Gillespie over Bruce Pearl, huh?

Irresponsible?  That is a call that very well could happen in real life, as a matter of fact a majority of the coaches in the SEC... who actually will vote for the award... have had high praise for the man and it's a very likely scenario that he does win.

Yeah everybody says Bruce Pearl should win it, but his Volunteers only had a 2 game edge over Kentucky in league play, split the season series with Kentucky, barely escaping with a narrow victory at home by the way.

If Tennessee would have went through-out the season with as many critical injuries as Kentucky had their loss total would've doubled.  Gillespie did a better job with the talent, or lack there of in this instance, than anybody ever would have dreamed.

I'm not saying Gillespie does in fact deserve the award over Pearl... but to call this columnist's opinion irresponsible... that's on you.

Sorry fellas, we'll agree to disagree.  Gillespie took over a program in good shape and UK looked like a high school team early in the season.  They bounced back in SEC play but Pearl has done an outstanding job all year. 

roger I agree with you to a point. Gillespie should not earn the award because they finally started winning after a dismal start. On the other hand Pearl did a great job coaching but was expected to be there as was KY.

How about Donovan taking a young Florida team and doing well, or Andy Kennedy picked to come in 6th finishing with 21 wins, or Vandy's coach?

any other scenario would have been fair to me but not a KY team that was supposed to be good just because they finally figured it out!

Are you kidding?  So we're supposed to decide COY awards based on head-to-head matchups?  Uh, sorry, no.  Bruce Pearl led Tennessee to a 27-3 record, including 11 wins over top 50 RPI teams (best in the country), an SEC title, a likely #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, and the first ever #1 AP ranking in the history of the program.  Gillespie took a perennial powerhouse, lost to Gardner-Webb and San Diego at home, and is probably going to make the NCAA Tournament by the slimmest of margins thanks to (a) the weakest bubble in recent memory, and (b) a 12-4 SEC record that includes 7 wins over teams ranked below 100 in the RPI and ONE win over a team in the top 40.  How are we even having this conversation??