Perfect man for Kentucky? Not if he doesn't know the culture

Someone else can tell Kentucky which coach to hire next: Tom Izzo, Travis Ford, John Calipari ... whoever. Someone else can do it. Me, I'm out of the advice business.

Billy Gillispie ruined it for me.

Because Gillispie was perfect for Kentucky. Not a good hire. Not even a B-plus hire. He was perfect.

The true meaning of UK culture escaped Billy Gillispie, leading to his ouster. (AP)

Gillispie was everything that state wanted in a basketball coach, on the court and off. Judging from the way he turned around UTEP and Texas A&M, he was great with X's and O's. Judging from the way he got players as an assistant at Tulsa and Illinois, he was great at recruiting. He was a workaholic. He even spoke with a twang! The man was perfect for Kentucky, which is why I urged the school to hire him in 2007.

Only he wasn't perfect. Because of things you can't see. Attitudes you can't predict.

Billy Gillispie failed at Kentucky for one reason, and one reason only: He didn't understand what it took to succeed. Literally, Gillispie didn't understand the culture of Kentucky basketball and the role of the Kentucky basketball coach in that culture.

That's an accusation that normally makes me cringe -- he doesn't understand what it means to be the coach here! -- but it's the kind of accusation you hear all the time, mainly on message boards or talk radio. Fans who think they know a lot more than they do get together and gripe about their coach "not understanding the culture" of whatever program he's coaching.

As if you, or I, know the culture of a school better than the guy sitting in the head coach's chair.

But in this instance, that really seems to be the case. Gillispie didn't understand what he had. Didn't understand what was expected of him. Didn't understand the culture of Kentucky basketball.

Gillispie lost whatever slippery grasp he had on his job during the SEC tournament, after uttering a quote that will live in infamy in the state of Kentucky. When asked about being an ambassador for the University of Kentucky, Gillispie said, "That wasn't on the job description."

Proving, beyond a shadow of a doubt, he didn't understand where he was or what he was.

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I'm hearing that Gillispie's quote -- being an ambassador for UK "wasn't on the job description" for the UK coach -- made its way to the school president. And when it got there, Gillispie was finished.

Gillispie already was in trouble. Since his first weeks on the job in 2007, stories have circulated in state circles about Gillispie's affinity for having a good time after hours. Whether they're true or not, those stories were everywhere -- and that matters. Tubby Smith never was the subject of gossip about his partying habits. Rick Pitino wasn't, either. The coach at Kentucky is a rock star who better not live like a rock star. Better not even be gossiped about, because perception is reality. And the perception of Gillispie, after hours, was not a good one.

Regardless of how he handled himself away from his job, Gillispie had burned bridges all over the place with his brusque manner. He was Rick Majerus, minus the fat jokes, ripping into school radio hosts and national sideline reporters and athletic department employees and even fans who called his weekly show. Many of his players, even players he recruited to Kentucky, detested him.

Understand, you can be a jerk and keep your job as a college basketball coach as long as you win at the right level. At Kentucky, that level is almost off the charts. This isn't Tennessee, where Kevin O'Neill was a rampaging ogre from 1994-97, or Cincinnati, where Bob Huggins was a curmudgeonly grouch from 1989-2005. If you're at Kentucky and you want to be an ogre -- or you're at North Carolina and turning off everyone from the basketball secretary on up, as Matt Doherty did during his unfortunate three-year tenure from 2000-03 -- you better be winning 25 or 30 games and making runs at the Final Four.

Gillispie barely made it into the 2008 NCAA tournament as a No. 11 seed in his first season at Kentucky, finishing 18-13, and then this season the Wildcats didn't make it into the NCAA tournament at all. They went to the NIT, and if you're the coach at Kentucky and you're a jerk behind the scenes, reaching the NIT isn't enough.

But when you're the coach at Kentucky and you're a jerk behind the scenes and you're in the NIT and you're quoted that being an ambassador "wasn't on the job description" ... you're finished.

The coach at Kentucky is an ambassador and more. Kentucky basketball is a religion, like Catholicism, and the head coach is the pope.

Gillispie didn't get it. He honestly thought he could coach his team and then do whatever he wanted away from Rupp Arena.

He might even have been right. But he didn't win enough to find out.