Wildcats? fans are dizzy over Gillispie

?I?m a baby,? Gillispie said, his voice choking with emotion. ?I?m going to start crying.?

The crowd didn?t give him a chance. Chanting ?Billy! Billy! Billy!? they overpowered the school?s new basketball coach, replacing any tears with laughter.

It might not have been the Billy that Kentucky originally hoped it would get to lead college basketball?s winningest program, but Big Blue Nation will take it.

So will Gillispie, the 47-year-old who turned around UTEP and Texas A&M and is now charged with putting the Wildcats back among the elite.

?It?s mind boggling what you can accomplish here and what has been accomplished here,? Gillispie said. ?I have had two opportunities to be a head coach and both places needed a little fixing. Well, this situation has been fixed for a long time.?

Gillispie?s emergence as one of the country?s hottest young coaches has been coming for a long time too. Gillispie figured he?d just coach high school basketball his entire life before working his way through the ranks, including several years as an assistant coach to Bill Self at Tulsa and Illinois before moving onto UTEP in 2002.

Five years later, he?s sitting at college basketball?s head table, eager to appease Kentucky?s famously passionate but notoriously finicky fan base.

Gillispie replaces Tubby Smith, who bolted for Minnesota on March 22, though he wasn?t the first Billy approached by Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart.

Florida coach Billy Donovan talked briefly with Barnhart on Thursday before deciding to stay with the two-time defending national champions rather than return to the place where he began his coaching career as an assistant under Rick Pitino.

Gillispie hardly seemed bothered that he was not the first choice to become just the sixth head coach at Kentucky in the last 76 years.

?If I was anywhere before seventh or eighth, I?d be happy,? he said. ?I couldn?t care less.?

Dubbed a ?miracle worker? by some for his success with the Miners and Aggies, Gillispie is the only one in NCAA history to coach the nation?s most improved team in two consecutive seasons. No miracles are necessary in Lexington.

?This program got turned around like 2,000 years ago and it?s been turned around ever since,? Gillispie said. ?Since they started putting those nets up there and used a round ball, they never needed a turnaround.?

Kentucky went 22-12 last season, losing to Kansas in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Not a bad year by most standards, except maybe at Kentucky, now in the unaccustomed spot of five double-digit loss seasons in the last eight years.

Gillispie understands the demands of the 24,000 assistant coaches who pack Rupp Arena every winter and question everything from the team?s strategy to the coach?s choice of ties.

And it?s why he didn?t hesitate when offered the seven-year contract that will pay him $2.3 million a year, with another $850,000 in performance and academic bonuses.

?I like expectations,? he said. ?My most favorite year was this when we had pressure. And that expectation, it either drives you or it diminishes your ability ? and my ability isn?t diminished by expectations.?

If anything, it?s driven him. The confessed workaholic is 100-58 in five seasons as a head coach. He needed two years to rebuild UTEP between 2002 and 2004 before moving on to Texas A&M, where he molded the perennial Big 12 also-rans into contenders. The Aggies went 27-7 this season, making it to the NCAA tournament?s round of 16 for the first time in 27 years.

As celebratory as Gillispie?s introduction was ? there were signs at a pep rally that read ?Billy G., our savior,? and screams of ?We love you Billy? as he addressed fans at Memorial Coliseum ? he knows the cheers will fade if he doesn?t produce.

While the players said they were stunned by Smith?s departure, they?re eager to get to work for Gillispie, who said he?ll play ?whatever kind of style helps us win.?

?I heard he?s a player?s coach,? guard Joe Crawford said. ?The guys who?ve played for him, they?ve established a relationship with him that continues to this day.?

Kentucky was not the first school to approach Gillispie following Texas A&M?s loss to Memphis last month in the NCAA tournament. He was contacted by Arkansas recently about replacing Stan Heath, but chose to stay with the Aggies. He agreed to a new contract last week that would have paid him $1.75 million a year, but he never signed.

Gillispie said he wasn?t waiting for Kentucky?s call and was out recruiting for the Aggies when Barnhart got in touch. Gillispie knew he couldn?t say no.

?This is the place,? he said, ?that basically invented college basketball.?