BTI's Rants and Ramblings: The Billy Gillispie File.....

With the news on Monday that KC Ross-Miller was headed to Auburn, it really got me thinking about the load of players that Billy Gillispie either brought in or tried to bring in to the Kentucky program.  All in all, Gillispie took 15 commitments during his time in Lexington.  The full total is 16, but I never know what to do with Patrick Patterson.  It is true that Patterson committed under Gillispie, but the large amount of work was done by Tubby Smith.  I go back and forth on whether Patterson should be a Gillispie player or not, but for the sake of this post, I am keeping Patterson out.  He was likely headed to Lexington either way.  As for the other 16 guys, take a look at how those careers went or are going:

Guys who played at UK
Alex Legion (Class of 2007) 
07-08 (Kentucky): 6.7 ppg, 1.8 rpg
08-09 (Illinois): 3.5 ppg, 1.5 rpg
09-10 (Illinois): 2.7 ppg, 0.9 rpg
10-11 (Florida International): 13.0 ppg, 5.1 rpg

Donald Williams (Class of 2008) 
08-09 (Kentucky): Redshirt
09-10 (Antelope Valley JC): 16.6 ppg
10-11 (Ole Miss): 2.2 ppg
11-12 (Rogers State): 14.6 ppg
12-13 (Rogers State): 16.2 ppg

Kevin Galloway (Class of 2008-Junior College Transfer)
08-09 (Kentucky): 1.9 ppg, 1.8 rpg
09-10 (Texas Southern): Transfer Year
10-11 (Texas Southern): 10.9 ppg, 6.9 rpg

Josh Harrellson (Class of 2008-Junior College Transfer)
08-09 (Kentucky): 3.6 ppg, 2.5 rpg
09-10 (Kentucky): 1.3 ppg, 1.2 rpg
10-11 (Kentucky): 7.6 ppg, 8.6 rpg

Darius Miller (Class of 2008)
08-09 (Kentucky): 5.3 ppg, 3.1 rpg
09-10 (Kentucky): 6.5 ppg, 2.5 rpg
10-11 (Kentucky): 10.9 ppg, 4.6 rpg
11-12 (Kentucky): 9.9 ppg, 2.8 rpg

Deandre Liggins (Class of 2008)
08-09 (Kentucky): 4.2 ppg, 2.4 rpg
09-10 (Kentucky): 3.8 ppg, 2.3 rpg
10-11 (Kentucky): 8.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg

Daniel Orton (Class of 2009)
09-10 (Kentucky): 3.4 ppg, 3.3 rpg

Jon Hood (Class of 2009)
09-10 (Kentucky): 1.2 ppg, 0.7 rpg
10-11 (Kentucky): 0.8 ppg, 0.7 rpg
11-12 (Kentucky): Redshirt
12-13 (Kentucky): 1.5 ppg, 1.2 rpg
13-14 (Kentucky): 1.2 ppg, 0.3 rpg

Guys who never made it to UK
GJ Vilarino (Class of 2009)
09-10 (Gonzaga): 2.3 ppg, 0.3 apg
10-11 (Appalachain St): Redshirt Year
11-12 (Appalachain St): 3.8 ppg, 1.3 apg
(Vilarino left App St following 11-12 year and did not play college basketball again)

Konner Tucker (Class of 2009)
09-10 (Wake Forest): 2.2 ppg, 0.2 apg
10-11 (S.Houston St): Redshirt Year
11-12 (S. Houston St): 12.0 ppg, 1.0 apg
12-13 (UTEP): 10.1 ppg, 1.4 apg

Dakotah Euton (Class of 2010)
10-11 (Akron): 1.1 ppg, 0.9 rpg
11-12 (Asbury): 14.9 ppg, 7.7 rpg
12-13 (Asbury): 10.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg
13-14 (Asbury): 6.2 ppg, 4.5 rpg

KC Ross Miller (Class of 2010)
10-11 (New Orleans): 9.2 ppg, 3.2 apg
11-12 (N.Mexico St): Transfer Year
12-13 (N.Mexico St): 5.3 ppg, 2.3 apg
13-14 (N.Mexico St): 8.3 ppg, 5.3 apg
(Miller announced he will transfer after the year to Auburn.  In his final game at NMSU, he started a brawl)

Dominique Ferguson (Class of 2010)
10-11 (Florida International): 7.1 ppg, 4.8 rpg
11-12 (Florida International): 8.7 ppg, 6.2 rpg
(Ferguson then entered 2012 NBA Draft after being denied transfer from FIU.  Has played in England and Bulgaria since)

Vinny Zollo (Class of 2011)
11-12 (Western Kentucky): 3.7 ppg, 2.9 rpg
12-13 (Furman): Only lasted 1 semester before transferring to NW Florida State
13-14 (NW Florida State): 3.3 ppg, 2.9 rpg
(Vollo has now transferred to Cleveland State and has 2 years remaining of eligibility)

Michael Avery (Class of 2012)
12-13 (Sonoma St): 1.8 ppg, 1.5 rpg
13-14 (Sonoma St): 3.2 ppg, 2.3 rpg

2 Quick Facts from these numbers:

1. Billy Gillispie UK commits played 33 Division-1 seasons total.  Only 6 times did a player average more than 10ppg and 1/3 of those were Konner Tucker.

2. The 7 guys who never made it to Kentucky have now played at 15 different schools.  7 guys……15 schools.

Thank you John Calipari.