Looks like Thursday was a bad day all around for basketball coaches connected to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. About 12 hours before Rick Pitino held a defiant press conference in which he took aim at the media and Karen Sypher, former Kentucky basketball coach Billy Gillispie was arrested and charged with drunken driving. Here’s the video, courtesy WLEX-18 in Lexington, Kentucky. Police dispatcher Todd Sparrow said Lawrenceburg police arrested Gillispie and took him to the nearby Franklin County Regional Jail. WLEX-TV in Lexington reported that Gillispie was pulled over in a white Mercedes with Texas tags around 2:45 a.m. after someone reported seeing the car driving erratically. Gillispie, 50, reportedly told police that he and a male passenger, 42-year-old Charles O’Connor, were returning from a golfing trip. O’Connor was reportedly charged with public intoxication. Gillispie has now been arrested three times on alcohol-related driving charges, once in 1999 when he was at Oklahoma and again in 2003 when he was at Texas El-Paso. In one case the charge was dismissed and in the late he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, reckless driving. Memphis coach John Calipari replaced Gillispie this year after a rocky two-year tenure in which the Wildcats went 40-27. Last season’s 22-14 mark tied for the second-most losses in the program’s 106-year history. RIEK REINSTATED, MUST SIT 9 GAMES
Looks like Thursday was a bad day all around for basketball coaches connected to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. About 12 hours before Rick Pitino held a defiant press conference in which he took aim at the media and Karen Sypher, former Kentucky basketball coach Billy Gillispie was arrested and charged with drunken driving. Here’s the video, courtesy WLEX-18 in Lexington, Kentucky. Police dispatcher Todd Sparrow said Lawrenceburg police arrested Gillispie and took him to the nearby Franklin County Regional Jail. WLEX-TV in Lexington reported that Gillispie was pulled over in a white Mercedes with Texas tags around 2:45 a.m. after someone reported seeing the car driving erratically. Gillispie, 50, reportedly told police that he and a male passenger, 42-year-old Charles O’Connor, were returning from a golfing trip. O’Connor was reportedly charged with public intoxication. Gillispie has now been arrested three times on alcohol-related driving charges, once in 1999 when he was at Oklahoma and again in 2003 when he was at Texas El-Paso. In one case the charge was dismissed and in the late he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, reckless driving. Memphis coach John Calipari replaced Gillispie this year after a rocky two-year tenure in which the Wildcats went 40-27. Last season’s 22-14 mark tied for the second-most losses in the program’s 106-year history. RIEK REINSTATED, MUST SIT 9 GAMES