Jerry Tipton proved that he still has some tricks up his sleeve and doesn’t need message boards or “the Google” by out-scooping all the young whippersnappers and reporting the Tyler Zeller will be visiting campus today. Matt Jones not to be outdone immediately gets on the phone and has an interview with the kid only hours later. Amazing. In the interview Tyler says that “After I had a good tournament down in Texas, Coach Gillispie called me up and offered me a scholarship.”
One thing that cracks me up is how Jerry Tipton always gets the interview with the recruits parents. Makes you wonder if the kid answered the phone would he say, “Hello Tyler, this is Jerry Tipton with the Lexington Hearld-Leader. Is your mom or dad around?”. You know that’s had to have happened at least once.
I wonder what Jerry Tipton thinks about Matt and Kentucky Sports Radio or The Cat’s Pause for that matter. I bet I could guess.
By the way, the auction I mentioned in the last post closed for $81. If that didn’t interest you, how about a nice coffee table sized section.
Well that didn’t take long. As I’m sure you have heard by now, UK is replacing the court in Memorial Coliseum. This is the original floor that Rupp actually built (so to speak). Wildcat Nation is in an uproar because instead of treating it like a state shrine and preserving it like it should be, they are tossing most of it into a dumpster. UK is keeping several specific sections of the floor though such as the lanes and other historic locations. If you didn’t have a chance to go dumpster diving, there is still hope yet for you to get your own piece of history.
You can buy a section off of eBay. This auction is currently at $31. I love the internet.
I’d like to say I’m sorry to everyone up front for writing this because I know no one wants to talk about the past (especially me) but the crushing weight of irony would kill me if I didn’t.
Here’s a headline from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Barring a significant change, new Gophers men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith said he won’t add any more players to the team’s roster for next season.
Ouch. That has to be tough to swallow for Gopher fans if they heard any of the criticism Tubby received before he left 
town. Or if they’ve been blinded by the spotlight that Billy Clyde is shining while searching for recruits NATIONWIDE.
Those of you in the national media that are so quick to shout “those racists ran him out of town” should go read that article. Being complacent about recruiting is something the Big Blue Nation is no longer willing to accept. Go Billy Clyde Go.
[Edit by Hefty Lefty] Right after reading this post, I came across an article in the Courier Journal that talks about the $300,000 increase in UK’s recruiting budget. Rumors that the increase was to pay for Billy Clyde’s cell phone bill are completely unsubstantiated. One of these coaches is definitely not like the other.
From Larry Vaught with the Danville Advocate-Messenger
Kentucky seniors Bobby Perry, Sheray Thomas and Lukasz Obrzut will have a special team member with them tonight when they play an exhibition game at Mercer County.
Former UK player Randolph Morris, who signed with the New York Knicks after the 2006-2007 season ended, is scheduled to be at tonight’s game.
According to the article he is planning on playing in the game and not just making an appearance. Pretty classy move by the big guy, I think. I’m sure it would have been pretty easy for him to never set foot back in Lexington again had he chose not to. You think he’s in town to work on finishing up his degree? Hope so.
Randolph racked up 4 points and 9 rebounds in 5 games with the Knicks. By the way, those numbers were totals, not an average. 
What a year for Randolph, he is the only player EVER to play in college and in the NBA in the same season. He may end up being the only player that ever accomplishes that. Plus he’s got $1.6 mil in his pocket.
Not bad for someone that’s been accused of being “lazy and ungrateful”.
This story surprisingly didn’t get much play in the big blue media, but that is exactly why FireBilly.com should be one of you daily visits.
Coach Gillispie is not only hot on the trail of every unsigned blue chip recruit in the country, but he also took a little personal time this past weekend to participate in the LG National Texting Championships. Unfortunately coach Gillispie couldn’t quite bring home the gold.
The Sioux City Journal has the story.
Thirteen-year-old Morgan Pozgar, of Claysburg, Pa., was crowned LG National Texting champion on Saturday after she typed “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from “Mary Poppins” in 15 seconds.
Gillispie doesn’t get mentioned in the article since he ultimately finished out of the money in fourth place in the competition. In a surprising twist he got tangled up and was eliminated when recruit Steve Tchiengang’s name appeared as his word to text in the semi-final round. Although disappointed, coach Gillispie was rumored to be considering adding Morgan to his staff as a recruiter once he heard this quote:
She estimated that she sends more than 8,000 text messages a month to her friends and family.
Here is a picture that was destined to make an appearance on this site. Feel free to leave your own caption in the comments.
Here’s your motivation.
Hat tip to ASoB and AOL Fanhouse.
Congratulations to former Wildcat Chuck Hayes on becoming a new father. Dorian Titus Hayes was born on Saturday before the Rockets played the Utah Jazz in Hayes’ first playoff game.
Word is that Billy Clyde has already sent Chuck a text message and went ahead and sent over a Letter of Intent for little Dorian Titus to put his footprint on as the first signee for the class of 2025.
Hat tip: The Wildcat Blog
Had to pass this along.
Mike Huguenin at Sun-Sentinel.com
One of Billy Gillispie’s new assistants at Kentucky is Glenn Cyprien, who was an assistant to Stan Heath at Arkansas last season. Coincidentally, one of Cyprien’s wife’s best friends is Debbie Lucas — the mother of perhaps the nation’s best unsigned point guard, Jai Lucas of Houston.
Coach Gillispie couldn’t possibly be that crafty could he. Hiring a guy who is known as one of the most tenacious recruiters around. Hiring a guy who’s wife is best friends with a prized recruits mom? You daaaammmnn right. See here.
Kerry Benson a forward from Pleasure Ridge Park High School has turned down scholarship offers to Iona and Morehead State to live his dream of playing for the Kentucky Wildcats. Tubby made him the walk-on offer the day before going to Minnesota and assistant coach Jeremy Cox sealed the deal.
You’ve just gotta love the desire some people have to play for the Cats. This kid turns down two full ride offers just for the possibility of playing time at UK.
Read all about it here - Courier-Journal.com
