Friday, March 28, 2008

The Southeastern Conference (SEC) and Kentucky

While I was trying to remember who Western Kentucky coach Darrin Horn had replaced, it led me to look what other ties there are to the state of Kentucky and SEC basketball.

That goes without saying that Billy Gillispie is the current coach of University Kentucky Wildcats...although he does come from the Adolph Rupp coaching tree given that he was an assistant to Bill Self (at Tulsa and Illinois) and Self was an assistant at Oklahoma State University under Leonard Hamilton. Hamilton was an associate head coach at UK under Joe B. Hall, who both played and served as an assistant for the Baron, Adolph Rupp.

Eastern Division
Billy Donovan (Florida) - served as an graduate assistant (89-90), assistant (90-93) and associate coach (93-94) for Rick Pitino at UK from 1989-94
Dennis Felton (Georgia) - former coach of Western Kentucky (1998-03)
Billy Gillispie (Kentucky) - see above
Dave Odom (South Carolina) - retiring and has no ties to the state
Darrin Horn - Glasgow native, Western Kentucky graduate (1991-1995) and former coach of Western Kentucky (2003-2008)
Bruce Pearl (Tennessee) - no ties
Kevin Stallings (Vanderbilt) - no ties

Western Division
Mark Gottfried (Alabama) - former coach of Murray State (1995-98)
John Pelphrey (Arkansas) - former player at UK from 1988-92, named Kentucky's Mr. Basketball in 1987
Jeff Lebo (Auburn) - no ties
Butch Pierre (LSU) - while he is not likely to keep his job as head coach next season, he was an assistant at Kentucky State (1986-88)
Rick Stansbury (Mississippi State) - Born in Louisville. Played for Meade County HS in in Brandenburg, KY. Played at Campbellsville College, now known as Campbellsville University (1977-81), and then served as a student assistant (1981-82). Served as a graduate assistant at Cumberland College, now known as the University of the Cumberlands, in Williamsburg, KY (1983-84)
Andy Kennedy (Ole Miss) - no ties

I'll update this again when LSU and USC name their new basketball coaches but out of the twelve programs in the conference, six have definitive ties to the state while one's coaching tree has Adolph Rupp in it.

UPDATE: I've updated this now that Darrin Horn is the new coach of USC.

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