OK, now that the coaching campaign is over, John Calipari is here, and Billy Gillispie is sitting in his home in Nicholasville looking at the “Help Wanted” rather than the “Sports” section of his newspaper, it seems like a good time to remind Coach Cal how this whole thing came to be.

For the past few weeks, most of the national media has been calling for a head of its own, and it wasn’t Gillispie’s. It was Big Blue Nation’s. Columnists and talking heads said it was ridiculous that UK would even consider firing Gillispie after a 22-14 season, that winning wasn’t everything.

Well, yeah, you’re right.

While Gillispie seems to have laid out a road map of what not to do as head coach of UK — smart off to reporters on national television and disagree with his boss on the definition of his job for starters — there is a layer to this problem the analysts and “professionals” don’t seem to get.

Gillispie wasn’t fired for being a loser, and the fans could have even stood it through the National Invitation Tournament. Coach G. is no longer wearing blue because he failed to realize not only the importance of this job — because God knows we have read that story — but exactly who he was representing.

Big Blue Nation is not just the guy picking the Cats to win a championship in his bracket every year (except this year), or the lady screaming the new hire should have a championship and at least a few Final Fours under his belt within the first four years. It’s them too, but it’s bigger than that.

Have you ever driven through Appalachia? I’m from there, and almost every barn, garage or telephone pole has some type of basketball hoop tacked to it. Families use their only vacation time to see the Cats play an away game. Children grow up wanting nothing but entire UK bedroom sets, complete with Wildcat trashcans, bedspreads, curtains, posters and pillowcases.

What Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart and President Lee Todd can’t quite articulate is just who they are satisfying when they say this “special” job is for Big Blue Nation.

It’s fans like my great-grandmother, who up until her death in 2002 could have probably rambled off any Cat fact you needed to know since Adolph Rupp was building the program.

It’s fans like Jon Scott, who has never lived in Kentucky, and doesn’t even have a tie to UK, but built an entire database of UK basketball history and statistics (bigbluehistory.net).

It’s people like those who crowded the Blue Grass Airport chanting C-A-T-S, decked out in blue and white, just hoping to get a glance of their new coach. Just wanting to give him a wave, and maybe, just maybe, get one back.

The wait is over, and in only a few months we will begin to see how Calipari will stand up to the job. But this time two years ago we loved Gillispie’s work ethic, recruiting ability and his overall ability to rebuild a school’s program, and it turned out he had all the work ethic — we just didn’t like him.

We know Coach Cal can coach — you’ve seen his stats. But in the rebuilding process, Calipari, like Gillispie, is known for winning, not being excessively personable and the ambassador we know UK is looking for.

But maybe he is. Only time will tell. But this isn’t at all the same shade of blue Calipari is used to. And as long as he keeps that in mind, he could just be what UK is looking for.RELATED STORIES: The Calipari party begins: coach signs eight-year deal

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