Duke Still Back of the Pack

George Dohrmann writes for SI that "Duke is Back" after their win over Purdue. But Duke isn't anywhere. The Dukies had no inside presence, didn't have enough athleticism to get separation from midget Purdue defenders, and couldn't make shots.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Duke's a turnover machine as well.

Of course, it could be claimed that I'm biased because I have a couple of North Carolina degrees and root for Kentucky.

I also have to confess that my ex-wife teaches at Duke.

But my bias doesn't make Duke a better basketball team.

Be surprised--be very surprised--if Duke gets much further.

Unfortunate About Billy Gillispie

I was disappointed to see that former UK coach Billy Gillispie was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving a couple of days ago.

Lawrenceburg Police said Gillispie was driving a white 2009 Mercedes with Texas
tags around 2:45 a.m. on US 127 when a call went in to 9-1-1 reported seeing the the car driving erratically. Gillispie was arrested and charged with DUI. In Gillispie's arrest report, the arresting officer stated that Gillispie "had a strong fruity smell coming from his person (possibly wine) and had red glassy eyes and slow slurred speech."

What's unfortunate here is the possibility that Gillispie is slipping into alcoholism after being fired from the UK job. From the minute Billy Gillispie arrived in Lexington, KY, there have been rumors about him being such a bad alcoholic that he was booted out of bars and had to be driven everywhere. I'm not in position to either confirm or disconfirm those rumors and I've certainly ridiculed Gillispie for his cluelessness as a basketball coach.

But still, I don't like the thought that he might be deteriorating at this point. Now that Gillispie has no job, it's likely that he has lots of money and lots of time on his hands. If he indeed does have alcohol problems, that's not a good combination.