Former Rupp Asst Says Gillispie Could Be The Best UK Coach Ever

After interviewing Neil Reed, a former assistant to Adolph Rupp in the early 60's, for a documentary on Adolph Rupp, WKYT's Dick Gabriel receives an email from him where Reed writes that Gillispie may end up being the best coach Kentucky's ever had.

“Dick, I listened to his press conference and I want you to know, I was not ashamed to find myself crying. UK has a Roy Williams and a Billy Donovan who may end up being the best coach ever to lead the Cats. For two years my mind has been numbed with the query, ‘Why does A&M have a Billy Gillespie and UK doesn't?’

Get to know him. He is pure as a West Texas stream. Golly gee, I am excited and I hope UK fans realize, as an excellent old coach called from Florida to tell me, ‘The Wildcats just got a better coach than Billy Donovan, Rick Pitino, or Roy Williams, if only they can see it and get behind him.’ ”.

Reed was a coaching assistant for Kentucky during 1961-65 seasons, so Billy Gillispie might be quite honored to hear that one of Rupp's assistants from back then is backing him up and then some. Reed first heard of Gillispie back in 89 and then began following his college head-coaching career when he was at UTEP, so Reed, who recruited Louie Dampier and Pat Riley, has an eye for stardom and if he says Gillispie is that good, we Kentucky fans should be thankful Donovan didn't accept. According to Neil Reed, Kentucky just got ‘a Roy Williams and a Billy Donovan’.

This, my friends, makes me feel even better about Kentucky's future cuttin' down some nets, and we all know now how determined Giddyup has been these past couple weeks recruiting, and everything that's being said about him to what he's done in the past really makes Billy Donovan look like a second or third choice now that we're beginning to hear more and more about Gillispie's past.

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