Scarbinsky: Kentucky's great expectations could trickle down on Alabama

Kevin Scarbinsky | By Kevin Scarbinsky |
on March 27, 2009 at 6:27 AM, updated March 27, 2009 at 9:07 AM

Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie talks with an official during the first half of their NCAA college basketball game against LSU in Lexington, Ky., Saturday, Feb. 28, 2009.

Will UK's decision trickle down on Bama? Nick Saban said something funny the other day, although it didn't sound like he was joking.

He said he thinks Alabama football has "a cultural problem" when it comes to expectations. Hah. He should try coaching basketball at Kentucky.   

His head would explode every morning from April through February and twice a day in March.   

In the long-running competition for SEC program with the greatest cultural problem, there are only two contestants, and Kentucky basketball is threatening to blow by Alabama football like Secretariat past Big Al.

There's been no official word yet about the future of Billy Gillispie, but everyone on the college basketball grapevine you squeeze for information believes that Kentucky is going to part company with its head coach.

After two years. Two years.   Leave it to Kentucky basketball to make Alabama football look patient.   Consider that Mike DuBose got four years as the Alabama football coach.  

So did Mike Shula.  

DuBose won one more SEC championship than Gillispie, but it took him three years to do it. Shula won one more NCAA postseason game than Gillispie, but that didn't happen until his third year.

Of course, you don't have to have Pat Dye's 50-50 hindsight to realize that DuBose and Shula never should've been the head coach at Alabama in the first place, and ditto for Gillispie at Kentucky.

Look up "bad fit" in the coaching dictionary. There's a mug shot of Gillispie in a blue tie and tight smile.  

If the deal goes down, who should be the next Kentucky coach? The answer has the potential to send Alabama basketball back to the drawing board.

Follow the hypothetical bouncing ball.  

Kentucky, which swung in his direction and missed two years ago, hires Billy Donovan.  

Florida, which aimed a plane in his direction but had to change its flight plan when Donovan decided the NBA was not for him, hires Anthony Grant.

That's the same Anthony Grant who got a reception in Tuscaloosa on Wednesday that was second only to the one that greeted Saban, but after he accepted the football job.

People who know Grant say they don't know whether he's going to accept Alabama's offer, an offer that's overwhelming for a coach whose potential is even stronger than his resume.

Alabama has done everything possible to answer one of Grant's biggest questions, which concerns the school's commitment to the sport.

If making him one of the highest-paid coaches in the SEC and promising him a serious upgrade in the practice facility isn't commitment, what is?

If Grant's been waiting to see what Kentucky and Donovan will do, he hasn't been waiting in the dark. Grant worked for Donovan for 12 years, and the two remain close.

They share the same agent, Mark Carmony of Career Sports and Entertainment in Atlanta. Grant has spoken to Donovan about the Alabama opportunity.

If Donovan's considering Kentucky, Grant would know.  

Given the choice, Grant might prefer the Florida job to the Alabama job, but will he have a choice? Would Donovan really leave Florida two years after leaving Florida?

He got homesick in a hurry the last time.

People who know Donovan say they don't know for sure but they don't think he's leaving Florida. That would make it easier for Grant to come to Alabama.

Alabama won't breathe easy unless and until he does.

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