy a plane, although it might be enough for a down payment. It's definitely enough to raise eyebrows and questions about the priorities of universities, and about the huge amounts of money spent on "amateur" athletics.
If you ask two girls to the prom and they both say no, the next girl you ask might say yes, but she probably won't feel great about being your third choice.
So it must be a little bit uncomfortable for new Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie to know that he was the school's third option. The worst-kept secret in sports is that Kentucky only offered the job to Gillispie after Florida coach Billy Donovan and Texas coach Rick Barnes said no.
But there's a growing consensus that Gillispie will turn out to be a great fit at Kentucky. My FanHouse colleague Ryan Ferguson said Gillispie is just what Kentucky needs and noted that Gillispie defused any awkwardness by joking, "As long as I'm not the sixth or seventh choice, I'm happy." Luke Winn of SI.com says:
Gillispie was not a typical third choice, in that the tireless, 47-year-old coach represented neither a significant drop-off in quality nor a questionable fit as the new Bluegrass band leader. This may seem ludicrous given what just transpired in Atlanta, and the goal of Plan A, but I genuinely believe the following statement: Billy Gillispie was the best coach for Kentucky.
I'm not willing to go quite that far – I still think if they could have gotten him, Donovan would have been the best man for the Kentucky job – but I do like everything I know about Gillispie. Unlike Tubby Smith, Gillispie will relish the pressure in Lexington. Winn is right about one thing: As Plan C's go, Gillispie is a good one.
In the long tradition of web sites devoted to getting college coaches fired, some Kentucky fans registered the URL www.firebilly.com shortly after Billy Gillispie became the Wildcats' head coach. But they want to explain. They're actually supporters of Gillispie, and they registered the domain name to make sure some anti-Gillispie Kentucky fan couldn't:
Seriously, we do not want to fire University of Kentucky men's basketball head coach Billy Gillispie.
So why is the name of the site firebilly.com, you ask? To keep it away from some crazy UK fans, we answer.
Sounds like a reasonable bunch of fans to me. Of course, if Gillispie ends up with a terrible record at Kentucky, they might change their tune, in which case they'll be glad they already have the site set up.
Note: As of early Sunday morning, the site seems to be having technical problems.
With the news that Billy Donovan will stay at Florida, where will the Kentucky administration turn next in its basketball coaching search? Most likely, they'll turn to the state of Texas. The early favorites are Texas coach Rick Barnes and Texas A&M coach Billy Gillespie.
Gillespie's lack of actions -- specifically, declining to sign a contract extension -- strongly suggests that he'd like to look elsewhere. Gillespie is coming off a great season at Texas A&M, but can that greatness be sustained? I doubt it. This season was fueled by one Acie Law clutch shot after another. Law is done, and I can't imagine the Aggies being nearly as good without him.
Barnes seems somewhat less intent on leaving, but he, like Gillespie, is facing a 2007-08 season that will almost certainly be significantly less successful than this season was. (Unless you actually think Kevin Durant will be back next year.)
Most indications are that Barnes is Kentucky's first choice and Gillespie is No. 2. But Gillespie seems a little more eager to go than Barnes does. It's not clear what the next step will be, but all eyes are on the Lone Star State.
After last night's opening win over Central Arkansas, Kentucky Coach Billy Gillispie was less than thrilled with a 67-40 win.
Sometimes people ask why I write so much about Kentucky both here at FanHouse as well as at my personal blog, 
This week, FanHouse is taking a way too early look at the top teams heading into 2007 with a 
This is a couple weeks old, but the Friday before a long weekend feels like the right time to post it. 
I don't know much about Patrick Patterson, the high school power forward who 
The University of Kentucky athletic association board of directors has approved its 2008 budget, and that budget includes a $300,000 increase in spending on men's basketball recruiting. The reason? Kentucky is looking to buy a private plane so new basketball coach Billy Gillispie will have an easier time on the recruiting trail. 
If you ask two girls to the prom and they both say no, the next girl you ask might say yes, but she probably won't feel great about being your third choice. 
In the long tradition of web sites devoted to getting college coaches fired, some Kentucky fans registered the URL 
