I dislike Todd intensley.

Failure of Billy G rests squarely on his shoulders.

as the winner or the loser in the BCG debacle?

Evidence points to at least his culpability in the matter, but does his recovery this year combined with the amazing success of the Football program get him a pass? I think that in this case Mitch has seen the light when it comes to the BBall program, and has shined the light on FBall. He obviously has a knack for improving things, given time. Is the improvement enough?…I think so. We have half the budget of some bigtime SEC schools, thanks to the huge dollars their football programs bring in, and we now have quality people in almost every position in the athletics program.

He keeps UK in a bowl game every year, gets us playing after Jan 1 regularly, and we would have the budget to compete in every way with any school. We have top notch facilities, (with the exception of an indoor practice facility for football, which I think is a necessity) and we have the staff. Getting this Director’s Cup lined out would really make a nice coup for Mitch. As soon as the BCG stuff goes away, that will be forgotten by most.

in fortyish style:

season – rank – AD
93-94 – 37 newton
94-95 – 46 newton
95-96 – 32 newton
96-97 – 26 newton
97-98 – 28 newton
98-99 – 49 newton
99-00 – 70 ivy
00 -01 – 37 ivy
01-02 – 36 ivy
02-03 – 50 mitch
03-04 – 45 mitch

maybe with cal in bball and the football team looking to build on 3 bowl games, we have a shot to see the number move into the low 20’s.

not really sure mitch has taken the athletic department to the next level – up or down…..

We got 99 problems, but Mitch ain’t one.

I didn’t think the grief he took for the handling of Gillispie was appropriate or warranted. It was the best of an ugly situation that G created. He manned up publicly for screwing up the the G hire, which is admirable, and doesn’t happen often in his field.

He deserves far more credit than he gets for standing in the fire for Brooks also.

I think Mitch’s lack of communication skills are the real culprit. Apparently he didn’t communicate well enough to Billy G what his role would be, didn’t talk to the right people to go after John Calipari the first time and didn’t bother telling the fans about Calipari’s little Memphis fiasco before we had to read about it in the Commercial Appeal.
I thought Guy Morris deserved a real shot and I was one of the ones calling for Brooks’ scalp too. Winning makes things go away, but I’m still not exactly a big Brooks fan.
Plus our baseball and women’s basketball teams are back to sucking. I guess all that matters is wins so if UK basketball lives up to the hype next year, we’ll be singing ole Mitch’s praises again. If Cal gets us in trouble or UK flops, maybe even next year, Mitch is gone.

On December 9th, 2008 Barnhart said in the next seven years Kentucky will win 15 SEC or National Championships. Lets see, this year, none. That’s means there is going to be a flurry of Trophies coming in quickly. My question is – is he counting the championships that the cheerleaders win almost annually? If we win the SEC in basketball and all the Big Dances between now and then, that would be 14. We all know that is more than likely happen so I guess the guy knows what he talking about. I love Mitch’s candor and certainly he wouldn’t make such an announcement if he could back it up. Right?

I see everyone one is talking about the winning Brooks is doing at Kentucky. Until 2006, the year they put in the twelveth game, thus another ‘buy’ win, we weren’t doing so well. But that extra game has made us a winner. In the 6 years Brooks has been here, the Cats are 5-25 in the Eastern Division. 4 of those wins are against Vandy. The other was a great upset against Georgia. With out the wins against Vandy we are 1-23. Mmm, interesting. We play Mississippi State every year from the west division. 4-2 against them. Nice. The win against LSU was great. Brooks is 13 and 35 in the conference. 8 of those wins against Mississippi State and Vandy. Two against Arkansas, LSU, Georgia and I can’t remember the other one. In 6 years,. Now its time to step it up. Tennessee and Auburn have new coaches. Coming off losing seasons. Mississippi State has an offensive coordinator, like our coach in waiting, but the guy is from University of Florida. Not a bad offense to be the coordinator of. When was the last time Vandy beat anybody two years in a row? South Carolina is away. But doable. Miami of OHIO, last year 2-10 and picked to finish last in the Mac. Louisiana-Monroe, 4-8, hasn’t has a winning record is this century. (eight years). Louisville is suppose to be terrible so who are we to argue? Ah and Eastern. Good ole Eastern. Thanks fellas.
Georgia, Florida and Alabama would he BIG upsets. But eight or nine games a winable.
What happens if we go 6-6? Nothing. Rich Brooks has the most secure coaching job in the SEC. Why not expect better? Maybe beating Miss State and Vandy two out of three is just enough to get us to basketball season. Why else would anyone be satisfied with a 5 and 25 record against your divisional foes be acceptable?
The reason for our success and why we don’t do better is – ready for this? – we play in the toughest conference in america. Yep, we’re in the toughest conference in the nation but should we actually want to ‘compete’ in it also?
I know, I’m all wrong but when you look at it and break it down as shown above, are we ever going to say ‘we could and should do better’ or are we just the preamble to basketball as in the past?
Thanks for reading and if you wish to bash, go ahead.

just tougher on the program than most others.

Brooks and Co. have done a great job getting us where we are but if we want to continue to improve we have to start beating the SC’s, UT’s, Auburns, etc. I dont expect regular wins over UF UG LSU etc but we have to start beating the mid level SEC teams regularly. Brooks would be the first one to tell you this. The schedule is so rough this season I am prepared to give the team a bye this year if only because I see very good things happening in 2010.