There's a saying: When your expectations are too high, adjust your expectations. I generally reject most of pop psychology, but that makes sense in modern college sports where parity reigns supreme. When it comes to Kentucky basketball these days though, expectations are the very reason a change is not only evident, but necessary.
The end of the Billy Gillispie tenure seems all but a foregone conclusion following a season of disappointment which saw the Wildcats miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 17 years and a rather embarrassing exit from the NIT.
Let the coaching circus begin — again.
Mitch Barnhart, Kentucky's athletic director, botched this opportunity the last time he hired a basketball coach. After the exit of Tubby Smith (who took a terrible Minnesota program to the NCAA tourney this year, by the way), Barnhart hurriedly brought in Gillispie whose successes at Texas A&M got him the media push for a "big time" job. Kentucky pulled the trigger and the madness began almost immediately. Gillispie is not a bad basketball coach; he's a bad basketball coach in a fishbowl like Kentucky where basketball is followed like football is at Notre Dame.
Forget history. What about now? Kentucky will never be a football juggernaut, but that program is quite respectable in its own right. Kentucky has great basketball facilities and there is little doubt that the money and support are there. The unattractive part is the conference.
Kentucky thrived in the league because for years, it was THE basketball school among football schools. Now Florida, Tennessee, and LSU have solid programs. That means Kentucky can't simply open the doors to the top recruits in the area. There's also that school over in Louisville with that coach who failed with the Boston Celtics, but routinely lays the wood to his former employer. Even with basketball tradition at Kentucky, basketball in the SEC will always be second fiddle to that rather lucrative fall sport.
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