Memphis lost to Missouri on Thursday, which effectively killed my bracket. Kentucky lost to Notre Dame in the NIT a night earlier, which effectively killed Billy Gillispie’s career in Lexington. (Run Billy, run!)

So with the Kentucky head-coaching spot now available, let’s name some names. Billy Donovan was apparently making his way up from Florida, but then that was quickly retracted. John Calipari’s name was thrown out shortly after, and it’s stuck. He hasn’t denied any of it. In fact, reports today have it gaining steam. ESPN says he met with Kentucky officials yesterday.

According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Calipari met with his players this morning, and talked to them about the Kentucky opening.

While Calipari did not say explicitly what he planned to do, players left the meeting convinced that Calipari would take the job. According to the source, Calipari told the team that Kentucky was the Notre Dame of basketball.

So yeah: If I was a betting man, Calipari looks like the front-runner here. Memphis certainly isn’t a no-name program in any regard, but C-USA gives the Tigers an easy conference schedule with games that aren’t televised nationally as frequently like you’d get with Kentucky. Remember, Calipari has never been a head coach at an elite program in college. (He was an assistant at Kansas in the 80s.) The Kentucky job instantly puts him into celebrity status, even if the school has experienced a downturn the past few years. It’s still one of the premier jobs in the country.

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I discussed the rumor mill surrounding Billy Gillispie elsewhere yesterday, but it appears as if now, there’s no more mongering to go around: ESPN is reporting that Gillispie is donecakes at Kentucky and the school will hold a press conference at 4:30 PM EST to announce it.

Far more interesting, however, is how the reported firing presumably went down. See, Gillispie was driven to UK President Lee Todd’s “campus mansion” at 2:00 PM today. Eighteen minutes later, Gillispie left the building and refused to comment to reporters. Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart left 10 minutes after Gillispie, wasn’t chatty either, and headed to Wildcat Lodge to meet with the UK players.

So, yeah, seems like he’s gone. My question is … how did it happen? My thought was that Gillispie walked in and said “Alright, two-first-name-guy, let’s just get this the f–k over with, alright?” And Todd looked at him like he was crazy before unleashing the hounds. R postulated briefly that the Todd gave Gillispie roughly 30 seconds of “I’m sorry, son” before he canned him and then Billy Clyde spent the remaining 15 minutes begging and pleading for his job. The latter sounds like more fun.

Of course, neither is as fun as hopefully watching Kentucky chase — and fall flat on — Billy Donovan, the conveniently recently eliminated John Calipari or Jay Wright. And after about 5 PM today, we get to enjoy that for at least a week.

I don’t know if there’s anything more insane in all of sports than college recruiting. It’s remarkable how enranged fans get at the decisions teenagers make, and it’s equally troubling how much under-the-table cash and general unethical stuff goes on to get a kid to come to your university. But hey: It is what it is.

In college basketball, the trend has turned incredibly young in recent years. Billy Gillispie offered a scholarship to an eighth-grader — an EIGHTH-GRADER! — last year, and college coaches are working camps for junior high kids. Sort of creepy, sort of over-the-top, but they’re only keeping with everyone else.

However, no longer, sayeth the NCAA:

The organization voted Thursday to change the definition of a prospect from ninth grade to seventh grade - for men’s basketball only - to nip a trend in which some college coaches were working at private, elite camps and clinics for seventh- and eighth-graders. The NCAA couldn’t regulate those camps because those youngsters fell below the current cutoff.

“It’s a little scary only because - we talked about this - where does it stop?” said Joe D’Antonio, chairman of the 31-member Division I Legislative Council, which approved the change during a two-day meeting at the NCAA Convention. “The fact that we’ve got to this point is really just a sign of the times.”

Run and hide, sixth-graders. Billy’s coming for you.