Jerry Tipton on UK basketball

Freshman Alex Legion used another sport to explain Kentucky Coach Billy Gillispie’s desire for tough play.

“He just wants pretty much football players,” Legion said on Monday. “When somebody comes in (to the lane), he doesn’t want them to think again about doing that.”

Gillispie noted the improvement Kentucky has made in practicing competitively. Although he acknowledged that the team lacks an identity so far this young season, he seemed to make it clear he’d like a tough-minded approach to be its signature style.

“I see great improvement in practice,” he said. “I’m greatly encouraged by what I see in practice.”

Gillispie isn’t totally satisfied. He wants more intense competition in practice and in games even though several players have been sidelined by injury, thus reducing the chances for competition for playing time.

“We don’t have enough guys who are totally live and breathe to compete,” he said. “But I don’t know that we have anybody who won’t compete.”

Backup point guard Michael Porter recalled how Gillispie’s desire for competition began at a meeting.

“When he first got here, he asked me did I want to settle for fourth-string point guard,” Porter said. “I said, definitely not.

“He’s trying to instill in me to beat my guy every day.”

The players noted the physical nature of practices, as if two broken noses and Porter’s concussion didn’t make that point.

Porter, who played high school football well enough to draw recruiting interest from Southern California, could judge how successfully Kentucky is bringing a football mentality to basketball.

“I’m more sore after basketball (practice) than football,” he said. “If you want to compete, you’re going to get hit.”

As for the team identity, Porter said, “I think he wants us to be a mean team. We don’t want to give up anything. We don’t want the other team to have any easy baskets. We’re going to shove it down your throat.”

Billy Gillispie’s seven-year deal to coach Kentucky’s basketball team could potentially pay him in excess of $20 million. That UK considers a two-page preliminary memo a sufficient contract flusters Gillispie’s attorney.

“I’m at a loss, to be honest,” Gillispie’s Tulsa-based attorney, Stuart Campbell, said yesterday. “I’ve never experienced this before. That a coach goes into a seven-year deal with a two-page document signed in the middle of the night. And I didn’t see it for a month.”

UK and Gillispie agreed to basic terms during his first night in Lexington. The school introduced him as the new basketball coach the next day.

Those terms were outlined in an April 6 document on UK Athletics letterhead and titled “Memorandum of Understanding Offer.” The memo specifies length of employment and compensation. A one-page attachment details financial incentives for athletic and academic achievement.

In the opening paragraph, UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart noted that the memo will be “expanded and incorporated into an employment contract … at the earliest possible date.” He later expressed his wish to formalize the deal within 60 days.

Campbell, 47, identified the terms allowing UK to fire Gillispie without having to pay him compensation as a “major” roadblock. The Memorandum of Understanding Offer requires UK to pay Gillispie $1.5 million per year for each year remaining on the deal (up to four years) if he is fired without cause.

But a firing for justifiable reasons, or “for cause,” would free UK of any financial obligation. The two sides could not agree on how to define “for cause.” This led Kentucky to decide to let the Memorandum of Understanding Offer serve as the contract.

“When Kentucky told us they were not willing to continue to keep trying to nail down a contract and they were considering the memo of understanding as the contract between parties,” Campbell said. “That’s pretty much when we said, OK.”

The memo vaguely defines the terms for termination for cause as “mutually agreed upon by the parties.”

Once Campbell got the memo in mid-May, negotiations began in the form of e-mail exchanges and telephone conversations with UK attorney Barbara Jones.

UK wanted reasons that could be open to interpretation to constitute “for cause,” Campbell said. Gillispie’s attorney said he wanted objective standards like major violation of rules or conviction on felony charges.

“They were giving a lot of specific instances and some of the problems I have is I don’t think it rises to the level of just cause,” Campbell said. “And other things they want are simply so subjective to allow them to define the terms at a later date.”

Campbell declined to reveal either side’s specific proposals.

“We offered some type of mediation,” he said. “We believe our position is reasonable and fair. And they said, ‘No, we’re going with the Memorandum of Understanding.’ ”

UK spokesman Scott Stricklin deferred questions to Jones. The UK attorney could not be reached.

“It’s not that we think this president (Lee Todd) or this A.D. (Barnhart) would be unreasonable,” Campbell said. “No. But who’s to say they’re going to be there two years from now. It’s a long-term contract and I have to look at it as such.”

Gillispie’s immediate predecessor, Tubby Smith, was hired by a different A.D. and school president. When he left for Minnesota, he spoke of being “wanted” by the Golden Gophers.

“I don’t know the particulars of Tubby, but maybe I’m just trying to avoid that same scenario,” Campbell said.

Campbell noted that the Memorandum of Understanding Offer specifies how much Gillispie should compensate UK should the coach leave for another school. “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” the attorney said.

When asked how Gillispie was reacting to the impasse, Campbell said, “It’s unfortunate we are where we are. But Billy’s going to coach basketball and win games, hopefully.”

Former UK Associate Coach David Hobbs attended the games at Rupp Arena Tuesday.

He’s scouting for the Charlotte Bobcats.

Hobbs is a long-time of former UK Coach Tubby Smith. The two worked as assistants together at Virginia Commonwealth. After being dismissed as Alabama coach, Hobbs sat out of coaching a season before joining Smith’s UK staff.

After Kentucky beat Pikeville College Wednesday night, Joe Crawford noted how unusual it was for the team to go through a hard game-of-day practice that afternoon.

Gillispie favored hard practices on game days at UTEP and Texas A&M. The UK coach shrugged off the possibility of wear and tear in a long season. He prefers to go hard in each workout to establish all-out as the only way to play on the court.

“It definitely was a change for me,” Crawford said of the hard practice yesterday. “But his way works. We just have to follow him.”

With another practice set for Wednesday afternoon, Kentucky Coach Billy Gillispie couldn’t give a firm answer on a starting lineup for UK’s first exhibition game against Pikeville College that evening. (Hear the coach’s pregame comments.)

But barring a surprise, he said a lineup would probably be Ramel Bradley, Jodie Meeks and Ramon Harris on the perimeter with Perry Stevenson and Mark Coury at the post positions.

Heralded freshman Patrick Patterson probably would not start because he’s missed a few practices because of an upper respiratory infection. “But he’ll be in pretty qiuck,” the UK coach said Tuesday.

Harris, the sophomore wing from Alaska, said he has been trying to earn playing time by dedicating himself to becoming a defensive stopper.

Gillispie noted that players earn the starting jobs, which he downplayed in importance, through good play in practice.

And a lot could happen in Wednesday’s practice. Gillispie said he customarily practices his team hard for an hour on game day, usually beginning five hours before tipoff.