Todd: Gillispie's status to be discussed after season

By Jim Warren / jwarren@herald-leader.com

University of Kentucky President Lee T. Todd said there won't be any discussion of men's basketball coach Billy Gillispie's job status until the season is over.

"We are not going to do any kind of evaluation of the basketball program until the season is over," Todd said Tuesday after being asked about Gillispie's future at Kentucky. "I'll leave that up to (athletics director) Mitch (Barnhart) to do the evaluation, sitting down with the coach, and then they'll come to me and we'll talk about anything they want to talk about."

Todd, who said the second half of UK's season has been a disappointment, and he acknowledged that there is a high level of concern among fans.

"I think every Kentucky fan is concerned, including the coach, including the athletic director," he said. "We didn't do nearly as well in the last half of the season as we did in the first half. That's pretty obvious."

Todd said he has been listening to UK basketball games since he was 4 years old.

"We want to get back to the Final Four and win another championship, so there is concern there, but there was concern over the football years and we've turned that around."

Todd said he is still hopeful that Kentucky can get into the NCAA Tournament by doing well in the SEC Tournament.

He declined to discuss whether he would favor Kentucky accepting a bid to the NIT. "We still have a shot at the NCAA. We will deal with the NIT question when that comes up, if that comes up," he said.

Todd said it is standard procedure to evaluate every university sport's program at the end of each season and then sit down to "talk about where we want to go."