Fran Fraschilla fires Billy Gillispie?

An expert on getting fired, ESPN "analyst" Fran Fraschilla "fired" Billy Clyde Gillispie on ESPN "College Basketball Final", after Kentucky lost at home to Georgia. Well, he didn't fire him on the spot, but he predicted that if he had another early November/December home loss in 2009-2010, then the wolves would come out. Fraschilla predicted that Gillispie would make it into the next season.

While it's only year #2 in the Clyde era, Kentucky fans cannot help but see that their former coach, Tubby Smith is doing quite well at Minnesoooota, and certainly without the same caliber of players as Kentucky.

Obviously, just about any coach, given infinite amount of time, he is eventually going to be successful, but in the world of high-stakes college hoops, "time" is measured in one-hand and in NCAA tourney success (or at least bids).

Our crystal ball is hazy on this. On one hand Gillispie is a hardcore hoopster, but on the other hand, he has not had the impact UK fans would have wanted to see in Year #2, especially with Jodie Meeks shooting like crazy and Patrick Patterson inside.

So what do you do? Do you give the new coach another year or two, or cut your losses and grab a more experienced NCAA-tourney-seasoned coach? Of course those are not easy to find and they certainly cost a lot, especially in this economy and after having to potentially buy-out "Clyde".

Of course things are nowhere near as bad for UK as they are at the other big college hoops school in the region - look at Indiana!

Lots of reactions and opinions to the Kentucky loss and season at A Sea of Blue and other UK websites, blogs and forums.