THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

Billy Gillispie is out. Xavier is out. Alvin Mitchell and Mike Williams are out. Been a riotous 24 hours, hasn't it?

Who didn't see Gillispie going? His AD and school president have been more silent than Marcel Marceau on this situation. Gillispie apparently didnt play the glad hand game well enough and his players didn't like being yelled at. Oh, and losing to Gardner Webb and VMI at Rupp didn't help either. But riddle me this: how can a state struggling for money as much as Kentucky is, scrape up $6 million to make Gillispie go away? If donors raised that kind of cash, isn't the school president, or the people he answers to, responsible enough to say 'look, let's use this money for bricks and morter, or to lower tuition costs, not pay off a basketball coach.' This entire deal is wrong from word one.

Kentucky may have made a bad hire. And cutting your losses into something like that isn't the worst thing to do. But shouldn't the people who hired Gillispie, Barnhart and Todd, but held accountable here too? $6 million to pay a coach to leave town? In this economy? In that state?

I wouldn't look for Sean Miller to leave Xavier for that gig. Neither does Andy Katz, at espn.com.

My pal Gregg Doyel over at cbssports.com has it nailed about the kind of coach Kentucky should hire.

Xavier lost to Pitt for one very big reason: it couldn't buy a basket in the second half of that ballgame. You can't start a half going 0-10 from the field and expect to win. Sure, BJ Raymond and Derrick Brown delivered points. But where was the rest of the Xavier scoring? Some of those guys in Xavier white disappeared like David Copperfield in the final 20 minutes. Still, Xavier had a chance to win. It was up two with under a minute to play. The Levance Fields three point shot was crazy good. But, the bigger play was the steal that Dejuan Blair and Fields pulled off with 34 seconds left. Down one, Xavier had a chance to take the lead. But you must protect the basketball. And, at that moment, Xavier didn't.

Too bad. I think they would've given Villanova a good game Sunday.

Mick Cronin, our guest this Sunday night on Sports Rock, was busy cleaning house today. Gone are Alvin Mitchell and Mike Williams. Mitchell has been a problem for Cronin the past two seasons. He's been in and out of Cronin's dog house, suspended, frequently. Honestly, no loss there. Mitchell, in my opinion, had limited skills. As for Williams, his case was a matter of bad luck. He missed two full seasons, one here and one at Texas before transfering. His case for a 6th season of eligibility was flimsy at best. For Cronin, it's probably best to move on. His first three seasons have produced little. He needs to have a big fourth season to stick around. I'd look for a Junior College player or two to jump start this team.

My Sunday morning radio show is taking shape. Jonathan Mayo from mlb.com will join me at 9:35am EDT to talk Reds baseball. We'll hear from Ryan Fagan from The Sporting News about baseball and the Reds at Noon. NFL player agent Jack Bechta will join me at 10am. The Enquirer's Dustin Dow and bengals.com Geoff Hobson will stop by to chat too. My show airs from 9am-12:30p EDT. You can listen online at 700wlw.com.

Have a great weekend. Check out my web site: www.kenbroo.com. Brand new Broo View Podcast will be posted Friday overnight and ready Saturday morning.