Anybody who is calling for Billy Gillispie's head right now, sit down and shut up. I challenge you to go onto Youtube and find the video of Dick Vitale when Tubby left for Minnesota, commenting on how there were some "wacky" Kentucky fans who would accept nothing more than a National Championship every year. I know a lot of people weren't very happy with that comment, and I wasn't either, but anytime you want to lambast Billy Clyde two years into coaching this team, you are lending credence to Dick Vitale and what he said.
When it comes to new coaches, whether its high school, college, or the Pro's, I always follow the three year rule:
- Year 1: First year, so you should expect to start getting your system in place. The players you have are your predecessors, and they may not be too happy with the decisions being made. You are working to keep them from bailing, getting them to buy into your system, and working to get players with the right attitudes who will fit your system.
- Year 2: You should start to see some improvement. The players have had a year in under your system, so they should be showing the results. You also have some of your players in as well.
- Year 3: You had better start producing right away. If Gillispie hasn't accomplished anything by this point, then I would be ready to go the direction of Notre Dame and look for a bigger fish.
Even with the VMI game, however, I did see improvement in some areas. This team is better conditioned than last years team, and once last years team would have gotten behind, there would have been no catching up. FWIW, Virginia did beat VMI 107-97. They won, but it does prove that VMI is a high scoring team, one that happened to get hot at Rupp last Friday.
Now for the bad. Two things really stood out in the North Carolina loss for me, one of which was the play of Jodie Meeks. Meeks struck me as somebody who was starstruck that night, taking bad shot after bad shot to send Kentucky spiraling further and further into oblivion. I don't know if Gillispie let him take over the game, but Patrick Patterson has become the forgotten man in Meeks unfortunate stardom. If this was Gillispie's game plan to get into a horse race with UNC, it failed miserably, and in the process failed to capitalize on the fact that North Carolina played two freshman in the frontcourt that could have been exploited.
Bottom line: Play small ball, slow the Tar Heels down, and feed it to the big man. Patterson has a monster night, and the game could have been a lot closer.
The other thing that stood out for me was the lack of PG play, which is best illustrated by the play of Michael Porter. Everything I have heard about Porter personally is that he is a good kid. He is, however, unfit to play point guard in the SEC, much less start. Tubby had the right idea recruiting him as a shooting guard, as he was an excellent shooter coming out of high school. As a ballhandler, he is a liability on the floor, and has shown no improvement in this area.
I would like to see more of DeAndre Liggins. He is likely our PG for at least the next two years unless Vilarino impresses or Gillispie somehow magically lands John Wall or somebody top ranked in the 2010 class. Liggins strikes me as being in the mold of Derrick Japser (who I believe most Kentucky fans miss right now) and would be better served to play through and learn on the run.
Hopefully things will be better tomorrow against Delaware State. We can only hope.
Cheyne
