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Report: Former UK basketball coach Billy Gillispie in need of kidney transplant

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Former Kentucky basketball coach Billy Gillispie is in urgent need of a kidney transplant, according to a report by The Dallas Morning News.

Gillispie, 58, returned to coaching at Ranger, a community college 90 miles northwest of Fort Worth, this season after abruptly retiring last year due to health concerns.

"As you can imagine, I've been doing a lot of reading, asking questions and all of those things you do when you start feeling life-threatening things," Gillispie said in the report.

A native of Texas, Gillispie was 40-27 in two seasons at Kentucky and was fired after the Wildcats missed the NCAA Tournament in 2009 for the first time in nearly two decades.