This time the squirming lasted only a couple of days and it couldn’t be helped. It would have been inappropriate for Billy Donovan to make any kind of statement about remaining at Florida until something had been officially announced at Kentucky but shortly after it was announced that the Wildcats had dismissed Billy Clyde Gillispie after two years on the job, Donovan’s statement was emailed to every news outlet in the country Friday afternoon.
Donovan’s statement read: “In response to the rumors circulating about my interest in other jobs, I wanted to address this as quickly as possible. I am committed to the University of Florida and look forward to continuing to build our program here.”
That one simple statement ended all the speculation that had been building for the last two weeks, ever since Kentucky lost its second round game in the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Tampa. From the moment the Wildcats lost to LSU, Gillispie was dead man walking. The next morning at the St. Pete Times Forum several well connected writers and broadcasters who follow the Wildcats religiously said they were told by their contacts within the athletic department that a decision had already been made regarding Gillispie’s fate.
“I hear the decision has been made and they’ll wait until an appropriate time to announce it,” Tim Brando told me.
The appropriate time became 48 hours after Kentucky went down to Notre Dame in South Bend Wednesday. If that had been an NCAA Tournament loss, Gillispie would still be at Kentucky but this was the NIT and it was Kentucky’s 14th loss of the season. After 17 straight NCAA appearances, the NIT was like swallowing battery acid but 27 losses in two years in which NCAA probation was not involved was a cyanide smoothie for the Big Blue Nation.
From the moment the clock struck zero in South Bend, Billy Gillispie was strapped in the chair and waiting for the executioner to pull down the switch. The upset of the century would have been Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhardt announcing one more year for Gillispie Friday afternoon.
Starting Wednesday night, reports began to surface that Gillispie was all but gone and that Billy Donovan was Kentucky’s first choice. ESPN’s Pat Forde called it a 50-50 shot that Donovan would take the Kentucky job. I talked to a number of coaches that know Donovan well and most of them thought that this was going to be far more difficult for Billy to say no than it was two years ago when the Wildcats came calling the day after the Florida Gators had won their second straight NCAA championship.
“I think he’s gone,” one assistant coach told me who has strong ties to the Florida and Kentucky programs. “I don’t think he could have taken the Kentucky job two years ago but I think he’ll go this time. Florida’s a great place but at Florida Billy will always be second to whoever the football coach is. At Kentucky, he’s God. I know he’s not a big ego guy, but at Kentucky they’ll build that 32,000-seat arena for him … whatever he wants he’ll get it and I don’t know how you say no to that.”
I wasn’t worried that he would take the Kentucky job two years ago. I was worried that he would take the New York Knicks job if offered. It never was but he did take the Orlando Magic job for about 24 hours.
This time my heart said he would stay but my head and the gnawing feeling in my stomach said he would go. Two things concerned me most. One was the lack of fan support and the other thing was the number of very well connected national writers who thought that it was a 50-50 proposition and that Billy might be leaning toward going.
I’ve heard all the arguments about fan support in the last 24 hours and I know some people think this is silly but here’s reality — in Florida’s two NCAA championship seasons the Gators didn’t average a sellout and the O-Dome only seats 12,000. At Kentucky they sell out March Madness. They scalp tickets for a practice. At the SEC Tournament in Tampa, where the Gators couldn’t muster more than 5-6,000 fans for a game with Auburn, there were 12,000 Kentucky fans on hand earlier in the day for the game with LSU. People say the economy is bad and it is, but there were people selling tickets one for $10 and two for $15 outside the St. Pete Times Forum. There are many more than 12,000 Gators in Tampa and there’s a lot of difference in driving 20 or 30 minutes from home and paying $7.50 per ticket on the average than there is with driving down from Lexington, staying in a hotel two or three nights, eating out and then buying tickets for basketball. You may not like hearing about the lack of fan support, but it’s a very legitimate argument.
Like the rest of the Gator nation, I spent two very uneasy days. Up in Lexington, they were preparing for a coronation. Websites were saying the deal was done, that Donovan would be announced Friday afternoon at the same press conference that Gillispie was fired. I didn’t buy into that. Kentucky is too classy and Billy Gillispie hasn’t done anything to merit that kind of sendoff. I’m not sure he really merited the sendoff he got all things considered, but it is Kentucky and Kentucky takes its basketball seriously enough that 27 losses in two years just don’t cut it.
Donovan, meanwhile, said nothing and he couldn’t. It would have been totally inappropriate to issue any kind of statement until something was official at Kentucky. It made all of us squirm but really he had no choice but to keep silent until something was announced in Lexington.
The email from Fred Demarest, Florida’s Sports Information Director for basketball, arrived at 4:46, just a few minutes after the story hit the wire that Gillispie was officially out. It was short, simple and to the point, about what you would expect out of Donovan because the last thing he would do is show up Billy Gillispie or the University of Kentucky. Any kind of elaborate statement would have been dissected 40 bazillion times on message boards and by the media so a simple statement was all that was required.
And so now we know — Billy Donovan is staying put. Here he is the first and only Billy Donovan. At Kentucky, he would be just another good coach until he won his second NCAA title. Joe B. Hall, Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith each only won one NCAA title and because of that they’re forever compared to Adolph Rupp.
At Florida, Billy has set his own standard of excellence and he has set a very high bar. By issuing his statement Friday afternoon, he let Kentucky know once and for all that he is not an option. That was also a statement to the recruits he signed for 2009 and the ones committed for 2010 and 2011 that he’s going to continue to build the Florida program back to the championship level.
So welcome back, Billy, not that you were ever gone.