ArchivePage 2 of 7

They Chose the Latter, Perhaps? (Updated)

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on February 11, 2008
in Billy: Year One, Fake Gimel give Real Truth and Rumors
. 3 Comments

A few weeks ago, I asked all the rumormongers talking about Coach Gillispie’s ballyhooed wild personal life to show evidence of these rumors in a credible form. Since then, I have found very little rumoring and no credible evidence. No embarrassing videos found through Google or MySpace. Nothing on Google News. Even Billy Reed, who compared Gillispie to Charlie Bradshaw and suggested that Gillispie should be sent on his way, now says that Gillispie is the front-runner for SEC Coach of the Year.

In fact, the only recent rumor I found was on the Tennessee VolNation message board, which supposedly cut-and-paste’s a post from “catspause.com“. I looked high and low for that post on the House of Blue and Rupp’s Rafters message boards, and couldn’t find it. Sounds like sour grapes from some Vol fans who were a little bitter. (If you saw the post — allegedly made by BlueSteel — let me know and I’ll update the information.)

It turns out that the rumor referenced by VolNation was posted on WildcatFanReport.com:

I was told yesterday by a friend with pretty good connections to the athletics department that Billy Gillispie will not be retained as coach after the season. My source said it had nothing to do with the on-court product, meaning it has everything to do with off-court issues. He also said that the main focus of the coaching search would be John Calipari.

Yet again, we have the unnamed “source”. Yet again, a reference to “off-court issues” without specific accusations. Specific details about an unlikely replacement — anybody with two bits of common sense knows Calipari isn’t leaving the set up he has in Memphis. Granted, the rumor is posted with the “take this with a grain of salt” disclaimer, but it still fails to be credible or worth anybody’s time.

Really, that was it, or at least all I could find. Go look for yourself. If you find a gaggle of Wildcat fans still in a tizzy about the allegedly hard-drinking wildman of a coach, please let me know.

What’s happened since then and now? 8 wins (5 in a row), 4 5 losses. Now everybody is talking bubbles. Its amazing how the Big Blue Nation’s righteous anger seems to be less about the personal life of the coach and more about the letter L. And happily, for the rest of this season, we’re forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air.

Update February 12th: That first sentence was a little unclear; I wanted to make sure that I was claiming for credible evidence, not necessarily for shutting up.

Update February 13th: Hubbs of the always-awesome Blue Goggles pointed me to the WildcatFanReport.com article that published the rumor that was referenced at VolNation. Also, I updated the losses to include our asskicking given to us by Vandy. I wonder if losing by 41-points will start the rumor mill back up again? Probably.

This Man Is Out Of Control

Published
by
Not Rob Bromley
on January 28, 2008
in BillyClyding
. 2 Comments

So, I’m having a nice peaceful lunch at the ever classy Logan’s Roadhouse the other day. You know, all the peanuts you can eat plus FREE ROLLS!! Needless to say, this is my kind of place. So I’m settling into my second handful of peanuts and awaiting the aforementioned free rolls, and then I noticed something. Something quite disturbing. Have a look for yourself.

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He must be stopped!

Since You MUST Know… BillySpotting Map Available

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on December 22, 2007
in Billy: Year One, Non-Basketball Stuff, Random, Rumors and The Internets and eBays
. 4 Comments

I have been informed that a shadowy network of ex-CIA spies have been following Coach Gillispie’s every move. They have sent me notes on what they have seen, which I have added to the map below. (Thanks Wayfairing for the application!) Each yellow pin you see below is a report from the spies. Double-click on the map to be taken to the main map; there you will be able to click on each yellow pin and read the details of each report.

Continue reading ‘Since You MUST Know… BillySpotting Map Available’

I Am Such A Doofus

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on December 22, 2007
in Billy: Year One, Fake Gimel give Real Truth and Random
. 1 Comment

The Jumbotron is a mixed blessing at Rupp. You usually have one hilarious moment or a few adorable kids per game, but most folks just turn towards the Jumbotron and pose and scream AT the screen instead of the camera. Its not their fault, since the cameras are normally in weird high-up locations and folks don’t get enough time to triangulate the location of the camera. But it looks bad — like somebody posing in the mirror after a shower.

Today at Rupp during the Tennessee Tech Victory, guess who gets on the Jumbotron? Yup, your humble columnist. In the spur of the moment, a chance to create that hilarious moment, what do I do?

Stared and posed at the Jumbotron screen. And I gave a super-goofy thumbs up. The camera couldn’t cut off of me quicker.

I couldn’t be more ashamed of myself right now.

Bring the Shame or Shut Up

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on December 18, 2007
in Billy: Year One, Rumors and The Internets and eBays
. 3 Comments

No time for a column proper — I hate my job — but I wanted to record some of the comments I’ve made over this whole Billy Reed article fiasco that Tru at A Sea of Blue has already addressed. First up, my comment I left on Billy Reed’s blog (which was awaiting moderation due to a hyperlink, I suppose):

Mr. Reed, you’re an accomplished journalist. Nobody can argue that. Your blog has been around for a while, so I take it you’re familiar with the way blogs work. I’m no dummy, either, so let’s call this post exactly what it is; flamebait.

Surely somebody with your journalism history, writing stories the past 40+ years, would not base a whole column about “rumors” which you cannot directly address. If you had a source, even an “anonymous” source, you would have detailed EXACTLY what Billy Gillispie is accused of doing.

Even your details — not taking Van Florence on away games — seem sketchy. Who’s asked UKAA or Van about this? Shouldn’t that be covered before publishing with the detail? I never had a journalism class, but isn’t basing your opinion in truth key in writing a solid column?

So there’s no way you actually believe what you just wrote. I take it you’re trolling for the Big Blue crazies that you read/hear about on catspause.com. Is this a chapter of your latest book that tries to rightly define the UK fanbase? Or were you just looking for shits and giggles?

Whatever the reason, you can’t fool me. This isn’t a Billy Reed column proper.

I forgot to add that another possibility is that Billy Reed is intentionally proving Stephen A. Smith’s missive that blogging causes “a total disregard, a level of wrecklessness” in sports reporting.

Meanwhile, ever anxious to stick it to the Wildcat Basketball fans, my good buddy GatorPilot stated Patrick Patterson made the wrong choice in coming to Kentucky. I think overall GatorPilot got what he wanted — a riled up Tru and Kentucky Fanbase, and a clever reference to the Indiana Jones movie. I appreciate the comedy combo he unleashed. But in the comments, I wanted to remind him of something:

What you Gator guys forget is that Kentuckians favor a good story over the truth. And they favor more being tied to the story — “my brother’s roommate at the game said,” “my cousin who works at Merrick Inn saw,” “my lawyer who knows Mitch had dinner,” etc. This has been going on for ages; its part of our culture. The Internet makes it public outside of the Bluegrass State.

So whenever I hear things like “Billy Donovan’s wife was horse-farm hunting in Lexington in March”, I laugh about it. Actually, it was several Billy Donovan rumors that completely convinced me that any rumor involving UK Basketball is no less than 75% full of shit.

In relation to all this, I agree with Chris at Intentional Foul: “Either show and prove or just keep quiet. Even the sports bloggers of the world seem to understand this.” (Well, except the sports bloggers who are fans of the opposition, of course.) But I would take it a step further.

Saying “my brother heard” or “my cousin saw” doesn’t count anymore. Bring out the proof, or shut the hell up.

Show me the videos of Gillispie drunk off his rocker getting into a car to drive home. Show me pictures of Gillispie near Lexington Police Chief Anthany Beatty the night that allegedly Beatty called a squad car for Gillispie to either take the coach home or to jail. Let me see the raunchy text messages Gillispie allegedly sent to a hotel employee. Let me see pictures of Gillispie with his 19-year-old girlfriend, that aren’t obviously photoshopped or from some social event.

This is a call for truth, not vandalism or paparazzi-type misery. If he’s truly this bad, it will be blatently obvious and recorded with something other than a “They Say” story. Besides, if any of these events were true, it would be best to get them right out in the open. If Gillispie’s poor conduct was outed, he would be forced to deal with the consequences of his conduct. Then we can all move forward.

Kentucky fans, bring the shame or stop talking about it. Stop feeding into the nonsense that you heard from whoever or wherever on the Internet. Until I start seeing proof, I call bullshit on every story.

Of course, I suppose nobody would be talking rumors so loudly if the team was winning instead of losing. I just checked the Houston score on ESPN Gamecast. *sigh*

Appreciate These Frustrating Days While They Last!

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on December 15, 2007
in Billy: Year One and Postgame
. 14 Comments

Just when you think things couldn’t get much worse, they do.

Well, I guess its not “worse”, per say. Those problems turning the ball over are still there. Still can’t apply defensive pressure on ball-handlers. Still not getting Patterson enough touches. Still looking completely confused in when faced with a zone defense.

A lack of talent versus spurts of poor execution. We’ve seen it for about 5 games straight now. Today’s second half featured defensive breakdowns and showcased our inability to accurately defend guards running through screens. At least that was new.

Part of me is actually enjoying this frustrating time. Not necessarily just because I laugh at how some Kentucky fans react to adversity and losses. (One dude called in to WLXG Sports Radio’s post-game show and never stopped screaming the entire time, and suggested that A.J. Stewart should have been guarding Lord Vaden. That was hilarious.)

This is still a Kentucky season, and still our team. The losses are reinforcing the lessons taught by our coaches. Eventually, it’ll come together; maybe not this season, but possibly the next. We have too many talented coaches and players to stay at this frustrating level.

So take advantage of it while you can. Later on, when we’re playing as such a higher level, it might be hard to find good criticisms to talk about on the radio shows. For now, we’ll Bitch! Bitch! Bitch! for the Blue and White!

Who’s Shaking What Now? Legion Wants to Stay

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on December 5, 2007
in Billy: Year One, Current BMOC and Rumors
. 0 Comments

I tells ya’s what boys, this here story got more twists and turns than Kentucky Route 69.

Update Wednesday 2:46 PM EST: I’m a little jealous that I didn’t think of FireAlexLegion.com first. I think it shares the same spirit as this web site — poking fun at the situation but not explicitly mean. The site now has a forum for your flaming pleasure. I wouldn’t read or post there if you take the Internet seriously, though. Save that for the CatsPause.com message boards. ;)

(Updated) Alex is Shaking the Big Blue Dust From His Feet. Who Else?

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on December 3, 2007
in Billy: Year One and Rumors
. 6 Comments

I’m sure you’ve read the report about Alex Legion possibly is leaving the Wildcats. Update: UK Athletics official statement. Of course, Coach Gillispie now has to find somebody else to anoint Patrick Patterson’s shoes with holy oil.

Alex’s recruitment prior to the Wildcats was strange. In truth, Billy Gillispie didn’t actively pursue Alex for the 2008 class — Legion was granted release by Michigan due to a coaching change, and Billy was able to catch Alex before anyone else could. Of course, those anti-UK folks out there (especially those who recruit against UK) will spin this into “Oh! Billy couldn’t even keep Alex Legion at UK for longer than 6 games.”

They’ll also revel that rumor has it that several of the players are unhappy with the way the coach treats them. Given that we have several devout Christians on the team, one of which who is reported leaving (Legion), I wonder if the coach’s salty language and his rumored wild lifestyle has rubbed folks the wrong way.

And with all this turmoil going on within the team, how the hell are our boys supposed to play against Indiana on Saturday? Out of all games this year, this is my Big Rival, and I want us to win. Badly.

Regardless, all this rumoring and speculating has re-raised my Big Blue Blood Pressure. Once something is confirmed, we’ll be sure to comment on it 5 days after it happens, as we are prone to do here at FireBilly.com. Stay tuned!

(Oh, by the way, if you couldn’t get on the site earlier today, sorry about that; evidently with Legion leaving, our site got swamped. By the way, did you know we were smart enough to register firegillispie.com too?)

Update 10:27 PM EDT: The official UK Athletics announcement confirms that Legion is transferring. We have no idea at this time how this affects his NCAA status and his & the school’s obligations concerning Alex’s National Letter of Intent — since Alex has played less than one year.

The Shaw Smith Brotherhood: Tar Heel Predictions, Patterson and Meeesta Carter

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on November 30, 2007
in The Shaw Smith Brotherhood
. 0 Comments

The Fake Gimel Martinez comes from a real-life family of UK fans. This season Fake Gimel will share some of the conversations he has with his real-life father (pseudonym: Big Floppin’ Rob Locke) and his uncle (pseudonym: Uncle Roger Hardin) in this “The Shaw Smith Brotherhood” column. You can join in on the family’s discussion by posting in the comments. Enjoy!

Predictions for Saturday’s North Carolina Game

Fake Gimel:

Let’s start with your UNC game prediction. Give me a final score, and your Wildcat player of the game.

Big Floppin’ Rob Locke:

I watched UNC play last night and I predict that they will beat us by 40 points, unless Billy releases some of his reigns. If he does it might be a closer game but UNC will prevail.

Uncle Roger Hardin:

I think UNC will win by 25 points. I think that Coach [Billy] will have them ready to play and the players and the fans will be fired up. But I think UNC has superior talent and I don’t think we can stop Hansbrough. He hasn’t had a good game against us and I think he is due.

Player of the Game for the Cats… A J Stewart, if he can stay awake and get into the game, I think his quickness may help us in the high post on offense against the 2-3 zone. After the last game, you know they will play zone against us until we prove we can score off of it. If we have a shooting game like the last one, then UNC by 40.

Fake Gimel:

I think its going to be closer than you guys think. UNC has talent but they seemed a little sluggish against Ohio State’s pressure defense on Wednesday. And I think our pressure D looked better than what the Buckeyes gave UNC. The biggest concern is individual on-ball defending, because the Tar Heels’ guards will be looking to shake free and create penetration passing opportunities.

I have *never* seen a UK freshman forward play defense like Patrick Patterson. Of course, we’ve played some pretty lower-tier teams. If Patrick can keep himself in position, play Hansbrough straight-up and (most importantly) doesn’t get quick fouls, I think our chances for pulling off the upset are good.

If the ESPN anchor uses “North Carolina escapes Lexington with a win”, I’ll be happy. But I really think we can pull off an upset. Let’s say Wildcats 68, Tar Heels 65. Player of the Game is Patterson with around 17 points, double-digit rebounds and over 5 assists.

Continue reading ‘The Shaw Smith Brotherhood: Tar Heel Predictions, Patterson and Meeesta Carter’

Tyler Hansbrough’s Many Successes

Published
by
The Fake Gimel Martinez
on November 29, 2007
in Billy: Year One
. 0 Comments

Wildcat fans know about North Carolina F/C Tyler Hansbrough. What they may not know is that Tyler is a very dominant player. I’m sure that we’ve heard about his good stats during the ESPN clip packages, but we’ve never really seen him do well against Kentucky. He’s had 6 and 7 points in the last two games — and did not play his freshman year.

One of the (few) highlights of the year thus far for Kentucky fans has been Patrick Patterson’s outstanding play. Not only can he pluck the ball easily out of the air and finish in the post, he has shown exceptional defensive footwork and smart defensive play. If Patterson continues the defensive tradition set by Randolph Morris on Hansbrough — admittedly, that is a big if — some Kentucky fans may not believe the stories of Tyler’s success from mainstream media.

To reassure Kentucky fans that Tyler is a successful player, I’ve complied a short list of some of his many accomplishments during his tenure at North Carolina:

Watch your sack, Pat.