Column: New hire will know what not to do

Two years ago Billy Gillispie was a savior. Now, he’s a sinner whose career went to hell.

UK Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart and President Lee Todd tried to break the news about their breakup to the world while taking responsibility for the bad hire. Todd stressed finding the right person for the job. Barnhart said he had no regrets about hiring Gillispie, but Barnhart also didn’t think he’d be firing a coach he just hired two years ago.

“This is not a place I thought we’d be or want to be at this time,” Barnhart said at a Friday afternoon news conference announcing Gillispie’s firing.

It wasn’t a place many fans or media expected to be in either.

“We firmly believe in moving in a different direction at this time,” Barnhart said.

And so they did.

With Gillispie gone and the new search beginning, it’s time to look ahead and spare us another Billy Gillispie Project. Let’s make him Exhibit A on what not to do as coach.

Barnhart and Todd said the fans deserve someone who understands the entire scope of what comes with the job title of head coach of men’s basketball and they’re right. Gillispie was the absolute opposite of the UK mold. He was stubborn, treated the fans as ignorant and thought of the media as worthless commentary. That’s a quick way to earn a pink slip.

Two years ago, Barnhart seemed to rush to get Gillispie after public rejections from Billy Donovan and Rick Barnes. Maybe at a different time, Gillispie would have fit at UK. But after following a coach with character like Tubby Smith, the contrast is stark.

Barnhart may have made his first wrong hire as AD, but it isn’t the end of the world. UK can easily repair this.

Throughout the news conference, the point stressed the most was that Gillispie’s apparent refusal to be more than just a coach cost him his job.

But everyone knows the microscope that you have as head coach of the Cats. Joe B. Hall, Eddie Sutton, Rick Pitino and Smith all knew. Donovan, Tom Izzo, Herb Sendek or whoever the next UK head coach is will have to understand. (If you want a real tip, I say Donovan, Travis Ford, Sean Miller of Xavier and Sendek are the four likely candidates).

The losses obviously didn’t help. Winning more games might have given Gillispie another year, but maybe not even that long. He was a self-proclaimed stubborn coach who has been facing an administration that wasn’t going to budge on the fact that they were certain they chose the wrong guy.

And if you want to know exactly what that means, Todd will explain.

“It was a lack of understanding that this is a complete job,” Todd said. “It requires more than coaching and recruiting. We need someone who represents the entire Big Blue Nation.”

Gillispie burned that bridge by claiming he wasn’t an ambassador for the university at the Southeastern Conference Tournament, although his stubbornness is very similar to the fan base.

So now UK is back at square one two years after the Billy Gillispie Project. This one didn’t work out, so now Barnhart will search for a coach who knows that three-fourths of the battle at UK is winning over the fans and the media. Winning games is a very important part and losing too many will get you run off (re: Tubby Smith), but you’ll have more time to pack your things than Gillispie and his staff were given.

Not everyone is probably happy with the decision. One fan stood outside Memorial Coliseum with a sign that read “Fire the media, not Billy G.”

By the time this hits newsstands, half the coaches associated with the new opening will have denied any given number of reports. Others will privately lobby for the job and more will deny the job and still be considered the top candidate (looking at you Donovan).

But if UK’s eventual new hire wants any tips, I’ve got a good one for you — look at what Gillispie did … and do the opposite.
Kenny Colston is a journalism junior. E-mail kcolston@kykernel.com.

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