Billy Gillispie files lawsuit against UK

Do you remember when we were actually excited about this man?

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You just knew this was going to get ugly. UK never had any intention of paying the full $6 million buyout as specified in the Memorandum of Understanding and Billy Gillispie had no intention of taking much less than that to get out of town.

Accordingly, Billy Gillispie has filed a lawsuit against the University of Kentucky for breach of contract and fraud. This a federal lawsuit and was filed in Gillispie’s home state of Texas. Gillispie is seeking $6 million in punitive damages as well as attorney fees.

This is really a no win situation for UK. This is either going to drag out close to the basketball season and act as a black cloud over a season full of excitement or UK is going to pay him way more than they want to and take even more of a PR hit for wasted money in tough economic times. In fact, this lawsuit could be a ploy by Gillispie in hopes that UK will want to do everything it can to avoid such a “black cloud”.

This is also something that figures to be a black mark for Billy Gillispie in the future as he looks for another job. His tenure at UK has already raised flags about his coaching style and a lawsuit could potentially bring all the unbelievable rumors about Gillispie’s behavior to the forefront.

This is going to come down to an argument over the significance of the Memorandum of Understanding. UK will argue (as Dr. Lee Todd said at the original press conference announcing Gillispie’s departure) that the memo was a year by year agreement that had to be “renewed” annually before a contract was agreed to. Gillispie will say that the memo acted as a contract and therefore UK owes the full buyout ($1.5 million for 4 of the remaining 5 years).

Another possible argument that UK may make is that Gillispie did not work toward an actual signed contract as he was required by the contract. The memo clearly stated that the memo was a step toward an official contract and both parties were obligated to take the remaining steps to make such an agreement.

Really the only thing we know at this point is that Billy Gillispie is going to take the mantle from Eddie Sutton as the most detested coach in UK Basketball history, if he had not already done so.

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