With a capable cast returning, led by senior-to-be Joe Crawford, Gillispie's Wildcats could contend for the SEC East title in 2008. AP

Now, on to Gillispie. Once Wildcats fans -- YouTube guy, this means you -- get used to typing an "i" rather than an "e" between the double-ls and the "s," they're going to feel extremely fortunate to have landed the fastest-rising star in the coaching ranks. Gillispie has consistently proven himself as one of the best-prepared coaches in all of college hoops, attacking scouting and game-planning with the same ferocity that his teams play pressure man-to-man defense. For an SI feature in March, Gillispie acknowledged to Kelli Anderson his plan to watch 15 tapes of a regular-season opponent was overkill, but nonetheless his M.O. "Three or four tapes would probably accomplish the same thing," he said. "But I really enjoy watching basketball."

And more than anything else he enjoys coaching, so much that he admitted to SI his life is "imbalanced" -- to the degree that he is divorced, has no pets, has no food in the fridge, and has little time to concentrate on anything other than the job at hand, which now is returning Kentucky to the ranks of the elite.

In a national landscape where new-era powers like Florida and Ohio State have risen up, and fellow history-rich programs such as North Carolina and Kansas are more stable, reviving UK will not be a simple or stress-free task. To preserve his sanity, Tubby Smith divorced himself from the program and high-tailed it to Minnesota. Because he knows no other way, Gillispie will marry himself to the job full-time. Perhaps that's a self-destructive lifestyle, but it's something the legions of ultra-obsessed bluebloods will immediately appreciate.

Just as important to making this hire work is the fact that Gillispie comes in with a manageable level of expectations. He has not yet been to an Elite Eight or Final Four, but he has quickly resuscitated his first two teams, taking UTEP from 6-24 to 24-8 in two seasons, and Texas A&M from 0-16 in the Big 12 to second place in the league in three seasons. Kentucky is not in such doldrums -- "This program got turned around like 2,000 years ago, and it's been turned around ever since," he said on Friday -- but plenty of its fans consider being a No. 8 seed for two straight NCAA tournaments akin to being winless in the Big 12; so he is in a partially familiar situation.

While it's unclear what the future holds for Donovan, I'm certain that Gillispie's best days are in front of him. He only began to recruit serious, blue-chip prospects at A&M in the past two years, but was on the brink of making the Aggies a perennial presence in the top 15. The signs of a powerhouse-in-the-making were all there. Gillispie's reputation was as a defensive teacher, but he was blossoming as an all-around coach, as A&M was the only team in the nation to finish in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency (Florida, for reference, was 1st in offense but 12th on D, while the Aggies were 6th and 10th). A&M only lost seven times in 2006-07 but was rarely out of any game; its final six losses were all by three points or less. A quote from star guard Acie Law in SI best summed up the impact of Gillispie's teaching: "We're not the most talented team, but we're capable of beating anybody because we play so hard."

Who knew if/when Gillispie was leading the Aggies to a second-round NCAA tournament victory over what was arguably a more talented, Pitino-coached Louisville team at Rupp Arena in March, it ever crossed his mind that it might be considered an audition for the house gig? Either way, it worked. On Thursday night, while he was out doing -- what else -- recruiting for A&M, Gillispie received a call from Barnhart to discuss the Kentucky opening. By noon Friday, the house speakers at Rupp were playing Springsteen's Glory Days, and by 12:45 he was introduced as the Wildcats' newest leader. "It's been a long road for me in terms of coaching," he said. "You just dream of having an opportunity."

Now the guy they once called Billy Clyde Gillispie, a high-school point guard in 578-person Graford, Texas, has jumped from the prep ranks, to Baylor, to Tulsa, to Illinois, to UTEP, to Texas A&M, to arguably the most pressure-packed job in all of college hoops. His life will be as imbalanced as ever under the spotlight, where he'll set to work bringing Kentucky back, and perhaps in a few years' time, start erasing fans' pain of being passed over by Plan A.