Yesterday morning when John Calipari was introduced as the 22nd coach at Kentucky, it ended five days of rumors, speculation and laughter.
Yes, laughter.
A couple hundred miles away, how could you not kind of chuckle at what was happening at college basketball’s program?
It started on Friday when former coach Billy Gillispie was literally run out of town. Did anyone catch reporter Alan Cutler doing his best to keep pace with Gillispie? Add it to the list of classics to come out of Lexington this weekend.
Throw in “door-watch,” and “gate-watch,” and you’ve got a full-blown circus, if Western Athletics Director Wood Selig and President Gary Ransdell aren’t sharing a good chuckle about, well, then loosen up, boys.
Western proved it’s worthy of the contender title this season, making their second straight trip to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Nearly everything about the season was a feel-good story.
And you can’t help but think that “Big Blue Impatient Nation” didn’t take notice.
Now, the university finds itself under some potential scrutiny from the rest of the state for its ludicrous moves last week.
In the midst of America’s worst financial times since the Great Depression, a cash-strapped state’s largest university potentially just sent a man who “wasn’t the right fit” out of town with a $6 million check.
Something tells me he’s wearing his best Billy-grin right now.
Presumably Kentucky has either the revenue or boosters to cover the buyout, but on top of that, they just signed a contract to make Calipari the highest-paid coach in college basketball.
Kentucky is known for being a somewhat backwards state. Things just really got flipped.
Sure, Gillispie didn’t win enough for the fan-base to be happy, but you also have to think that when UK fans woke up a couple weeks ago to the face of Matt Maresca on the front page of the USA Today, it didn’t heal any wounds.
As Kentucky scrambles to find a winner, Western sits the prettiest it has in quite some time.
And as Western’s fortunes continue to increase, now is the time for them to improve even further as Kentucky continues to find a way back into the NCAA tournament.
A fan in Lexington was wearing a T-shirt saying, “Envy our past. Fear our future.” Once again, Wildcat fans are enthusiastic as ever about their Kentucky basketball.
The playing field in college basketball is leveling, and what’s happening in Diddle Arena is proving you don’t need the biggest budget or the biggest names.
There are bound to me more sleepless nights in Lexington until Calipari returns the Wildcats to the Promised Land.
And for that matter, Western can lose sleep, too – purely in anticipation of how good things could get for the Toppers in the coming years at the rate Western is going.
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