A column by Laurnie Caproni

Booooooooooooo!

The catcall chorus was two things: Unmistakable and unheard of.

Tom Hammond said as much, noting the Bronx cheer has seldom been heard at halftime in Rupp Arena.

Larry Conley, working the game on the TV side with Hammond, remained quiet as a church mouse. His silence spoke like cannon fire.

Earlier, Conley, a stand-up guy if there ever was one, said simply: This Kentucky team just doesn't guard the perimeter very well.

Conley was being kind.

At least he and Hammond, born and bred Kentucky boys, told the truth - without all the whitewash we normally get with UK basketball.

The booing was not directed at some referee. Nor was it aimed at any player, the scorekeeper, P.A. announcer, or the cheerleaders.

Welcome, finally, to Kentucky, Billy G. You now have officially been notified by your employer, the fans, that your leash just got shorter.

UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart may not like this. Neither will President Lee Todd. The list of those in the same boat is as long as from here to Denver and back - many dozens of times.

In fact, the support for Gillispie apparently is widespread. In the past nearly two seasons, I have asked 50 and more people, from all walks of life, what they think about him. Nine out of 10 said the same thing: I want to see what he can do when he gets his own players.

Fair enough.

But reasonable people might argue the honeymoon ought to be over. After all, the proof is in the pudding. The Kentucky Wildcats have lost 20 games under Billy Gillispie - and there are miles to go before his second season ends.

It has often been said that teams take on the personality of their coach.

Adolph Rupp teams were like machines.

Bob Knight's teams played with the tenacity of junkyard dogs.

Coach K's teams are calm, cool, cerebral.

Bruce Pearl's teams are like a car wreck, everything and everyone going every which way at the same time.

Rick Pitino's teams are full of swagger, oozing the “My Way” confidence of Frank Sinatra.

Coach Wooden's teams were like Judgment Day.

Billy Gillispie's Kentucky teams?

I don't know.

Uncertain.

Confused maybe.

The players play as if they don't want to make their coach mad - and he seems to be mad all the time.

UK has put together some solid numbers, ranking in the top four of most meaningful SEC statistics.

Yet it has lost consecutive games to Mississippi, South Carolina and Mississippi State - the last two at home.

Thus the boooooooooooos.

Consider for a moment, if you will, the South Carolina game.

Kentucky shot 52 percent from the field, and made 24 of 29 free throws. If you knew that going in, you'd have given the Gamecocks and 15 points, then bet the house on the way to the bank to cash in your chips.

Little would you have known that UK would take only 48 shots - 28 fewer than South Carolina.

In that game, Ramon Harris, Joey Porter, Darius Miller and Perry Stevenson played a combined 99 minutes. And in those 99 minutes those four players shot only 13 times - or about once every 7 1/2 minutes.

That speaks louder than Conley's cannon fire.

In truth, the UK coach has a harder job than Barack Obama, and right now he seems to be grasping at straws.

After the most recent losses, he has complained about lack of passing, defensive intensity and rebounding. He has griped about none of his players “stepping up.”

Well, yes.

  It has been - in a word - ugly.

  Still, there is always hope.

  And with that hope, a small suggestion: Instead of eternally demanding the players adapt to the coach, why doesn't the coach adapt to his players?

  Turn them loose, Billy. This is supposed to be fun, not torture. Let them play the game for the simple joy of playing.

  Right now they look like they're choking on your short leash.