"At the end of a whirlwind Thursday that began with a rebuff from Billy Donovan and included Rick Barnes withdrawing his name from consideration, Kentucky has locked in on Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie as its top candidate to replace Tubby Smith.

If negotiations proceed smoothly, Gillispie could be introduced as the new coach of the Wildcats very soon -- perhaps as early as Friday.

Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart asked for and received permission to talk to Gillispie on Thursday night, according to Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne."

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/s...

I'll def be watching ESPN all day today.

I don't disagree with you.

BUT...

There's no possible way I'm going to pass up having fun with the Aggie meltdown here.

Not a chance.

(With all due respect to our BON Aggie friends... well,  I still love y'all. But, yeah. We don't always travel the high road.)

beating ou always takes top honors, with  beating aTm a close second.

That's more of a rebuilding job than Barnes had to do after last year.

Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Corey Brewer and Taurean Green will declare for the draft by the April 29 deadline and sign with agents.  They also lose senior starting guard Lee Humphrey and reserve forward Chris Richard.

... announcing his departure from the school.  Maybe he can go coach the Arkansas basketball team!

The Tigers played in a dump of a conference and did just fine.

The 'Horns will be fine, too, if they do what they're capable of.

The DMN is reporting that Kentucky had been hounding Barnes for a week as plan B behind Donovan. Dick Vitale reported yesterday that Rick was No. 2 behind the Florida coach as well. In fact, it's been reported widely that he was next in line.

Couldn't this new spin be some face-saving by the UK athletic department, which didn't want to admit being turned down twice?

Katz and Fox Sports are both reporting that Barnes may have been their first choice all along.
According to the news this morning BG is in LA and never changed his travel plans, at all.

BG has been campaigning for this. Barnes and Donovan have ideal situations and don't want to deal with the booster baloney at Kentucky.

That spin is coming either from Agros or from Kentucky. Everyone with any source close to the situation yesterday was noting that Barnhardt wanted Barnes.

Thanks

HMFIC, it's in UK's interest to try to spin the story to, "We wanted BCG all along."

Barnes was their #2, but he wasn't interested so they moved on to BG.
I've been asked before by colleagues if I'm "interested" in such and such position, but it doesn't mean the offer exists. They are just gauging my interested, which I imagine happened to Barnes. It also saves Kentucky from a formal rejection.  

Kentucky needed to go after someone they KNEW would take the job.

talk about their values and class, I doubt they'll release the players from their schollie.  

I think Jordan would have to sit out a year if he went somewhere else, which I doubt he wants to do.

would need to get a release from his letter of intent to A&M. Think Damion James to OU last season. After Samson left, the school did the honorable thing, in my mind, and released their signees. Three of them, including James to Texas and Scottie Reynolds to Villanova, went elsewhere.

I fully expect A&M to release Jordan, if he asks for it, and their other incoming freshman as well.

Kentucky has plenty of scholarships available. So, Jordan to Kentucky is a likely scenario.

Jordan to Texas is not a likely scenario. If Durant stays and Balbay qualifies, then the Horns would already be one scholarship over the limit.

Even if Durant turns pro, I would be shocked if Jordan ended up in Austin.

I would be surprised if Jai Lucas ends up in Lexington, but I could be wrong. I think Lucas ends up in Stillwater.

But Patterson is another story. BCG would be off to a great start if he could sign Patterson or convince Jordan to jump ship and follow him to Kentucky.