Billy Gillispie’s 9-0 start at JuCo erased by forfeits

Billy Gillispie is back in the coaching ranks, leading his alma mater Ranger College, a JuCo in Texas, into the top 25 of the NJCAA with what was, at one point, a 9-0 record.

Ranger College is not 9-0 anymore.

The program had to forfeit each of their first four games, as the team played a player that was ineligible.

It wasn’t necessarily their fault, however. It was a paperwork issue from a school where the athlete had previously signed a Letter of Intent.

I’ll let the Dallas News explain it:

A Ranger player had originally signed a Letter of Intent to play at a community college in another state. That player, according to [Tommy Wells, Ranger’s SID], never enrolled at the out of state school, and instead came to Ranger. According to Wells, the paperwork from the other school releasing the player from his letter of intent turned out to incomplete. The issue wasn’t discovered until the player had participated in Ranger’s first four games.

There’s more to this story, however. One of those forfeits actually will be record as a double-forfeit, as Cedar Valley College also used an ineligible player when the two teams got together.

It’s also worth noting that Ranger went 2-23 last season as they dealt with probation due to violations committed under their former coach ... Larry Brown.

Not that Larry Brown, but still. There’s a lot going on here.

If you’re wondering why Gillispie is relevant, he was the head coach at Kentucky for two years before John Calipari was hired.