Did you hear that Billy Gillispie doesn't have a signed contract yet? OMG, the world is about to end! Just let me say goodbye to my wife and dogs, and I'll be ready for the apocalypse.
Seriously, this is silly. The Associated Press has picked up the story, and now it's all over the wire. No doubt we can expect some pundits from around the sports world (TLT Jeff Goodman, Doyel, Vitale, Katz, who knows?) to weigh in and assure us this is passing strange, and cause for concern.
Matt Jones does and excellent job of addressing the situation here, but even then, he offers a caveat of concern:
I refuse to be concerned about it. Let the parties work through it, and chill. People do things without contracts all the time while issues are being hammered out, and the fact that Gillispie doesn't have an agent to drive the issue goes a long way to explain why it is dragging. Of course, there could be some detail over which the parties are at serious loggerheads, but I doubt it.
Apparently, Jerry Tipton started this brouhaha with this article in the Herald-Leader yesterday, and it got picked up by the sports wires. Some guy in The Cats Pause message area says it was on the front page of ESPN some time ago. Not sure if it is there now, and I don't care one whit.
Those worried about UK's image in all this should relax. These things happen in their own good time. Just a reminder to those who don't know, Thad Matta was without a contract for a lot longer when he was hired as Ohio State's coach. That was news, too, so I guess this is fair game.
Discuss.
Update [2007-11-17 11:27:5 by Truzenzuzex]: Ryan Ferguson (AKA GatorPilot) agrees with me that this is much ado about nothing whatever. Media, this isn't the story you're looking for. Move along.