Nothing like a game against UK to get your season back on track.
Nothing like a game against UK to get your season back on track.
I'm officially pulling for Kentucky to lose from here on out this season. The sooner Tubby is out, the better.
PS:Refresh for a different picture each time.Courtesy of firetubbysmith.com
Originally Posted by savafan
And now, for something completely different:
Posted on Sun, Mar. 04, 2007
Smith has earned chance to rebound
By John Clay
HERALD-LEADER SPORTS COLUMNIST
Let's go on record right here, right now.
Before Kentucky plays Florida today in Gainesville. Before the Cats open SEC Tournament play on Thursday. Before the Cats head on to their 15th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance next week.
Whatever happens the rest of the season makes no difference.
Tubby Smith should return as Kentucky's basketball coach.
No ifs, ands or buts about it.
Look at his record. Only four coaches have won more games in their first 16 seasons than has Smith. Only five active coaches have produced a better NCAA Tournament winning percentage. Only two coaches have been to more consecutive NCAA Tournaments -- and if Lute Olson fails to make the Big Dance that number is reduced to Roy Williams.
Look at Connecticut, the team that bounced UK from last year's NCAA Tournament. Come Selection Sunday, the Huskies will fail to hear their name called for the second time this decade.
Just four years ago Smith's team won 26 straight games. Smith was a unanimous selection as national coach of the year. Three years ago, his team was the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Two years ago, it was a double-overtime away from reaching the Final Four.
Has Kentucky basketball slipped these past two seasons? Yes. Is criticism justified? Absolutely.
But does Smith deserve the opportunity to put matters back on track?
No question.
When he assumed the presidency at UK in 2001, and again when he brought in Mitch Barnhart as athletics director a year later, Lee Todd talked about changing the culture in UK athletics. And for the most part, the two have done just that.
With the possible exception of a $30 million practice facility for basketball, UK athletics appears to be as balanced and well-rounded as it has ever been.
Forcing out a coach with four years left on his contract doesn't change the win-at-all-costs culture, it makes you a slave to the culture.
It makes you Alabama football, firing Mike Shula a year removed from a 10-2 season. You don't want to be Alabama football.
That's especially true if you force out a coach as well-respected in the coaching community as Smith is. Why, in April 2003, when Kentucky handed its basketball coach a new eight-year deal worth between $20 million and $26 million, Todd talked about how, considering the shenanigans occurring at other programs, he was among the fortunate.
"I don't have to worry about Tubby Smith," he said.
One episode points out Smith's standing. It happened last year when out of the blue, on the eve of losing Randolph Morris for an entire season to NCAA suspension, Smith suddenly "found" an important fax Morris had sent him stating his intention to return to UK if he was not selected in the NBA Draft. Had most other coaches claimed such a find, the university would have been smothered in cynics' sneers. With Smith, few even batted an eye.
True, things change. It's a what have you done for me lately world. Mistakes have been made. Evaluations have been made in error. UK's heralded signee class of 2004 has not lived up to its press clippings. Smith is holding a roster too heavy on holes just when the conference stepped up its basketball production.
Those are correctable errors, however, and we all have our ideas on how they would be best corrected.
But it makes no difference if Kentucky fails to upset Florida in Gainesville today, or fails to win four games in four days in Atlanta, or fails to make a serious run in the Big Dance.
Smith should have the chance to correct them.
No ifs, ands or buts.
And then there is this:
Posted on Sun, Mar. 04, 2007
NOTEBOOK
Experts weigh in on Tubby debate
Analysts say coaching change would be bad for program
By Jerry Tipton
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
Kentucky basketball has lost some luster. But if Kentucky fires Tubby Smith, the school should be prepared to take a public relations beating.
That's the opinion of college basketball observers around the country.
"I think they'd get ripped pretty good," said Seth Davis, a writer for Sports Illustrated and a college basketball commentator for CBS. "It'd be pretty unpopular nationally."
Speaking as "just a basketball guy," Jay Bilas of ESPN said of a hypothetical Smith firing, "I'd be stunned by that and appalled that anyone would consider that. If I was an athletic director, I'd be begging Tubby Smith to take a job I had or keep the job he had with me.
"That's beyond my comprehension."
Of course, UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart seems to be contemplating a change of coaches. In a statement issued last week, he acknowledged fan disgruntlement while noting that a good March would change perceptions of this season. With Smith due a $1.5 million retention bonus should he remain coach on April 3, Barnhart promised to evaluate the program after the season.
Meanwhile, the college basketball community would frown on a firing of one of the game's most successful coaches.
"I'd think firing Tubby would reflect (right or wrong) a bloodthirsty mentality," columnist Bud Withers of the Seattle Times said in an e-mail message. "How many national championship coaches have ever been fired?"
Sportswriter Wendell Barnhouse of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram predicted a mixed reaction should Kentucky dismiss Smith.
"Some would look at his overall record and accomplishments and wonder why people wanted him gone," Barnhouse wrote in an e-mail message. "Sort of the Earle Bruce of college hoops.
"Others would look at it and say that Kentucky has slipped a notch or two in recent years. The program has been good but not excellent. Most of the other storied programs have had down seasons in the last decade but have bounced back with a Final Four or a national championship. Maybe Kentucky hasn't had a true 'down year,' but it also hasn't been to the Final Four or been a title threat."
Observers noted the increasing difficulty in sustaining a dynasty. Gary Williams, who won a national championship in 2002, failed to get Maryland into three straight NCAA Tournaments. Jim Calhoun, who has guided Connecticut to two national championships, may not get a bid this year. Duke slipped out of the top 25.
However, Davis noted that schools can take a P.R. bath and look fine in the long run. Notre Dame fired football coach Tyrone Willingham. Florida A.D. Jeremy Foley took heat for firing Ron Zook as football coach before the season ended. "How does that look now?" Davis said.
The more pertinent question is this: How does Kentucky look now?
"Keep in mind, I'm viewing from a great distance," Withers said. "I'm of two beliefs -- that Kentucky seems to have, at least in recent years, played sort of an unappealing, hard-to-watch brand of basketball and doesn't seem to have recruited at the level of the program's stature. But it's also a sign of the times that the success the program has had isn't enough for its fans."
Added Barnhouse: "My perception of Kentucky right now is that the fans have had a belly full of Smith and Smith has had a belly full of the fans. UK can be a dickens of a job because there is always great expectations."
However true that might be, ESPN commentator Dick Vitale saw Smith as the person to revive Kentucky basketball.
"Kentucky firing Tubby absolutely would be a joke," Vitale said. "That's not going to happen. Tubby's so good and so special. Everybody in the coaching fraternity knows that."
Bilas said he understood fan unhappiness -- to a point.
"I can always live with informed opinion," he said. "If it says anything but Tubby Smith is one of the best coaches, I disagree with that."
I always love how people defend other coaches by saying they're a "good guy" and they "know the game", but in the same breath they call out players for not "getting the job done" or "not playing to their ability level".
It never fails to make me laugh.
UK has stagnated. I'm an outsider (actually a slight anti-UK bias), I can see that Tubby needs to go. It's Kentucky. Unless they're just content to milk their fans for every penny, they need to go out and bring a guy like Travis Ford home. He'd be excellent there. He's been pure gold everywhere he's coached.
Last edited by guttle11; 03-04-2007 at 04:04 PM.
The way I see it is, the coach is the one who brings the players in to start with. If the players are not getting the job done or playing to the best of their abilities, the blame falls squarely on the coach who brought them in to start with.
For the record, I have found a player now that I can honestly say I detest more thoroughly than Saul Smith, and his name is Ramel Bradley.
I love all these outsiders who see things sooooo clearly. How does Dick Vitale refute UK losing six times IN A ROW to an opponent for the first time EVER???
Did ANYONE who watched the game today HONESTLY feel like things were going to turn out ANY other way?
Did anyone HONESTLY think Bobby Perry was going to put together 2 good halves or think that Flubby would have them play a 2nd half anywhere like their first?
Last year's team was the dumbest... this one might be the one with the least amount of heart and desire and 'stick-to-it-iveness' I've ever seen play basketball.
And people act as though this program has just had a couple "off years" ... the simple truth of the matter is that this program has been trending downward for at least the past four-five seasons.
Clay should know better. All these national types are campaigning to keep Flubby for a different reason... and it's political correctness taken to its logical conclusion and it absolutely sucks.
As soon as we see other coaches start to defend Tubby that should be the final nail in the coffin (if it already isnt in there). As Colin Cowherd says when other coaches start defending you then you know that your in trouble. Like when SEC coaches starting telling people that Ron Zook was a good guy and good coach and people needed to leave him alone. Of course they were, they were the ones beating his brains in and didnt want to go back to the Spurrier days when they were getting their own butts kicked. Now that Meyer is in there it looks like things might go back to being like that. If I were the other SEC coaches I would love Tubby being there, I know I have a chance everytime I play them to not only compete but about the half the time pull out the win. It's time to drain the Tub folks.
Wildcats are getting RAN right now in the 1/4finals of the SEC tourney. Down 12 with 12 minutes left.
When all is said and done more is said than done.
Hopefully one step closer to a draining of the Tub.
Honest to God, I thought to myself at the end there, 65% we don't even get a shot off. The exact same thing has happened so many times with Tubby's teams in end-game situations.
This game seemed to wrap up UK's season in a nutshell. So close and just throw it away at the end. Walknig away from the line for a lane violation, Crawford forcing a shot over three people in OT, Crawford watching the ball bounce away instead of hustling after it and then compounding it by standing there staring at the guy and not fouling him. Who will Tubby blame this one on? The players again, the refs, or maybe it's the fans fault for who knows why. As I type this Hansbrough from Miss St in the post game interview is saying how Miss St was rooting for UK yesterday because they wanted to play them instead of Alabama. I have never in my life seen other teams openly root to play UK instead of another team in the SEC tounament. There is a reason UK has won more of these things than all the other teams combined. The sad thing is I never really thought they were going to win. Even with Meeks at the line with a chance to make a four point game with 5 seconds left. I thought to myself "man it's gonna be interesting to see how they blow this" and sure enough they did. Oh well at least the school I go to now (Wright St.) is in the NCAA. I would actually right now, without knowing who either team is playing and being able to break down the matchup, say WSU has a better chance of getting a first round win than UK.
Outside of a 16/15 seed, there's not a team in the field I'd give a lesser chance of advancing past the first round than UK.
Does anyone smell an 8 vs 9 1st round game of Duke vs UK ?
Exactly !
As I have stated before...Tubby is a good coach but to me, he is turning into the Marty Schottenhiemer of college basketball.
He can take a team like Tulsa or Georgia and I think make them a top 25 team.
I think if he coached at schools like North Carolina or Kansas however...you would see similar results as his UK experience.
Travis Ford and his style of play plus recruiting would get KY back on map quick imo
How far have we fallen ?
Lost to Florida 6 straight and Vandy 4in a row....nuff said !
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