Deron Williams, Acie Law, and G.J. Vilarino.

History repeats itself, or at least in the case of Billy Gillispie and point guards it seems as though it does.

As an assistant at Tulsa under Bill Self, Billy Gillispie began scouting a high school freshman by the name of Deron Williams. While others focused on Williams' teammate Bracey Wright (who would later star at Indiana) Billy Gillispie never wavered in his belief that Deron Williams was the player he wanted most on that team. Gillispie would later say of Deron Williams "I thought he was one of the best lead guards I'd ever seen."

Later, after moving over to a higher profile program at Illinois with Bill Self and assuming the role of lead recruiter, Billy Gillispie successfully added Deron Williams to a stellar group of guards that would include Luther Head and Dee Brown.

After Gillispie became the head coach at Texas A&M, Acie Law directly credits Billy Gillispie with molding him into the All American and Wooden Award
finalist that he became under Gillispie. Law averaged 18.2 points, 5.3 assists, shot 51.6% from the field, 46.1 from 3, and 77% from the free-throw line under Gillispie's tutelage last year... all of them were career bests. Not a bad player for a program that just two years previous went 0-16 in the Big 12.

You know how good Kevin Durant was last year, well Durant barely squeaked by Acie Law for the Big 12 Player of the Year Award (as a side note Billy Gillispie won his 2nd Big 12 Coach of the Year award last year as well).

Are you starting to notice a trend?

Billy Gillispie knows guards. So what did Billy G do once he got the job of a lifetime in landing the head coaching position at Kentucky? He quickly picked a point guard out of Texas. Sound familiar?

Within 3 days of taking the head coaching job at Kentucky Billy Gillispie had already landed his first recruit in G.J. Vilarino and you can be sure he had just as much confidence in making that selection as he did years ago when he brought Deron Williams to Illinois. Vilarino is A great prospect and Gillispie wasn't about to let him slip away and it is no accident Gillispie acted with so quickly and decisively in naming his first recruit as the new head coach at college basketball's most visible dynasty.

G.J. Vilarino is a 6 foot, 165 pound fast rising dynamo out of McKinney High School in Texas and is a member of the 2009 Kentucky Wildcat recruiting class. Vilarino averaged 20.5 ppg and 4.5 apg last year and said after accepting Gillispie's offer: "When he went to Kentucky - it was already one of the top programs in the country -- it was just a done deal then for me. It's a really good feeling. I don't think there's any other place I would rather be."

Looking at Billy Gillispie's stellar track record on recruiting and developing elite point guards, I am sure Kentucky is going to be very happy when Mr. Vilarino steps on campus. Billy Gillispie knows what the future holds for this young star and he displayed tremendous confidence in him in making Vilarino his first recruit at Kentucky. After all, he's seen it before in Deron Williams and Acie Law, and G.J. Vilarino will be a fitting addition to that select group when he suits up at Kentucky to play for the king-maker of super elite NBA quality point guards.

The Crow Nation - 05/23/07