Billy Gillispie

Name:

Billy Gillispie

Position:

Head Coach

Team:

None

Career Record:

139–84

Key Influences:

Bill Self (Kansas)

Great Players:

Antoine Wright (Texas A&M), Jodie Meeks, Patrick Patterson (Kentucky)

Profile:

No basketball coach, anywhere, is subjected to greater scrutiny than the head coach at Kentucky. The spotlight proved a bit too bright for Billy Gillispie, who was fired after two seasons coaching the Wildcats.

Gillispie's path to a big-time coaching job began as a graduate assistant at Sam Houston State University and Southwest Texas. After a few years as a highly-successful high school coach and junior college, he returned to Division I hoops in 1994 as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Baylor. Three years later, he hitched himself to a rising star, becoming an assistant to Bill Self at Tulsa. When Self left Tulsa for the head coaching job at Illinois in 2000, Gillespie followed him to Champaign and helped to recruit the players that would share Big Ten titles in 2001 and 2002. After the 2002 season, Gillespie was hired to take over the head coaching position at UTEP.

In Gillispie's first first season in El Paso, his Miners posted a 6-24 record; in his second, he landed a top-25 recruiting class and the school's first conference title in 12 years. After two years at UTEP, Gillispie took over the Texas A&M program, leading the Aggies to two NCAA appearances in three seasons and a 31-17 overall record. That -- along with his reputation as a tireless worker and talented recruiter -- netted him an offer to replace Tubby Smith in one of college basketball's most prestigious positions.

Off the court, some of Gillispie's tactics drew the ire of his fellow coaches. Accepting a verbal commitment from an eighth grader and using NCAA loopholes to move "midnight madness" generated strongly-worded press releases from the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

But more than any controversy, his won-loss record was his undoing. His tenure with the Wildcats got off to a rough start, with early-season losses to Gardner Webb and San Diego State. But the 'Cats rebounded to make yet another NCAA Tournament -- and might have been a tougher out if freshman forward Patrick Patterson and guard Jodie Meeks hadn't suffered significant injuries.

Year two in Lexington went less well -- with an 8-8 record in the SEC and a quarterfinal loss in the NIT.

He was fired on March 27, 2009.

Since his ouster, Gillispie has continued to make waves. He filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the university in May, and in August was arrested for driving under the influence - his third such arrest since 1999.

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