Just to wrap up our coverage of the Pettigrew recruitment it looks like he is moving on. UK wanted him to wait two weeks before making a decision but he doesn’t want to do that. So does that mean Billy Clyde will have everyone he is recruiting signed in the next two weeks? We’ll see.
UK asks Pettigrew to wait 2 weeks - Kentucky.com
Pettigrew says he could “forget all about” Kentucky… - TheNewsEnterprise.com
Author Archive for webmaster
I’m amazed, awed, and confused by what I find on this page. It’s a grading of college basketball coaches around the country and evaluates some of the coaching moves that have occurred. It’s from the site Yet Another Basketball Blog. The guy uses a homemade formula (I swear I saw the quadratic function in there) that is too confusing for my simple mind to understand but thankfully he eventually breaks it down into list style for us.
It looks like he analyzes the last five years and gives the following results for the SEC.
SEC TEAM W+A REC REG POST
Billy Donovan Florida 19 A- 2.85 3.73
Bruce Pearl Tennessee 9 6.33 0.44
Mark Gottfried Alabama 8 B -0.91 0.90
John Brady LSU 7 B- -1.10 0.55
Billy Gillispie Kentucky 6 2.80 0.49
Kevin Stallings Vanderbilt 6 C 0.24 1.48
Rick Stansbury Miss. St. 5 C 2.22 -2.19
John Pelphrey Arkansas 1 -0.05 -0.18
Dennis Felton Georgia 1 C- -1.77 -0.24
Dave Odom S. Carolina 1 D+ -1.84 -0.63
Andy Kennedy Mississippi 0 -1.22 0.00
Jeff Lebo Auburn 0 -3.07 0.00
You will need to click on over to YABB to find out what REG and POST means. And it’s Dwight Schrute style because I can imagine Dwight Schrute from The Office having elaborate formulas to decide things like this.
So who are the available and unsigned possibilities for next years team? Here’s who I’ve got.
Alex Legion - 4 star - Asked for and recieved his release from his Letter of Intent at Michigan and has reopened his recruitment.
- Possible Teams?
- Connecticut
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Michigan
- UCLA - seems to be the leader
Jai Lucas - 4 star - Donovan and Florida are pushing late and hard to get him.
- Possible Teams?
- Florida
- Kentucky - maybe hopefully leaning UK?
- Maryland
- Oklahoma
- Oklahoma St.
Patrick Patterson - 5 star - The big dog yet to be signed in this years class.
- Possible Teams?
- Duke
- Florida - Probably leaning Florida (come on Billy Clyde!)
- Kentucky
- Virginia
Stepphon Pettigrew - No stars? - Couldn’t find his listing on Rivals or Scout.
- Possible Teams?
- Kentucky - No offer
- Saint Louis
- Western Kentucky
Michael Sanchez - 3 star - Was headed to a Las Vegas prep school before Arkansas and Kentucky came calling recently.
- Possible Teams?
- Arkansas
- Kentucky - Gotta believe that if UK offers he will take it.
- Michigan
- Tennessee
Ju-Co’s - I have no idea who’s on this list. Bueller? Anybody?
Who do you want and what do you think?
The Big Blue Nation did not take Stepphon Pettigrew’s deadline demand (comment?) very well. Cats Pause posters have expressed pretty much unanimously that it’s time for Stepphon to move on because of his attitude. I believe the general sentiment is “Who is this kid to be demanding an answer from us? Doesn’t he know this is “Kentucky basketball”, and he’ll get an answer when Billy Clyde is ready. ”
On the way home from work I listen to The Sports Huddle with Chris Cross. What? It’s the only sports talk show on when I drive home from work. Plus my wife likes listening to it now as well. I don’t have to answer to you. Anyway, one of his questions of the day was asking what people thought about the demand. All the callers I heard along with Cross and Cameron thought Pettigrew was being a bratty kid and one caller compared him to Rashaad Carruth. Ouch. The problem with that is that up until now Pettigrew was a
“Kentucky kid…..without an attitude…..with the ability to score…..and the desire to be a Cat.“
One way or another Stepphon will come out of this with a full ride scholarship to college. Which college that is remains to be seen. Not a bad ending for him either way.
Kentucky Mr. Basketball Steffphon Pettigrew has set Thursday as the deadline for coach Gillispie and staff to offer him a scholarship or he is moving on. He has several other scholarship offers to consider and he doesn’t want to wait any longer. In the article he says he just wants to get it over with.
I can’t say that I blame him. As fast as Billy Clyde usually makes moves it’s looking more and more like Pettigrew is only a backup plan for the Cats. With outstanding offers out to Jai Lucas and Patrick Patterson and a team that could already be considered guard heavy it looks like the only way Pettigrew gets a scholarship offer from Kentucky is if one (or possibly both) Patterson and Lucas turn them down. Who knows though maybe those game dvd’s Billy took home from Pettigrew’s workout will change his mind.
In the back of my mind, I hope coach does make him an offer. I don’t know if this kid can play at the “Kentucky level” but I look at it kind of the same way as the coaching search. If you don’t get your big targets (in this case Patterson and Lucas), take a chance on someone that wants to play for Kentucky not someone you have to convince to come here. At least we know he can shoot. 
UK has officially announced the addition of two assistant coaches to Billy Clyde’s staff. Glynn Cyprien and Jeremy Cox are the first to be added to the new staff. Read more about it in Victoria Sun’s article in the The Cincinnati Post.
Another Kentucky kid being looked at as a possible recruit. Or so says Rob Bromley. In the video over on the right side of this page at about the 1:54 mark he says that Billy Clyde watched Scott County’s Matt Walls in what sounds like another tryout type situation similar to what Stepphon Pettigrew did. This in addition to talking to Patrick Patterson in Huntington. I’m not 100% sure but I would say that there may be more than one Billy Gillispie out there. It seems like he is everywhere.
No, I’m not talking about the fight between UK and Florida to bring Patrick Patterson and Jai Lucas to the bluegrass. Nope. Not even the possibility of DeAndre Jordan rescinding his letter of intent at Texas A&M. This recruiting battle is going on right here in Lexington. You won’t find news about this recruit in the mainstream media or even on Kentucky Sports Radio.
Who is this superstar you ask? This recruits name is Billy Clyde Gillispie. No, no, no, Billy Clyde isn’t being wooed by an NBA team (you can relax), he is being approached by some of the biggest companies doing business in Lexington. Kroger, Paul Miller Ford, and probably Rafferty’s among others are all furiously competing to get Billy on TV first. Word from my source; (my third cousin is friends with this guy that’s dating this girl who is an executive assistant that books the travel plans) Kroger executives have been flying into town on private planes from their headquarters in Cincinnati to have discussions at the Crown Plaza with Gillispie that have allegedly been lasting long into the night.
Paul Miller Ford and Toyota on Nicholasville have apparently escalated their competing offers so much that other top coaches around the country will likely be renegotiating their deals with their local auto dealers to come in line with what Billy Clyde will eventually get. I’m hearing it will be in the mid two to three car range.
One dark horse candidate that has been discussed on internet message boards is that Dr Pepper will negotiate an exclusive contract with Billy Clyde. Like I said that is only a rumor but I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t let all our fans know what we’re hearing and what is being discussed on back channels. Also, since BCG doesn’t have an agent he has retained the services of the Heavy Hitter to negotiate all contracts (call 2-5-5-3-0-0-0). We will let you know more as we hear it.
Billy Clyde has been moving at breakneck speed since he took the wheel of the Kentucky Wildcats. To be honest it’s a little daunting to keep up with everything. So until things settle down (I hope this never happens), I plan on wrapping up the activities around the program for the last 24 hours to make it easier for everyone to keep track of. Here we go.
- Billy G was on Mike & Mike this morning.
- Rumors have gone back and forth about big man DeAndre Jordan and whether he will stay in College Station or follow Billy Clyde to Lexington.
- Former A&M assistant Jeremy Cox will be joining the staff.
- The first recruiting commitment of the Gillispie era is from GJ Vilarino out of Texas. He is currently a sophomore in HS.
- Kentucky Mr. Basketball Steffphon Pettigrew is patiently waiting for a scholarship that may never come. This kid is aching to come to UK. I don’t know a thing about him other than what I have read but I would like to see him get a scholarship. Maybe I just have Loftonitis or something, but the “wanting to be a Wildcat” force is strong with this one.
- The Sports Guy’s verdict on the coaching change is in.
- C-J’s Brett Dawson broke the story (sorry Matt) of who Gillispie’s note-taker will be.
- and on a somewhat sad note Marta McMackin or the lady who has been the head basketball coach’s secretary for 31 years has been reassigned to other duties in the athletics department. She was second in tenure to Mr. Wildcat Bill Keightley who has been on staff since 1962. Supposedly Mr. Wildcat said “She’s gettin’ too damn close” so they had to drop the hammer on poor Marta.
Whew, that should do it for today. Like I always say, it is very unlikely that we will ever have the joy of breaking a story here at FireBilly.com but that won’t stop us from showcasing the hard work of other people (with credit of course) and telling you what we think about it. At the same time we don’t want to just be a place that dumps out the links of the day (no offense Aaron) so if this happens to be the first time visiting the site be sure to check in from time to time in case we think of something funny. Oh, one last thing. From here on out recruiting will now be known as Billyclyding.
It runs 9:30.