An Honest Evaluation!

Lwcat
Wildcats Thunder Senior Board Moderator

Billy Gillispie was hired as UK's coach April 6th......he has been on the job a little less than 6 weeks. During that time BCG has had to address a number of challenges such as:

1) Meet with the returning players to head off transfers.....
2) Talk with and try and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the incoming recruits.....
3) Then hold some abbreviated practices to access the hand dealt him and where he should immediately focus his recruiting efforts.
4) Meet with and hire 2 asst coaches to help with recruiting ASAP....
5) Tie up loose ends at Texas A&M and accompany AC Law to Los Angeles for an award ceremony
6) Appear on a variety on sports talk shows including a UK press conference and sell UK basketball everywhere....
7) Set up and have as many face to face meetings with targeted recruits as possible.....
8) I could go on, but the challenges for Billy G in these 1st 6 weeks have been huge and he has made us all proud with his energy and passion.

As BCG has said recruiting is about hard work and establishing relationships....obviously, other factors enter the recruiting equation as well.

Lets look at yesterday's events......Lucas liked BCG and UK, but my guess is that he saw an opening at Florida with Green signing with the NBA and contrasted that with the flood of guards returning to UK. IMHO, I think Lucas probably made a wise decision. Anyone following Sanchez recruitment has long known that he and his family have been long time Arkansas fans and live close to the campus. Sanchez commitment to Arkansas was no surprise. Hamga recruitment is more complex.....BCG simply never had an opportunity to establish a relationship with Hamga, plus there were others close to Hamga who apparently had their own agenda and had a great influence on him. Who really knows the whole story? As far as Patterson goes.....the vast majority of analysts seem to feel that Patterson has been Florida bound for months.....by all accounts, BCG has impressed the Patterson family with a terrific detailed presentation as to Patterson's activities as a UK player....will it be enough....I hope so, but I'm afraid that Patterson will commit to Florida. Tomorrow we find out! Despite all the happenings of yesterday and whatever Patterson decides tomorrow.....I think that any honest evaluation of BCG's 1st 6 weeks is he gets an A+! Also, I forgot to add the recruitment of Legion, a top 30 recruit!