loss (65–64) to the Memphis Tigers at the Alamodome in San Antonio on March 22, 2007. Kentucky Hiring On April 5, 2007, University of Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart was given permission by Texas A&M to speak with Gillispie about the program's basketball coach opening, vacated by Tubby Smith. On April 6, 2007, the announcement was made that Gillispie had accepted the position. He drew criticism for the way he left Texas A&M by having alerted the Aggie players of his decision to take the Kentucky job via text message, while en route to the introductory press conference in Lexington. On April 6, 2007, Gillispie was formally announced as the new head coach of the University of Kentucky by UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart. He fielded questions from the media during a press conference held at UK's new practice facility, the Joe Craft Center. He expressed his excitement and joy to have been given the honor and the opportunity to coach what former Kentucky Wildcats head coach Rick Pitino referred to as the "Roman Empire" of college basketball. "I'm very, very grateful and honored to be here, but we have a lot of work to do." Gillispie became only the sixth head coach in the last 76 years at the school. Gillispie signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Kentucky on April 6, 2007 which outlined his salary and benefits. The memo also stated that contract negotiations would be concluded with "every reasonable effort" within 60 days. Gillispie and the university never signed a formal contract. Recruiting Between April 29 and May 7, 2008, Billy Gillispie made recruiting waves by snagging commitments from five players spread over five different classes, most notably the commitment on May 1 of Thousand Oaks, California 8th-grader Michael Avery. Avery, a member of the class of 2012, gave the University of Kentucky its earliest basketball commitment in the history of the program. The commitment also earned national scrutiny for Coach Gillispie and the university, but there were no violations of the NCAA recruiting rules. During his tenure at Kentucky, Gillispie snagged numerous high-profile recruits. These included three 5-star recruits according to Scout.com (Patrick Patterson, Daniel Orton & Dominique Ferguson) and five 4-star recruits (Alex Legion, DeAndre Liggins, Darius Miller, Kevin Galloway and Jon Hood). Legion later transferred to Illinois early in the 2007–08 season. 2007–2008 Wildcat fans packed Rupp Arena for Big Blue Madness (the first