Kentucky scores in hiring Gillispie instead of Donovan

	Billy Gillispie has a reputation for being a superb game tactician and dynamic recruiter. AP
	MAILBAG Have questions or feedback? E-mail Luke Winn. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

The three-week Kentucky coaching saga can be retraced, most easily, as a series of plans. First was the Escape Plan -- Tubby Smith's pre-emptive strike that saw him relocate to the relatively pressure-free zone of the Twin Cities before the angry mob could chase him out of Lexington. Then came UK's Plan A, which was to lure favorite son Billy Donovan and his two title rings from Gainesville with a blank check and innumerable perks. This failed, as their double-ringed savior was only a tease. Plan B was to hire Rick Barnes from Texas, and this was aborted by one or both parties, as he pulled himself out of the running. On Friday, the Wildcats went through with what was apparently Plan C, inking Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie to a seven-year, $2.3 million-per deal, introducing him at a glorious pep rally and pasting his mug on two sizes of downloadable desktop wallpaper.

The phrase "Plan C" carries negative connotations, it generally being used less to describe a backup option than a last resort. Plan Cs are the sort of results that fans of an elite program like Kentucky, who are rabid enough to record a regular series of six-minute YouTube rants on the state of the program, are not inclined to accept.

Yet Gillispie was not a typical third choice, in that the tireless, 47-year-old coach represented neither a significant drop-off in quality nor a questionable fit as the new Bluegrass band leader. This may seem ludicrous given what just transpired in Atlanta, and the goal of Plan A, but I genuinely believe the following statement:

Billy Gillispie was the best coach for Kentucky.

Not just in the 24 hours after Donovan passed and Barnes took his name out of the running, either. The whole time.

How, you ask, could UK possibly be better off with Billy G, an undecorated up-and-comer, than it would with Billy D, a young legend? Donovan ascended to Don-like status in the coaching community after pulling off a feat -- back-to-back national titles -- that had only been done six times in the history of college basketball and just twice since 1973. Wildcats fans viewed him, well before Tubby's bags were packed, as the scion to the sideline that was vacated by his mentor, Rick Pitino, in 1997. UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart was fully expected to do everything in his power to bring Donovan back home ... where the natural expectation would be that he win another national championship in a reasonable time-frame.

And that would be the problem, or at least the beginning of a potentially unfulfulling situation. While Donovan's coaching abilities have not peaked -- he surely learned innumerable lessons from his two title runs -- the odds are that he will never again be blessed with such a cohesive fivesome as Corey Brewer, Taurean Green, Al Horford, Lee Humphrey and Joakim Noah. Didn't we spend all of last weekend in Atlanta writing about that? How, in this volatile era of one- and two-and-done college hoops, a group like the Gator Boys was a once in a lifetime kind of team to coach? The UCLA dynasty of the '60s and '70s will never be replicated, no modern-era coach will two-peat twice, and no matter what Donovan was capable of at UK -- maybe a few Final Fours over the next seven years -- it would always be less than what he gave Florida. And that, even if Wildcats fans wouldn't say it outright, would leave them slightly wanting.

Barnes, meanwhile (while there's some dispute over how serious of a candidate he was, it's clear he was a candidate) would probably have been an excellent face for the program. He's a smooth operator and a proven recruiter who has consistently wooed NBA-level talent to Texas, from T.J. Ford to LaMarcus Aldridge to Kevin Durant.

Here's the rub, though: Most discussions about the Kentucky job involve the Lexington factor, as in, Imagine how good Coach X could be if he had the facilities, fan base and tradition of UK working in his favor. In case you haven't been paying attention for the past few years, Austin is a rather attractive place to lure recruits. It's the best college town in the South, it has some of the nation's best facilities, and very few prep stars nowadays fashion themselves as historians. A name like Durant resonates more with them than a Rupp, Mercer or Mashburn. So, really, how much more talent would Barnes haul in in Lexington versus what he's getting now at UT? And if he never exceeded what he did at Texas -- one Final Four, one Elite Eight and a supremely disappointing second-round exit with the greatest player the NCAA will see in years -- would that have kept Kentucky fans happy? In truth, it would have been less than what Tubby gave them.