Kentucky backs out of UMass game
Last week, I mentioned how great it was for Lute Olsen to nut up and play some mid-majors; well this week it's Billy Gillispie and Kentucky's turn -- to do the exact opposite.
Kentucky was not completely unjust when it decided to back out of the game as they followed the opt-out clause laid down by the contract for the game. It still sucks for UMass, financially and otherwise.
The cost to the Wildcats to back out of the game? $50,000... chump change compared to the $250,000-$300,000 the match would have generated. And of course, Kentucky being a marquee opponent would have brought a lot of media and publicity to UMass.
The game was scheduled by Tubby Smith's program because UMass' head coach, Travis Ford, played his college ball at UK. Views on this issue range from highly unethical to "it's all a business."
UK is going to try and cash in on the Gillispie hype by scheduling a less dangerous home game instead of flying out to Boston. It's really great that teams can't play a single game to help a former player out because they want more money. I really hope they schedule some extremely 
low-major and suffer some horrible defeat that sets the tone for the rest of the season. Or even better, they get 12-5 upset by UMass in the tournament. A Karmic kick to the groin would be great.
To put this in perspective for Griz fans, it'd be like Gonzaga or maybe even U-Dub backing out of a game in Missoula. Even months out the anticipation would be huge. It'd be like Vancouver putting up Olympics 2010, "Our Time to Shine!" signs. Could you imagine that suddenly being gone?
UMass already sold 7,000 tickets to the game and now have to use that 50k just to pay everyone back. For UK fans, it's tougher to see how much this sucks for the Minutemen and their fans, but just try to imagine for a second that the biggest game of the season just got cancelled. For UMass, this was their Ohio State/Florida. Just a huge non-conference game and now it's gone. You know what, I'm glad you didn't get Billy Donovan.
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Last week, I mentioned how great it was for Lute Olsen to nut up and play some mid-majors; well this week it's Billy Gillispie and Kentucky's turn -- to do the exact opposite.
Kentucky was not completely unjust when it decided to back out of the game as they followed the opt-out clause laid down by the contract for the game. It still sucks for UMass, financially and otherwise.
The cost to the Wildcats to back out of the game? $50,000... chump change compared to the $250,000-$300,000 the match would have generated. And of course, Kentucky being a marquee opponent would have brought a lot of media and publicity to UMass.
The game was scheduled by Tubby Smith's program because UMass' head coach, Travis Ford, played his college ball at UK. Views on this issue range from highly unethical to "it's all a business."
UK is going to try and cash in on the Gillispie hype by scheduling a less dangerous home game instead of flying out to Boston. It's really great that teams can't play a single game to help a former player out because they want more money. I really hope they schedule some extremely low-major and suffer some horrible defeat that sets the tone for the rest of the season. Or even better, they get 12-5 upset by UMass in the tournament. A Karmic kick to the groin would be great.
To put this in perspective for Griz fans, it'd be like Gonzaga or maybe even U-Dub backing out of a game in Missoula. Even months out the anticipation would be huge. It'd be like Vancouver putting up Olympics 2010, "Our Time to Shine!" signs. Could you imagine that suddenly being gone?
UMass already sold 7,000 tickets to the game and now have to use that 50k just to pay everyone back. For UK fans, it's tougher to see how much this sucks for the Minutemen and their fans, but just try to imagine for a second that the biggest game of the season just got cancelled. For UMass, this was their Ohio State/Florida. Just a huge non-conference game and now it's gone. You know what, I'm glad you didn't get Billy Donovan.
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