What is it about basketball coaches in the state of Kentucky lately?Rick Pitino admits to having sex with a woman in a Louisville restaurant, and then goes ballistic at the news media yesterday. John Calipari comes to Lexington as the new UK coach, and promptly learns the NCAA has erased his trip to the Final Four with Memphis from the record book.
And now Calipari's predecessor at UK, Billy Gillispie, has been arrested in Anderson County in Kentucky and charged with DUI. The Lexington Herald-Leader says Gillispie was released from jail this morning. Police told the TV station Gillispie was pulled over in a white 2009 Mercedes with Texas tags on US 127 after someone reported seeing the car driving erratically.
A male passenger also was arrested and charged with alcohol intoxication.
WLEX-TV says Gillispie told police he and his passenger had been golfing.
Police told WTVQ in Kentucky the arrest was at 2:45 a.m.
This is the third time Gillispie has been arrested for DUI. The previous two were in Texas and Oklahoma. The Oklahoma one was reduced to reckless driving and the coach pleaded guilty. In the Texas one, an El Paso prosecutor ultimately decided there wasn't enough evidence to determine Gillispie was drunk.
The Texas case drew a lot of attention, however, because Gillispie had been stopped after driving in the wrong direction on a one-way street. Also, he handed police officers a credit card instead of his license when he was first asked for identification.
Afterward, Gillispie sent more than 1,000 handwritten letters of apology to UTEP season-ticket holders, according to the El Paso Times.
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Looking good Billy G
In an effort to not let Rick Pitino and John Calipari dominate the headlines, former UK coach Billy Gillispie has been arrested for a DUI early Thursday morning. Gillispie’s passenger, a male friend of his (no, not like that) was cited for alcohol intoxication. The former savior of UK basketball and the man who was supposed to dominate the landscape of college basketball (according to the message board masses) was pulled over around 2:30 am in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. When asked to take a breathalyzer test, Billy G. refused. The best part about this whole thing? When asked what he was doing, Gillispie reportedly said they were returning from playing golf.
Also, confirming that Gillispie has indeed successfully stolen attention away from Rick Pitino and John Calipari, “billy gillispie” is currently the most searched for term in the world according to Google Trends.
This also begs the question: which is worse, 2 vacated Final Fours or 4, count ‘em 4, DUI arrests?
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