Author Archive for The Fake Gimel Martinez

You Want This, Don’t You?

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on May 22, 2008
in Billy: Year Two, BillyClyding, Recruiting and The Internets and eBays
. 1 Comment

Hello, Internet! Here is a picture of new UK 2008 Recruit Josh Harrellson, provided by the sensuous Matt Jones:

Josh Harrellson is STRONG like UKRAINE!
Josh Harrellson is STRONG like UKRAINE!

I’m sure some Wildcat Fans are clinching their assholes as we speak. We’ll have the usual overcritical analysis towards Harrellson for taking the picture and towards Jones for posting the picture. And we’ll have the typical “gaaaay” reaction from Wildcat fans and rivals.

The latter remark — that throwaway semi-offensive exclamation that my young generation throws around without remorse — makes me giggle. After all, a majority of Wildcat fans are currently extremely focused on the decisions and fitness of young men aged 15 through 20. We encourage and pay older men who specialize in watching these young athletes run, and evaluate their physicality. We celebrate the young man’s commitment to our cause, and look forward to seeing the young man in our clothing.

Oh, right! We’re not interested in these young men sexually. Whew! I was a little worried there.

Anyhoo, Josh’s picture is one of many that have gotten sucked off his Facebook or MySpace account. (Honestly, I’m not sure which.) I’m not entirely for sure if Josh cares that Matt Jones is posting these goofy photos. Earlier today, Matt wrote a diatribe about how he’s not looking to dive too deeply into the lives of potential and committed recruits:

While I understand the desire to have these interviews, after speaking with some families of players who actually came to Kentucky, I think the recruiting gurus (myself included in the past) go a bit overboard with them. While the families seem not to mind some interviews, the UK internet media takes it too far and every family I spoke with this season said it became a hassle quickly. Because of that, I have decided not to contribute to that mess of interviews any more than I have to for the radio show and this site. I think that is best for those families involved and while it may lead to a bit less news from this particular site, if all followed suit, it also leads to a lot less hassle for the players and their parents.

Note: Bold text above originally in Matt’s article.

So if Josh is okay for these pictures to be out and about, then I feel okay sharing in the joy that the picture displays. A young man — who’s led a blessed life as an athlete good enough to advance his way into a major basketball program — that is also a young man who’s blessed to have friends. He’s making a goofy photo that most young adults his age put up on the Internet or within a social networking site like Facebook. Just because now that he’s a Wildcat makes the photo any more or less shameful, stupid, or gay.

(For the record: Photo of you smiling goofy with your buddy is just fine, if you’re fine with the Internet never forgetting. Photos of you jumping off a frat house balcony into a pool? A little less fine. Not a wise way to show your team’s fanbase that, even though you are so HARD-WORKING and DEDICATED to basketball, you blow off steam like some other risk-taking young adults your age.)

However I’m sure Wildcat fans would prefer pictures — and video, now that we’ve broadband-ed up in the Bluegrass State and beyond — of Josh not at play, but at work. Springing up towards the basket in lay-up drills. Diving at loose balls. Draining each and every jumper.

Oh yeah, that’s the stuff.

(Time for a “Fake Gimel Gets Real” Moment. If you can’t tell that I’m working common homosexual prejudices for humor’s sake, and humor’s sake alone, then you may want to find another blog to read. All due respect is given to Wildcat fans of all sexual orientations, Josh & Matt.)

Bring the Shame or Shut Up: Learnin’ Edition

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on May 19, 2008
in Billy: Year One, Fake Gimel give Real Truth, Non-Basketball Stuff and Rumors
. 2 Comments

The first and last time I will use this image.

Don’t ya get sick of seeing the image on the left?

Every time you read a rumor on the Internet about Coach Gillispie’s personal life, you end up having somebody post this image. When the Wildcats lost four-in-a-row, you couldn’t go anywhere on the Internet and not stumble upon a rival fan (or a spurned Aggie fan) posting the image. I’m sick of it. I’m sure Coach Gillispie wants to vomit every time he’s linked or emailed it.

Unfortunately, I don’t think it’ll ever go away. The Internet never forgets.

Mark Story’s piece on the rumors that swelled around Coach Gillispie speculates that the rumors probably stemmed from his past DUI charges:

At the news conference in which he was introduced as Tubby Smith’s successor, Gillispie publicly acknowledged that he had had a pair of alcohol-related traffic arrests in the seven years before his hiring at UK (one was pleaded down to a lesser charge, and the other was dismissed for lack of evidence).

The 48-year-old coach is divorced.

Those two factors seemed to make speculating on the new coach’s personal life a statewide obsession. …

By December, when Gillispie’s first UK team was struggling mightily and the mood surrounding the program was surly, rumors about the coach were rampant. Callers to Lexington sports talk radio shows were mentioning them without challenge. The talk was pervasive all around the state.

So take a coach’s multiple public mistakes. (I mean the DWIs here, not the divorce.) Throw that into a cauldron full of rabid basketball fans that are already boiling over due to the previous coaching regime. Throw in some good ole Kentucky oneupmanship and speculation. Don’t forget to add some anonymous assholery from the Internet — but not too much, a dash will do ya. Mmmm, smell that? That’s some sweet Bullshit Burgoo, just like Pappy used to make!

Mark Story’s article tries to verify most of the bigger rumors that were cookin’ late last year. All addressed rumors were rebuffed. (I didn’t see the “Billy Behaves Badly Because He Has A Nineteen-Year-Old Girlfriend” rumor, but that might had been a split from the “Billy Behaved Badly At Merrick Inn’s Pool” rumor.) Of course, having the Merrick Inn owner or Chief Beatty publicly rebuke the rumor won’t matter to whoever told you about it:

Misty Carlisle, general manager at DeSha’s, says, “I can promise you that story is absolutely untrue. Yet I have customers come in here arguing with me, that they know it’s true.

What’s more important is the telling of the rumor, and the glorification that comes from it. Some of us Wildcat fans want to be program insiders in order to elevate us socially among other fans. That’s why we have roughly a thousand recruiting “experts” running around on message boards and blogs touting the inside information they have.

Don’t take me as a fool — I’m not blinded by the printed word of newspaper or press release. Of course Misty Carlisle is going to say the rumor is untrue; she doesn’t want a Big Blue Boycott by the now-swelling “Yay Gillispie” crowd! Of course President Todd is going to get Gillispie’s back and cooperate with a positive Herald-Leader write-up of the coach. It might be collusion, or it might not; just because the Herald-Leader or any other paper writes something doesn’t make it 100% true.

But you can’t fool Dr. Todd:

Says Todd: “One thing Mitch said to me when some of this discussion was going on, with everyone walking around with a cell phone with a camera in their pocket, if this stuff was going on, it would be on YouTube or whatever. And it never was.”

Thanks, Mr. Barnhart, for reading our humble site. Let’s do lunch this week; I have some grand ideas about basketball promotions for next year. Just as a teaser, let me share with you this: For the intro movie for Big Blue Madness, lets recreate the end credits of Tombstone with Billy and the kids. Rupp will EXPLODE!

(Hey Mitch, did you notice that I didn’t use the Tombstone “Hell’s coming with me!” scene? That’s because I know you’re a religious man, and you wouldn’t want Hell coming with anything to do with UK. See, I’m quite the sharp tack! How about we meet upstairs at Joe Bologna’s with your media crew?)

As the Big Blue Nation transitions into “Billy: Year Two” by starting to count down these tacky summer days, I know that the rumor mill will start churning up. We’ll probably get our first “Billy Behaving Badly On The Golf Course” tale, which will involve a young co-ed driving the drink cart. There might be a few more sprouting up by the time students head back to school in the fall. Just because I know what I’m reading or hearing is at least 75% bullshit doesn’t make it any more enjoyable.

So the tall tale will be told. Then that damned DWI image will show up again. The Internet never forgets.

Bring On Da Villians!

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on May 10, 2008
in Former BMOC and The Internets and eBays
. 3 Comments

Drat! And Double Drat! Hee hee hee hee!

A few weeks ago, I mentioned the following over at the now-mega-modernized ASoB:

Finally, a point of discussion for you Wildcat faithful. From all accounts, the new Barnstorming Event is going along swimmingly. From what little I’ve gathered, Louisville doesn’t offer the same kind of fare-the-well tour for its basketball seniors. Which is kinda sad; who wouldn’t want to boo David Padgett one last time, for old times sake?

Would it be too much to ask to try and schedule a Barnstorming event that included the UL players? You could have it held in Louisville, and have the old foes battle back and forth for a half. Then bring in the regional all-stars and combine the UK and UL teams. (Now that’s a scary thought, huh?)

And why limit it to just Louisville players? How about bringing in Courtney Lee and the rest of the great WKU seniors for a stop near Bowling Green? That would make each event unique for the region and promote the state of Kentucky as the state that loves basketball. I think the Barnstorming basketball spotlight is big enough to share with all our in-state players.

The very few comments I received concerning opening up the Barnstorming event to non-UK players were negative. One of the comments mentioned that Louisville or other players shouldn’t be in an event that is promoting the University of Kentucky. But, in actuality, the Barnstorming tour really has nothing to do officially with the University. From C-J’s Brett Dawson:

If Bradley and Crawford had their way, current Cats would be making the trip as well. NCAA rules prohibit that — UK can’t be involved in any official capacity — but Bradley and Crawford said the perspective they’ve gleaned through the barnstorming tour would serve any player well.

In all truthfulness, this Barnstorming fare-thee-well tour is a good way to let former players like Joe and Ramel to make a little money. There’s no harm in that. After cheering for them for 4 years, I think I lot of us consider them part of the Wildcat family. And like real families, you always have to send even the most distantly-related graduating seniors some sort of gift. I mean, what will your Momma think if she heard you didn’t help the family?

I would pay money to see Woo defend Louisville’s David Padgett. (Remember, Woo claimed to own Louisville during his tenure at UK!) I’m sure there would be tons of Louisville fans who would pay to see their senior heroes get together for one last stab at the UK Seniors.

I’m not Matt Jones, who’s helping run the event. But if I was, and if I made the UK/UL Barnstorming Brew-ha-ha, I would force the autograph session to include UK and UL players. So everybody gets a few autographs they wish they could Windex off. That would be delightfully EEEE-vil!

Two Men Enter! One Man Leaves!

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on May 8, 2008
in Billy Clyde News, Fake Gimel give Real Truth, Recruiting, Rumors and The Internets and eBays
. 5 Comments

Whoops! Are we back? Possibly. Sorry for the lack of updates, but some real life issues benched me for the remainder of Billy: Year One.
Oh, Auntie...

When the season’s over, I suppose its time to pick up the old battles. This weeks entertainment: Jerry “Master Blaster” Tipton vs. “Mad” Marc Maggard! Remember no deals can be broken!

This is battle numero 57 (approximately) in the Tipton is Trying to Hurt UK Fan Wars. This time, Jerry interviewed the parents of our new recruits Vinny Zollo and Michael Avery. In follow-up interviews conducted by Kentucky Ink’s Marc Maggard, the parents admit feeling uncomfortable with some of Tipton’s questions, which Marc labels in the shows’ notes that Tipton exposes his anti-UK feelings.

The ire of the Wildcat Nation was awoken, which prompted Lexington Herald-Leader Editor Linda Austin to blog about an investigation into Tipton’s interviews. Tru at A Sea of Blue wrote up what he thought of the whole deal, which caused Marc to post his displeasure in the Kentucky Ink forums on Tru’s thoughts. (Remember, Tru has called Tipton a “Negative Ninny” in the past.)

Editor Austin reviewed Tipton’s notes and a recording of his call with Mr. Howard Avery (Michael’s father), and stated that Tipton asked professional and worthy questions in those interviews. But what about the “Bigger Ass” statement that was allegedly said? In her interview with Maggard, Zollo’s mother (Robin Curry) either quoted or paraphrased — its not clear in the interview — an example of Tipton’s negative questioning:

Your son is leaving one school because his coach is an ass, but he going to play for Gillispie, who is a bigger ass, how are you going to deal with that?

Linda Austin addressed that question in her blog post:

After Mrs. Curry mentioned her concerns about the methods of her son’s high school coach, Jerry asked her about Coach Gillispie’s widely reported “tough love” style of coaching.

Where’s the ass! The Wildcat Nation DEMANDS TO KNOW!!! Maybe Editor Austin was not privy to the ass. She writes, “I went through Jerry’s notes of his conversation with Robyn Curry, mother of recruit Vinny Zollo, question by question.” Which means Jerry didn’t provide or/and didn’t have a recording of his interview with Mrs. Curry.

Honestly, I don’t blame Mrs. Curry or Mr. Avery for feeling uncomfortable with some of Jerry’s questions; their sons are just 15! I would want to protect my young son from the pressures exerted by the media and a rabid fanbase such as ours. “Look at Little Fake Gimel, you’re SHOOTING THE BALL WRONG! GO BREAK YOUR NOSE LIKE YOUR DADDY!”

But I honestly don’t think anything a reporter or interviewer asks should be concerned about the comfort level of the interviewee. If we get into making rules what can and cannot be asked, we are not living in a Free Speech society — and I’m sure some people feel like we’re already there. I don’t subscribe to the “Sports Journalism should be turned into Entertainment Journalism” that some folks seem to be pushing. I believe strongly that there should be serious journalism coverage of sports programs, and there should be pro-program writing, fan writing, and a place to put up pictures of athletes doing dumb things in public.

I do not put much faith in Austin’s investigation. Austin was unable to access the full transcript of Tipton’s call with Mrs. Curry, and she cannot give us any assurance that Tipton’s questioning was proper. And to be quite honest, comparing a college coach to a high-school coach as a “Bigger Ass” crosses a line of journalistic objectivity, regardless of context. However, as mentioned above, I am not for sure if Mrs. Curry quoted Tipton calling Gillispie a “Bigger Ass”, or if she paraphrased his question and added the language. Without clarification, we have no proof that Tipton crossed the line.

Outside of the “Bigger Ass”, Mrs. Curry and Mr. Avery did not mention anything that I felt was inappropriate questions for a parent of a 15-year-old child who verbally committed to UK. In the Kentucky Ink forums, Maggard points to Tipton’s previous negative writing and several off-the-record comments he has from other persons. I agree that Tipton has been caught in Negative Ninny mode once too often in the past. Because of that, he will forever be labeled by many in the Big Blue Nation as “the UK Beat Reporter who dislikes UK/Gillispie/winning basketball/etc.”

But I cannot blindly accept Maggard’s claim of more “off-the-record” information as the catalyst that Tipton has somehow turned into “UK Enemy #1″. I don’t see what Jerry Tipton could write or say that would adversely affect a student’s decision to attend UK. Maggard is clearly the expert in recruiting, but he has not claimed that Tipton’s writing has swayed a recruit away from choosing Kentucky. So I’m not for sure how Tipton is an enemy of anything.

Also, Maggard is wanting us to believe him and his “off-the-record” sources. I deeply respect what Maggard does at Kentucky Ink — and a little envious, since he focuses the majority of his life on Kentucky Basketball and gets paid for it. I admit that he has more inside information than I do. (At least until I install the wireless web cam inside the men’s practice gym. Pay no attention to the man behind the padding!)

However, until his information can be confirmed and on-record, its value holds nothing for me. I took Seth Davis to task for publishing an anonymous rumor about Patrick Patterson considering leaving for the NBA. In this day and age of Internet rumormongering and one-off anonymous reporting, I refuse to believe any off-the-record comment until it is on-record.

And until Tipton does something on-record that betrays his supposed disloyalty, there is no chance of any fan petition or advertiser boycott will work. But hopefully this issue provided the Herald-Leader with discussion on what stories involving new recruits — especially those as young as Zollo and Avery — should entail.

More may be revealed by Mad Marc in the future. Will it be enough to conquer Master Blaster? And why are we worried about the supposed bias of Jerry Tipton instead of celebrating our early recruiting victories? Are we all getting so sick of the “Gillispie spotted in my kid’s preschool” jokes that we must resort to watching this battle in the Thunderdome?

Update May 12th:If Marc is “Mad”, then I’m just plain dumb. I accidentally misspelled his last name as “Maggart”, which was not intentional nor meant as any disrespect. All the misspelling seem to be corrected now. Sorry, Marc!

Barf!

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on February 29, 2008
in Billy: Year One and Current BMOC
. 3 Comments

For real? Mannnnn….

River City Ransom Kick

Edit: For those of you non-Kentucky fans who might visit the site, Patrick Patterson was our primary option on offense. As a freshman this year, he played like a junior, averaging 16.4 points per game and 7.7 rebounds per game. He could be compared to Jamal Mashburn in his freshman season, who’s talent and abilities enabled the 1990-91 Wildcats to be dynamic.

This season has been crop full of disappointments and bad injuries for the Wildcats. This may be bigger than the Gardner-Webb loss, considering the Wildcats had pulled themselves into NCAA consideration. Win two of the last three regular season games, the Wildcats would have a projected RPI in the 40’s and a strong SOS.

Watch out, Tennessee. You may see some very desperate Wildcats in Knoxville on the Lord’s Day. Or some players who act like they’ve been jumped-kicked in the back of the head. Ugh.

Edit 2: I was reminded that Patterson’s formerly-anointed footwear has failed him.

How To Get Far In Basketball In The UK

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on February 27, 2008
in Billy: Year One and Random
. 1 Comment

(The topic title was a search term used to find an article at my friends’ blog. If you’re not going there, you’re missing out some great commentary about Univ. of Kentucky Basketball and Football. But I wanted to answer the question posed in the query here.)

  1. Listen to the coach.
  2. When they pull a knife, you pull a gun.
  3. Try not to be strung up by a ribbon on a ceiling fan.
  4. Take care of business these last 4 games.

Hell, a win at Tennessee would do amazing things, which is entirely possible. Knoxville is historically friendly to Kentucky, giving us 4 wins in the last 6 years.

Its funny how the ultimate fate of this Wildcat team was sealed so completely before January. I’m proud at the way our Wildcats have clawed their way back into the NCAA Tournament talk. Our turnaround has been amazing. But the team can make it phenomenal by getting into the Big Dance. It would be a fitting reward for the hard work they’ve put in all season long.

4 games, starting tonight. Continue to make us proud, Wildcats.

Bring the Shame or Shut Up: Seth Davis Edition

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on February 26, 2008
in Current BMOC, Rumors and The Internets and eBays
. 4 Comments

In his latest column, SI.com’s Seth Davis drops this little nugget:

I hate to disappoint Kentucky fans, who have every reason to be excited about their team’s run of eight wins in its last nine games, but I’m hearing Patrick Patterson is seriously considering turning pro.

O RLY?

Honestly, I wouldn’t blame Patrick for going pro. He’s performing miracles in the paint despite teams double and triple-teaming him. And I’m not mad that Seth Davis wanting to share what he hears from anonymous sources; I am pissed that all he wrote was one little sentence about it, without any evidence of fact-checking presented to the reader.

At one time in my life, I was an editorial editor for the Kentucky Kernel. They needed somebody to manage the editorial page — letters to the editors, opinion columns, the Kernel’s official Editorial piece, etc. The other sections of the paper had to maintain a high level of fact-checking and cite sources.

Honestly, I don’t understand what’s allowed for anonymous sourcing in professional journalism. I wasn’t a journalism major and I never took a journalism class. It was my understanding from my working experience at the Kernel that the information from an anonymous source needs to be confirmed from more sources. It seems to me that you have to give your anonymous source a little check — and you need to inform your reader of your check.

Maybe Seth Davis did his check. But hell if we know. All we know is that he expects us to trust him with what he’s hearing. Leaving out some of the details of his fact-checking — not including a follow-up call with Patrick Patterson himself — means that Davis decided to print what he’s hearing unchecked.

Instead, Seth Davis expects us to trust him. But its not his job to be trusted! Its his job to take what he’s hearing, question the validity of it, and present it as factually-based, incorrect, or unmentionable. That is what I thought the professional media — those who are supposedly better than blogs — are supposed to do.

I really hate this kind of shit reporting. Its no better than message board posters reporting rumors about Coach Gillispie’s off-court behavior. The only difference is that Seth Davis gets paid to tell us what he thinks about basketball, and to report basketball news. And it appears he’s not fulfilling his job duties by reporting to his readers the validity of his sources.

Of course, since I’m a blogger, my standards are different. So believe me when I say that I’m hearing Seth Davis just decided to jump on the “Patterson is Leaving” bandwagon early with this comment. My sources tell me that if he’s wrong, nobody but a few Internet trolls will remember; but if he’s right, he can say, “as I first reported in February…” until he’s blue in the face.

Seth, when you decide to present to your readers a fact check on your Patterson leaving rumor, I’ll reveal my sources that says your full of shit. Deal?

Well, the Lord Hates A Coward

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on February 22, 2008
in Billy Clyde News and Billy: Year One
. 0 Comments

Untouchable Coaches

Previously, I had hoped that Billy would follow-up with a little more detail regarding Dusty Mills’ comments. Jerry Tipton’s latest article expands on his previous article, and includes more comments from Billy about his coaching style, and more comments from previous players.

I think Billy’s comments were right on — without addressing the players who have left the team, Billy spent time talking about his coaching style and why he thinks it works. The seemingly harsh treatment as stated by Dusty is spun into a tough-love “my way or the highway” approach that is common in college basketball. Coach Gillispie and the PR folks in UK Athletics should be commended for taking this approach instead of either ignoring the issue outright or turning it into a nasty “he said, he said” media war.

There is some other great stuff in Tipton’s article. He interviews Alex Legion and Legion’s mom regarding the coaching environment. Acie Law IV and Josh Johnston, a former walk-on at UTEP who followed Billy to Texas A&M. The whole article is a well-fleshed out version of Tipton’s previous article, and does a great job of showing us Billy from several folks with differing opinions of his coaching style.

I’m not going to go over every little detail of the article here. But I did want to highlight some of the more funny points. Like this quip of another coach complimenting Gillispie:

When Kentucky played Florida International in late December, FIU Coach Sergio Rouco voluntarily defended Gillispie, his friend and former boss, by saying the UK players had to adjust from a “mild-mannered man” (Tubby Smith) to “Baby Saddam.” The intended compliment drew laughter from reporters at the post-game news conference.

Haha, our rivals are going to have a blast with that Baby Saddam nickname. What I think is the best is this description of the coach from the coach himself:

Gillispie likened himself to the character played by Sean Connery in the movie The Untouchables. When Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) tries to add the tough Chicago cop to fight organized crime, Connery has a question:

What are you prepared to do?

“He kept asking that question,” Gillispie said. “I really believe that’s relevant to what we do as basketball players. What are you prepared to do? … Everybody wants to be an NBA player. But what are you prepared to do to make yourself become one of those guys.

“That’s just my whole philosophy, basically.”

(Here’s the scene referenced by Coach Gillispie.)

Honestly, I don’t know if UK Athletics’ PR team came up with this statement, or if Billy did. Its too perfect. It fits his answers for his no-nonsense approach with a reference to a fairly popular late 1980’s violent movie. It fits right in with our tradition of naming teams prefixed with “un”. Honestly, if I was back in college right now, I’d be ordering a new poster to replace my Scarface poster. And I’d be dressing in a sharp suit and taking fake Tommy Guns to the ERupption Zone.

But I wonder if they forgot that Sean Connery’s character gets assassinated? That’s not a good omen, is it? Does that mean Coach Cyp is Eliot Ness or George Stone? I’m so confused.

Mom! Billy Made Dusty Cry!

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on February 20, 2008
in Billy Clyde News, Billy: Year One and The Internets and eBays
. 6 Comments

Dusty Mills is gone. That much we know for certain. The devil’s in the details, though.

In normal cases, a player asked to leave or who requests a transfer shows grace publicly. I can understand Dusty wanting to tell his side of the story. But look at the wording Dusty used in Jerry Tipton’s article:

“He bashed on me pretty much,” Mills said. …

“It was like he had a total power trip on me,” the walk-on said. “Instead of explaining things, he decided to use intimidation. ‘You’re below me. This is how things are going to be.’ ” …

“He cut me off and just went berserk,” Mills said. “He cussed me out. Just basically said he didn’t care what I had to say. Said he was sick of me. That was a quote. He actually said he was sick of me.”

Why does Dusty want to share this kind of information with us? To make Billy look bad, of course. Dusty’s statements is a parting shot, an airing of dirty laundry. It reminds me of Rashaad Carruth fighting with Tubby through the media. That worked well for Rashaad, Tubby and the whole team that year.

This act of revenge further illustrates the disconnect — and the resulting problems from the disconnect — between our coach and the media/fanbase. Here is the entirety of Gillispie’s comments in Tipton’s article:

After UK beat Georgia Tuesday night, Gillispie said he gave Mills that chance. “They all get chances,” the UK coach said. “He (Mills) was a real good member of the team for a little bit.” Gillispie denied using profanity in meeting with Mills.

Tru at ASeaofBlue.com is quite upset by Tipton’s article, which focuses heavily on Dusty Mill’s interview concerning his release. After receiving confirmation that Tipton researched both sides of the story, Tru still sees Billy as a bully:

I’m all about supporting our coach, but the latin proverb goes, “Qui tacet consentire videtur.” He who is silent is understood to consent.

I can’t believe this is all Billy had to say, given that Tipton later states, “Gillispie invited Mills to tell reporters of the meeting, Mills said.” It seems to me that Billy didn’t expect Dusty to give vivid allegations to Mr. Tipton; otherwise Billy would have given Tipton a more through response. I wonder if Dusty threatened to go to the media about his dismissal and the coach didn’t take the threat seriously. Or either Tipton was holding back with the details of what he learned from Dusty (which is bad journalism ethics), or Billy didn’t want to address it publicly (which is bad media management).

Whatever the case, Coach should take a minute and address Dusty’s comments this week. An issue with a walk-on doesn’t go away in this day and age; especially with a fanbase that is obsessively fanatical in their devotion to the program. Not fully commenting on a raised issue only leads to speculation & distrust.

This, like the Oklahoma State rumors, is just another crazy curve in this wild winding road of a basketball season.

Not Even the Younglings Survived

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on February 13, 2008
in Billy: Year One and Postgame
. 1 Comment

Little did the Kentucky Wildcats know that Emperor Stallings had issued Order 66. Poor Princess Judd could only watch in horror as her defenders of the Big Blue Nation were mowed down with cold, heartless precision.

After their performance in Lexington, Vandy decided to raise their game, and they did so with sickening results. Major props to Kevin Stallings and his Commodore Crew. They played aggressive defense — often without penalty from the refs, much to our chagrin — and completely ran us out of our defense.

I’m sure we could make a case that the team that we had before January seemed to show up off the bus. That tenacious D that has given us a puncher’s chance in most games wasn’t there. Hell, nothing really was there. I don’t blame Kentucky fans for feeling angry and not finding a silver lining in the cloud.

So now we’ll have the media playing up this game as the worst loss of the season. However, the most important part of this game depends on how Kentucky plays the next game. And the game after that. We already took one game away from Vandy this season, which is something a 41-point loss can’t erase. We’re not out of getting the #2 seed in the SEC Tournament.

Let’s hope that Vandy just assassinated the last of the Bad Basketball Wildcat Jedi tonight.