Kentucky Tops Creighton; But I’ve Got A Question

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As I watched Kentucky knock off Creighton in a very hostile environment last night, I couldn’t help but wonder:

How many Kentucky fans are pulling AGAINST their team right now?

We know that there’s a group that wants Billy Gillispie tossed after two years.  (Actually, they’ve wanted him tossed since his season-and-a-half mark.)  How big is that group?

Was the average UK fan sitting in front of a television last night rooting against the Cats?  Were they hoping that Creighton would hit their late free throws?  That Jodie Meeks wouldn’t come through in the clutch?

I would like to think that the majority of Kentucky fans were pulling for their school to win.  But I wouldn’t bet on it.



In the end, it was indeed Meeks who converted a three-point play with 10.6 seconds left to give UK the 65-63 win in Omaha.  The play was designed by Gillispie, but he took no credit for it: “It’s not about drawing up a play.  It’s about a player making a play… It had nothing to do with coaching.”

John Clay of The Lexington Herald-Leaders wants folks to stop talking about the coach for a while and start noticing how the Wildcats are scratching and clawing out victories.

According to Patrick Patterson (who became the 57th member of UK’s 1000 point club last night), Kentucky just wants to win: “We don’t want to stop playing basketball, and we sure enough don’t want to go back to school right now.  We know that if we keep winning, we’ll most likely miss this entire week of school.  That’s huge motivation right there.”

(Sidenote 1 — That doesn’t sound like someone who’ll want to return for another year of college does it?)

(Sidnote 2 — Someone send that quote to the next college president who says a college football playoff would cost STUDENT-athletes too much class time.)

Mark Story, also of The Herald-Leader, writes about the NCAA Tournament in his latest column… but in it he writes about getting Travis Ford or Billy Donovan to Lexington.

A tornado came close enough to Omaha for fans to be rushed into the Qwest Center.

UK will now play at Notre Dame on Wednesday night… 7pm EDT on ESPN2.



From talking to a source in Lexington, it sounds as though everyone around UK believes Gillispie is a goner.

Why hasn’t Mitch Barnhart given him a vote of confidence?  Barnhart has only grown more quiet since Gillispie’s very dumb “that’s not in the job description” comment.

You can also see from the articles/columns written by the Kentucky media that most of them don’t seem to think Gillispie will return.

We’ll know whenever UK goes belly-up.  But if Gillispie is retained, I think it will come as a surprise to most of the folks covering his program.