It didn't take long for the vulchers to begin to swarm in Lexington and around the Commonwealth on Wednesday. Despite all of the optimism and buzz on created around the University of Kentucky basketball program with the arrival of new head coach John Calipari there has been a small group of haters.

They have warned that playing with fire will get you burned and many have accussed Calipari of being "a snake" and "a cheater".

The Memphis Commerical Appeal reports that the notice of allegations -- that's the official term for it -- charges Memphis with six different major infractions, three of which involve Jenny Bruun, the former coach of the women's golf team.

The other three are about hoops. It's honestly not as bad as it could be. Two of the charges involve the associate of a player who traveled with the team -- getting free hotels and airfare -- who should have paid his own way. By all accounts, the person did reimburse the university for other trips he made. So this may amount to no more than a simple accounting and monitoring error.

On June 6, the University of Memphis will appear before the NCAA's Committee on Infractions in connection with allegations of three major rules violations under Calipari, including the charge that one player -- Derrick Rose? -- didn't take his own SAT. Calipari is not personally implicated in any of the allegations.

The haters are going to take this and run, but I will choose to take the wait-and-see approach. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

The reality of the matter is that the NCAA's rules are broken in some shape or form by nearly every major program in the country. 

Fans cry for squeaky clean programs, but I challenge them to list five that have had sustained success.

I don't know whether or not Calipari is guilty or not. I do know that UK just landed its best recruiting class in a decade. I do know that I am as excited as I have been in years about the upcoming Wildcats' season.

Adding fuel to the fire for Calipari on this day was news that five-star recruit John Wall plead guilty to a Class I misdemeanor for breaking and entering.

Meanwhile, former Kentucky men's basketball coach Billy Gillispie sued the school Wednesday, seeking at least $6 million he says he is owed on his deal for being fired without cause.

It wasn't the best day for the school by any means, but let's not get too carried away.

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from ESPN.com

Billy Gillispie is out as coach of Kentucky in his second season at the helm, the school announced at a 4:30 p.m. ET news conference on Friday.

School officials had been quiet about Gillispie's job status after the Wildcats tumbled through the second half of the season to finish 22-14, tied for the second-most losses in the program's 106-year history.

Gillispie's Kentucky Wildcats missed the NCAA tournament but advanced to the quarterfinals of the NIT.

Florida coach Billy Donovan, who many have speculated as being the top target by the university for the job, will not be a candidate for the Kentucky job or any jobs that come open, according to the Gainesville Sun.

“In response to the rumors circulating about my interest in other jobs, I wanted to address this as quickly as possible," Donovan said in a statement. "I am committed to the University of Florida and look forward to continuing to build our program here."

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from CNNSI.com

Kentucky football fans don't expect much. They're fine with the Liberty Bowl, which is the football equivalent of the NIT quarterfinals. Kentucky basketball fans expect Final Fours and national championships. That's why Wednesday night the Cat's Pause, the Rivals.com site that covers Kentucky, said a record 13,500 logged on to its free message board.

Billy Gillispie built winners in his previous stops at UTEP and Texas A&M. He won or shared conference coach of the year honors five times. Despite having two of the nation's best players, Gillispie couldn't find a way to make Kentucky win this season.

If Gillispie gets canned, that's why. Forget all the other stuff. In the final analysis, his job was to win, and he didn't win enough. Wednesday, Gillispie said the only judgment that matters to him is the one he'll get from the big athletic director in the sky. "There's only one judgment I'll ever be concerned about," he said. "I hope I pass that judgment. I'm really proud that's the only judgment that's ever had a real effect on me. I hope I pass that one with flying colors."

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Watching Kentucky beat Creighton on the road in a hostile enviroment was bittersweet for Kentucky fans. The game in itself was thrilling, but the fact they were playing it excrutiating. My take is a NIT Championship would be a positive finish in a depressing season and perhaps save UK from making the mistake of firing their head coach after just two seasons.

Even if you don't like Billy Gillispie, common sense should tell you after all the badmouthing the University and its supporters took during the last coaching search the UK can not afford another black eye. The job has to be appealing for someone worthy to take it and right now it is far from it.

So why UK fans struggle with whether or not they want to see their head coach get the axe, the Lexington Herald-Leader's Mark Story offers some of tournament and post-season fodder for them to chew on:

6. Billy Donovan. If the Kentucky head coaching job were to open, the Florida coach needs to ask himself a question: Wouldn't a guy with all his passion for hoops like to try working at a school where basketball actually matters to the fan base?

5. Siena University. Has fielded a men's basketball team clearly better than Kentucky's for two straight years now.

4. President Obama's NCAA bracket. Those hating on the POTUS because he made public his tourney picks in a time of national economic crisis are being ridiculous — not even the president should be expected to adhere to all work, no fun, just because times are hard.

3. Looming Big Blue dilemma. If the national title game is Louisville vs. North Carolina, who do you root for, Cats fans?

2. The University of Kentucky. If the Kentucky administration has off-court or philosophical issues that explain why Billy Gillispie's hold on the UK coaching job seems so tenuous, so be it. They presumably are in position to know things about how Billy G. has gone about his job that are not fully apparent to the rest of us.

1. Billy Gillispie. But if it is a basketball decision being made, two years are not a fair trial upon which to render a final judgment on a coach. 

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The Kentucky Wildcats' entered the tournament feeling it had to win it all to extend its string of consecutive NCAA appearances. The Wildcats last missed the NCAA tournament in 1991 and hasn't played in the NIT since 1979. There 67-58 loss to LSU in the SEC quarterfinals on Friday in Tampa all but ended any hopes they had for the NCAA tournament.

Pretty pathetic when you consider that the SEC is as bad as it has been in years. I really don't expect a single team from the conference to be standing in the Sweet 16.

Jerry Palm of CollegeRPI.com, in a study of the Ratings Percentage Index, found that this SEC has a lower RPI than any big-six conference since the ratings began 16 years ago. Even worse for UK, nine of its 20 wins came against teams ranked No. 200 or worse in the RPI.

That doesn't bode well for the Wildcats come selection Sunday.

Now comes the million dollar question, will the team pull the plug on Billy Gillispie after just two years?

Athletic director Mitch Barnhardt has publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with his coach of late and will not comment on anything about Gillispie's future until they have chance to sit down and talk.

As Eric Crawford wrote in Saturday's Courier-Journal, "Barnhart wants his coach to understand the vital public role he plays in projecting a positive image for the university. Gillispie, responding to that this week, said his only job is to win games.  But right now he is doing neither. As they went their separate ways yesterday, you got the feeling that the upcoming NIT is far from the most compelling story UK basketball will have to tell in the next couple of weeks."

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Mark Story of the Lexington Herald-Leader sounds off on why UK shouldn't fire Billy Gillispie:

With a record of 37-24, Gillispie's UK teams have done an un-Kentucky-like amount of losing so far.

Still, the quickest way to make sure a great basketball program stays in long-term decline is to get into a cycle of constantly changing coaches.

After the great John Wooden retired at UCLA, that school switched head men five times in the next 14 years. Three of those coaches each made it only two years. Even now, 34 years since Wooden won the last of his 10 NCAA titles, UCLA has never had a coach last a full decade as its head man. It is only in the past three years under Ben Howland that UCLA has fully returned as a consistent national power. There is a lesson in that.

However unhappy the Kentucky fan base is with Billy Gillispie in this moment, it would be counterproductive to fire a coach after only two years.

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Mike Casey is considered one of the greatest players to ever wear a UK uniform.  Many fans will tell you that UK would have probably won another NCAA Championship had Casey not broken his leg in a motorcycle accident.

Casey averaged 50% shooting from the field and people can only imagine what kind of points he would have had if the 3-point line existed when he played.

When he speaks about UK basketball people tend to listen and recently he spoke about Billy Gillispie to a website called "Sea of Blue" and it has to be one of the strongest comments about the new coach which is what many in Lexington have been asking themselves for most of this season.

Casey -- "First of all, I think he's in over his head.  I think he has no clue as to what's going on in the game." 

"I just don't think he knows what it means to coach at UK.  I hate to say it, but a change has to be made, and soon, or we're going to lose what UK is all about.  Ask (Richie) Farmer, or (John) Pelphrey, or (Deron) Feldhaus what it means to play at Kentucky.  Ask them what that "Kentucky" across their chests means.  Somehow we've let that go.  If we lost we came out fightin' mad; we weren't going to lose two in a row.  It's beyond me why (Mitch) Barnhart and (Lee) Todd put up with it."

The only thing that I can say in Billy's defense is that kids don't care about the great traditions of UK, UCLA, Kansas...they care more about their own legacy and how they can get the the NBA with as little time spent in college but with that said if Gillispie continues to be subborn to the point that he isn't willing to adjust to the game then his stay in Wildcat Blue may be shorter than he thinks.

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Maybe it was the most recent articles calling out the boo-birds at Rupp Arena.

Maybe it was opposing players and coaches saying that Rupp fans benefit them more than the Wildcats with their actions.

Maybe it was Billy Gillispie saying that UK fans were detrimental to the play of his team.

Whatever the reason, last night the UK fans responded and were more like the way it used to be, the way it is supposed to be at Rupp.

The crowd was loud and supportive all night and reached its apex when at the end of regulation the ref (who should not be allowed to ref above 2nd grade after the debacle he made of the entire game) called a foul on Galloway and sent Nick Calathes to the line for his 13th, 14th and 15th free throw.

Just prior to the call the crowd had errupted when UK's Jodie Meeks hit an off balance, highly contested shot over Nick Calathes that found the bottom of the net as time expired on the shot clock and 4.7 seconds left in the game to put UK up 68-65

It was obvious before Calathes even stepped to the line that the odds of him making all three shots were going to be slim to none because of how deafening the level of noise was in the arena.  A total of 24,355 fans (7th largest in Rupp Arena history) let their voices be heard and it was staggering.  Needless to say Calathes missed all three shots.

That is what Rupp Arena used to sound like.  The sound of a champion.

And if only for one night the roar returned to Rupp and my 2 hour drive home was worth it.

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The Kentucky Wildcats started SEC play by running off 5 consecutive wins and found themselves in first place in the SEC East.

Since that time they have managed a 3-game skid against Ole Miss, South Carolina and Miss State.  Two of those three losses have come at home.

In a year when the SEC is way down and they will be lucky to get more than 3 teams into the Big Dance the Wildcats can't afford another loss which is a tall order to fill starting tonight against the Florida Gators who have owned them over the past several season.

Should UK lose tonight it will be the first time in team history that they have lost 3 consecutive games at home and you can bet the fans will want Billy gone.

Driving to UK to watch the game...2 hours

Gas and food...$20

Listening to Billy G's pathetic post game excuses for the team not playing smart or tough enough...nauseating.

Getting back home...1:30am

Having to face my friends if they lose...a 12 pack and face mask.

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from CollegeHoops.net:

Near the end of the Tubby Smith era, whispers grew that the program had lost their air of invincibility, that Tubby's hit-or-miss recruiting efforts had created a stale program that was neither moving forward or backward. That feeling even wafted into the Billy GIllispie era, as his teams suffered some embarrassing setbacks last year before hitting their stride on conference play. With fans looking forward to the promise of a new season, UK promptly lost their first two games this year, including a bad loss at home to Virginia Military Institute.

But instead of  allowing an "oh no- here we go again" attitude to permeate the program, these Cats stuck together, and have slowly replaced that feeling of dread with the joy of watching a team that is quietly meshing together and genuinely cares for one another. Nowhere is team chemistry more important that in college basketball, and getting that established is the first step towards the Cats reclaiming their place among the elite.

No doubt, part of the excitement around the team again is due to the exploits of Meeks, who has quickly erased an injury-riddle sophomore season by thrusting himself into the National Player of the Year discussion this season. His scoring explosions have been well-documented, but what has gone overlooked is his team-first attitude. Meeks continues to answer questions with "we", not "I", and is quick to credit his team for his place in the record books. Watching his teammates mob him after he pumped in 54 points against Tennessee was one of the sweetest moments in UK history, because it showed the togetherness that championships are built on.

But even more than Meeks, even more than the reliable play of stud forward Patrick Patterson, or the shot-swatting of Perry Stevenson, or the toughness of Ramon Harris, is the energy that this team takes the floor with every time out.

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