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At Rupp ArenaHe beat UofL in the NCAAT so it lulled us to sleep.
He also said something to the effect, he wanted 5 stars backing up 5 stars. He also quickly turned into a sick tyrant ... ask Perry Stevenson.We weren't mad really. We were glad that Tubby was gone and looking forward to a new coach. At the time, Gillispie was a hot up and coming coach. He coached a really solid Texas A&M squad to a sweet 16 with a win over Pitino's Cards in Rupp Arena. He had a solid record of turning programs around at UTEP and A&M and was on Self's staff at Illinois I believe.
I remember not really knowing a ton about him but still excited to get somebody new in here. In hindsight, of course, he was an awful hire.
It also didn't help that after Donovan turned us down there were like hourly reports (or what felt like hourly reports) on ESPN and the like that announced other coaches weren't interested. That's where the "Rick Barnes has taken his name out of consideration" meme comes from. So it just made Gillespie seem like he was probably well down the list when he was chosen, which was bad PR.I should also add that everybody really thought we we were getting Donovan, so he was always seen as a second or third choice. I remember some people wanted Cal at the time as well, but nothing like two years later when we actually hired him.
Mitch panicked when the Donovan deal went south and jumped on the first decent hire he could get.
Not mad at all, he was a hotter name and had just beaten Louisville. Supposed to live and breathe basketball. We didn’t know he was a total drunk nutbag though.It was a little before my time.
It sucked. but honestly, you get a gold star for almost spelling Billy Gillispie correctly. First time i've seen the "Billie". Usually it's the last name that gives people the most trouble so it's refreshing to see the first name murdered a bit.It was a little before my time.