By LARRY VAUGHT
There are a lot of things about the Billy Gillispie era at Kentucky that no longer surprise me. However, the news that former Wildcat Derrick Jasper has is joining Gillispie’s staff at Texas Tech shocks me.
Jasper was a four-star recruit from California and ranked as one of the nation’s top point guards when he came to UK and had a forgettable sophomore year under Gillispie when he averaged 4.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per game after missing the first 10 games of the season while recovering from microfracture knee surgery. Jasper had averaged 3.9 points and 3.6 rebounds while starting 27 games as a freshman.
Jasper left and transferred to UNLV, where rumors surfaced that even if he had not had to sit out a transfer year that his knee was still so weak that he would not have been cleared to play. While Jasper never took any public shots at Gillispie when he transferred and even praised him in a statement when he transferred, there were rumors that the only reason Jasper left was due to the way Gillispie forced him to return from his injury rather than letting him redshirt.
Jasper played in 53 games the last two seasons for UNLV and averaged 6.7 points per game as a junior and 5.1 as a senior. He shot 57.1 percent from the field as a senior, but was hesitant to take shots just like he was at Kentucky.
With no chance at a professional career due to his limited offensive game, Jasper apparently has jumped at the chance to get into coaching on Gillispie’s staff and I wish him well. He was a terrific young man during his time at Kentucky and one you could not help but like. But I just never imagined him wanting to reunite with Gillispie.
Either most of us judged the Gillispie-Jasper situation wrong, or Jasper is willing to forgive and forget for a chance to get into coaching.
25 Responses to Jasper’s decision to join Gillispie’s staff surprises me
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The hiring of Jasper is chocked of Maybe’s:
Maybe Jasper has forgiven BCG for ruining his knee?
Maybe Jasper all along wanted to go into coaching with BCG?
Maybe Jasper loves Texas Tech?
Maybe Jasper is just ready to move on?
Maybe BCG is a changed man?
Maybe down in Texas (unlike here in Kentucky) they really do have golf courses open at 3am?
Good luck D. Jasper!!!!
Color me shocked, although I always thought Derrick Jasper was potentially a bigger (and better) man than his coach at UK. Best of luck, Derrick, and I hope things work out well for you.
In my opinion, Gillispie got a bum rap in Lexington on many counts, and this may be evidence that his relationship with his players was not as adverse as many wanted to paint it to justify getting rid of the man.
I am still shocked over Jasper as well. And while I respect Professor, I just heard too many horror stories from players and parents about Billy G
I’m speechless!
Professor, take a few minutes and listen to the podcast of the first hour of the Matt Jones show today. Mark Krebs was in the locker room and on the practice floor and knows more about this than any fan. I respectfully submit to you that Billy Clyde did not get a bum rap. Maybe we can blame it on a pickled brain, but the man made a habit of bizarre behavior.
Stockholm syndrome.
JackB, might be the line of the week.
But just hope it works for Jasper. You know he has to have some second thoughts
The most shocking part is the AD and the President, that made the choice to go with Clyde at UK! I gave him the benfit of the doubt, until Gardner Web. He had a ton of misses on the recruiting trail as well. It will be interesting to see if he and his new assistant prosper at their new school. Good luck to Jasper! As far as Clyde goes, as long as he isn’t coaching for the Cats, It’s a good day for this Cat fan. By te way, I don’t even want to see UK face his team in the tourney, if he gets one there, becasue I don’t want to listen to the press rehash his illustrious career with Big Blue.
There was too much smoke not be a little fire involved. I tend to believe his tactics of discipline were too much on the bizarre side.
@The Professor, BCG got a bum rap? Ask Josh about the toilet stall he had to sit in, ask Jody about having BCG tell him not to shot. Ask Jody about being told to get off the bus and walk and the other players saying if he walked, they would too. Ask Josh about riding in the equipment van…not a bum rap to me, the players are the ones who got the bum wrap. GO CATS!
Gillispie isn’t a bad guy, but he does have a major drinking problem and just couldn’t handle the pressure of being UK’s coach. Clearly Jasper has moved on, so maybe we should too. Part of me wonders though, if this isn’t Billy Clyde’s way of extending an olive branch to a player who he clearly put in harm’s way in order to benefit himself.
Count me in with Karen and Larry as “shocked.” More importantly, though, I wish Derrick all the luck in the world in his future (and, unfortunately, he had little of that during his college basketball career). Derrick always seemed to be such a nice young man while at Kentucky (verified here by Larry), and I had especially appreciated his spending so many hours in the training room every day, trying to get ready to play through the severe knee pain in still another game. Again, from this corner it’s GOOD LUCK to a special young man/former Wildcat.
Whatever Derrick Jasper does with his life in the future he will always be able to say that he was a UK basketball player. I was sorry to see him leave UK. Go luck to him.
Consider me stunned.
I’m with Larry about this, (much like many issues), I am shocked Jasper is going there. But I wish him all the best and hope that it works out well for him. As for Billy Clyde I truly hope that he has picked up the pieces of his fractured career and is able to do well where he is at, I know I may get some blowback for saying that but I feel sorry for him and want him to do well. Of course I’m glad he’s not at UK anymore and I love our coach, but like I say I just feel sorry for the guy, it’s not his fault he was in way over his head at UK but he could have handled himself better. All in all he was just a bad fit for an elite program so I don’t think he was treated unfair. By the way “that’s a bad question” (ha ha)
If Derrick Jasper believes that Gillispie’s methods are potentially harmful to young players, then why would Jasper ever agree to be a part of what Gillispie does, especially since the only demonstrable change that has occurred since Gillispie was in Lexington is that 2 seasons have come and gone with Gillispie not coaching anywhere. Perhaps, if Gillispie had coached a couple of years and had demonstrated a changed demeanor, then Jasper could explain this action away.
This leaves me with only one conclusion. Jasper does not believe that Gillispie’s methods are potentially harmful to young players. I also heard the stories about Gillispie’s exploits, and I have few doubts that some of them are true. Josh’s toiletry experiences, verbal assaults when players are not responding to his coaching directives, and other forms of player motivation have been part of sports at the major college level for a long time. I have heard the Rupp stories. I have heard the Joe B. Hall stories.
Those stories do not concern me very much. Do you think that Calipari is a pussy cat in dealing with the current UK players inside the locker room, on the practice floor?
No way. Great coaches will push and prod their players to achieve more than those players ever imagined possible.
Did Gillispie have a drinking issue? Was he in over his heard at UK? Am I glad that Calipari is here and he is gone? Yes, Yes, and Yes. However, I do not believe that Gillispie is the evil monster that so many people have tried to paint the man, since his first summer in Lexington, before he ever coached a single game here.
Professor, that’s exactly the part I cannot figure out
what part?
why he would want to be part of exposing other kids to the way Gillispie treats kids
gee whiz, maybe the kid needs to make some $$$$$$$$$$$
Grant, he’s going as graduate assistant, so there will not be much money around
The Gillispie tactics are straight from the Bobby Knight playbook.
Larry, if Derrick Jasper really believes that Gillispie’s way at UK are harmful to kids, he could not possibly want to be a part of that as a participant. That is why the conclusion must be that Derrick Jasper does not believe the premise.
The real question is why wouldn’t Derrick Jasper believe that about Billy Gillispie since he was there, and since he was one of the key components involved in building that premise?
Here it is straight from Derrick Jasper:
“I think that was blown out of proportion a bit,” Jasper said. “We had a good relationship. It wasn’t bad.”
“I wouldn’t be going back to work for him if I didn’t believe he was a good guy.”
“A lot of (the return from the knee injury) was just me trying to get back early enough to help my team.”