It's no secret to University of Kentucky (UK) fans in Lexington, Ky., that men's basketball coach Billy Gillespie's favorite pastime is pickling... himself. He's a real dilly!
Gillespie has a drinking problem. And the UK Athletic Department and alumni are well aware of it. But what's a school to do when it managed to run off Coach Tubby Smith -- one of the top coaches in the country who averaged 26 wins per year during his 10 years at Kentucky?
Tuesday night, Kentucky is battling Ole Miss at Ole Miss. The Wildcats trailed for much of the first half. Kentucky's leading scorer Jodie Meeks is being shut down by a special box-and-one defense -- holding him to 8 points from the freethrow line and no field goals in the first half.
During a halftime interview with an ESPN reporter who asked him what he planned to do to get Jodie Meeks more involved in the offense in the second half, Coach Billy Gillespie got real chippy with the reporter, stating "This is not a one-man team... This is a good team... everything is not centered around one player..."
He was actually bothered by the question... as if Kentucky doesn't need Jodie Meeks' gabillion points per game to be successful. Yeah... right.
What was he drinking before the game? It sure wasn't Gatorade.
Billy Gillespie is a drunk. And it was painfully obvious that he was full of IT Tuesday night.
What should have been a routine answer to an obvious question, turned out to be a telltale drunken stumble for Gillespie during a nationally-televised sobriety test.
Hell, yeah... Kentucky needed to figure up something at halftime to free Jodie Meeks up to get involved in its offense.
That's what coaches are supposed to say when they're asked questions like that. And that's what coaches get paid to do at halftime... figure stuff out.
Jodie is not just the Wildcats' leading scorer, but he is the leading scorer in the entire Southeastern Conference (SEC)... the third leading scorer in the nation... a candidate for NCAA Player of the Year!
What coach would not want to figure out how to get a player of that caliber into their offense?
Where else did Gillespie plan to get Jodie's 26.1 points against Ole Miss... from turnover-proned freshman backup point guard Deandre Liggins -- who had almost as many turnovers (3) as he had assists (4), while shooting 3-16 from the field for 8 points? Or from the two starters he benched in the first half, point guard Michael Porter (6 minutes) and forward Ramon Harris (9 minutes)? Or from center Patrick Patterson (nursing a finger injury) who (along with Meeks) already shoulders a great portion of the team's scoring, averaging 18 points per game?
The answer was painfully obvious by game's end. NOWHERE! No one filled Jodie's shoes.
Even though Jodie Meeks managed to score 21 points (10-10 from the charity stripe), Gillespie never figured out how to work Jodie free to get open looks against Ole Miss' box-and-one.
The only plays Gillespie TRIED to run for Jodie required him to run around the full halfcourt from the top of the key to try to outrun his defender to get open on the opposite wing... only to realize that the box-and-one quickly became a triangle-and-two to double-team Jodie.
There were no high post picks... no nothing... just a drunken look on Gillespie's face when Ole Miss -- minus three of their key starters -- sent in their bench-warmers for the bench-warmers who had put the game out of reach of Gillespie's 25th-ranked Wildcats.
Now, if that ain't a good reason for Kentucky fans to tie one on, what is?
Kentucky needs to admit that they made a mistake when they hired Gillespie... and get rid of him. The players deserve better than having to tolerate a drunken tyrant... a drunken bum.
Only a bum would minimize the value of one of his premier players... a player who is currently considered to be a candidate for NCAA Player of the Year. And only a drunk would do it on national TV.
While Gillespie is turning bottoms-up... the UK Athletic Department should be kicking his bottom out.
Now... I'll drink to that!
