Mr. Smith Goes to Minnesota
I just got done watching a news conference where Tubby Smith officially accepted his new job as head coach of the Minnesota Gophers. I didn’t think I’d get as upset as I did, but seeing him in a burgundy and yellow tie was a little more than this Cat fan could take. I personally believe Kentucky just lost one hell of a coach. And why? Because he hasn’t been to the Final Four since 1998? Because he’s lost to Florida six times in a row?
Meh, big freakin’ deal. He’s as consistent and as up-standing as they come. He never lost his cool in public, even though he had more than a right to. He made the NCAA tournament all ten seasons he was at UK, and he won a first round game each of those ten times. And that doesn’t even mention his four Elite Eight appearances. The real problem? Well, I think its two-fold. The first issue is that UK fans have unrealistic expectations. You can’t be on top every year in a sport that’s gotten so much parity. This is a school where a long tradition is actually hurting it. Adolph Rupp could be dominant year after year simply because there wasn’t much parity. Once you got a system that worked and you started winning, you could keep getting the best recruits.
The second issue is that Orlando “Tubby” Smith is black. He didn’t stand a chance at Kentucky from the moment he got here. He won a National Championship his first year, but that was tainted because he didn’t recruit any of the players. Who gives a flying fuck? I don’t care how much anyone says the South has progressed, racism is still just under the surface. No one comes out and writes about it in the paper, or says it on any of the sports radio talk shows, but its there if you’re at someone’s house watching a Kentucky basketball game. Pretty sad really. Rick Pitino wouldn’t have taken half the shit fans said about Tubby, but he never would have had to, even if he was performing much worse than Tubby did this season.
I’m just not sure that the Big Blue faithful understand what they’re in for. Who the hell are they going to get to coach at Kentucky that can handle the pressure and produce like the fan-base wants? I don’t see a single premier-level coach leaving their school to come to UK at this time. Billy Donovan? Give me a break. He’d be crazy to leave.
Here’s my prediction. UK’s athletic director will hire some hot-shot white guy with a huge ego who will do one of two things:
- make the final four in two to three years, but get involved with some scandal that puts the school on probation for five-to-ten years, or
- have two to three losing seasons, after which he’ll get fired in disgrace.
Both of these situations are ridiculous, but definitely the most likely outcomes. Hell, I’m considering moving to Minnesota just so I can watch some quality college basketball without hearing how the coach isn’t Rick Pitino every time he loses a game or doesn’t win the entire conference.
On the upside, Kentucky fans have a great season of football to look forward to! Oh wait. Was that a flash-in-the-pan? Was last season one of those where we only beat one quality opponent but had at least four “gimme games”? Did we just give a big contract extension to a coach whose record is 17-30 in the four years he’s coached at UK? Oh well, at least there’s girl’s volleyball!
That is utterly ridiculous. Sure, there are some elements of racism still lurking in many states but not to the degree that you describe. Perhaps you should move to Minnesota if average basketball floats your boat.
Consider Duke this year. Even given their history, I’m quite certain when they became unranked this year for the first time in, oh forever, that the AD and Coach K didn’t say “Oh well, those things happen with parity”. I’m sure it was more like, ok, more practice, harder work because we’re Duke and we just don’t fall out of the top 25. Not here. Well, that’s an elite school that doesn’t accept mid-major performance. UK is as well. Winning the national championship in ‘98 would have been the same as the jockey of Secretariat winning the race and then getting off and putting another jockey on. Sure, they could still lose but you’ve still got that horse under there so your odds of winning are high.
Look at Pitino’s years and you see a steady increase from nothing to the pinnacle of college basketball. Look at Tubby’s 10 years and you see a steady decline in performance. Who cares that everyone else is happy with just appearing in the NCAA tourney. We’re not just anyone. Duke would not happy with just appearing either. UNC either. THey expect to win and often.
With UK’s name, we should be able to draw top shelf recruits but I heard the other day that we don’t have a top-150 recruit signed for next year. Why? Chris Lofton (great guard for TN) almost begged to come to UK and wasn’t offered a scholarship. Corey Brewer of FL wanted to come to UK. No scholarship. And Tubby is the one who gives the scholarships. Instead of those two we get Shegari Alleyne and Sheray Thomas?
Tubby is a good game coach but a terrible recruiter and in today’s game you have to have both.
Reggie: I’ll [kinda] concede to all your points except the racism one. It may not be the only reason he didn’t have a chance from the start, but it was a contributing factor.
I was at UK from 1996-1998, so I’m one of the spoiled ones. I want another National Championship as much as the next Kentucky fan, but I’m sure we’re not going to get the optimum replacement under these conditions. The first replacement is going to be rushed, and then we’re either going to have a down couple of years, or he’s going to do something stupid and get the program in trouble.
My biggest issue though, is looking at UK as an “elite basketball school”. Fans only consider us elite because we have tradition on our side. Tradition doesn’t entitle you to shit. A rabid fan base doesn’t entitle you to shit. Nothing “entitles” you to a winning college basketball program. Fans are supposed to be supportive of a team no matter what. That’s my rub. Tubby never got support. He’s got to be one of the top ten basketball coaches still coaching, and he never got the support he deserved from the Kentucky fan base.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Mitch Barnhart isn’t the idiot I think he is and he’ll lure some stud away from his team and we’ll have our National Championship in two years. I HOPE I’m wrong… but the basketball gods don’t think kindly of fans that just “think” they deserve a championship team because, by golly, we’ve ALWAYS BEEN the most winningest team.
Just think of me as your friendly college hoops ‘karma’ reminder… and if I’m wrong, come back and tell me, “I told you so, you lousy Tubby-lovin’ piece of shit!” Cause if I’m wrong, then I’d be more than happy to admit it.
You are wrong. Sure, no one is entitled to being an elite program. It comes from years and years of winning tradition. Same as at UNC, Duke, and UCLA. I consider them all elite schools.
And you are wrong that he never got support. When a state constantly fills your arena even getting 23,000+ to come to Midnight Madness practice, you have support. He coached 10 years before they ran him off and if racism was the factor they would want him gone even if he had got us back to the final 4 but you and I both know that as long as we were truly competitive for final 4 positions and SEC titles, Tubby was loved. It was only after multiple seasons of #8 seeds and middle of the pack finishes did it get old.
He got alot more support in KY than he will ever get in Minnesota! And the next coach will too and there are at least a dozen coaches that would give their left arm to be on the short list right now. Anyone who is a student of the game will tell you there is a *HUGE* difference in how UK played under Pitino and under Tubby. And the results are apparent as well.
Nothing entitles you to a winning program, but when you have the highest paid coach in college ball, you expect more than half of your seasons to have double digit wins, and you expect that coach to be able to take a team of his recruits to a Final Four at some point. I’m white. I was 100% behind Tubby until the last two years. As a true fan, I don’t give a damn what your ethnicity is, as long as you win games. Tubby had UK in a downward spiral. He could have chosen to stay and right his mistake, but he cut and ran. I think that’s actually better for UK and for Tubby in the long run. It doesn’t matter one bit how nice of a guy you are. If you aren’t performing at a level commiserate with your salary and the associated expectations, then white or black, get your ass outta there.
Sure Smith did well at Tulsa and Georgia, but he wasn’t a Final Four caliber coach before he inherited Pitino’s team. He’d never been there before. Sutton had taken Creighton to the Elite 8, and Arkansas and OSU both to the Final Four. Pitino had taken Providence, of all places, to the Final Four. These are the people Smith had to follow, and he simply wasn’t as good as either, meaning, he wasn’t good enough for UK.
Has anyone given thought that maybe if TUBBY had recruited UT star Chris Lofton, who was high school “Mr Kentucky”, instead of allowing personal feelings to dismiss the idea, that maybe his basketball team would have been at a level that KY fans would have wanted him to stay?? Probably not, since they probably thought he “was not quick enough” for KY basketball! Excuse me—seems like he’s done pretty well!
Joyce
Not recruiting Lofton and Brewer were likely caused by assistants who can’t judge talent but then again it’s the head coach that selects the assistants. Yes, Tubby did “pretty well” and “pretty well” is good enough for Minnesota and other average teams. “Pretty well” doesn’t cut it at UK, or Duke, or UNC, or UCLA. You have to be a serious challenger for all the marbles with good regularity or you got some explaining to do.
Sure it’s daring for UK to force out it’s first black coach but that only shows that they are serious about getting back to it’s winning ways and are not going to be bullied by assertions of non-existent racism. They might get a dud of a coach, and I sure hope they don’t, but if they get someone like Calipari or Donovan (or even Pitino back) then you see how they are in a couple of years. Believe me, they won’t look like they do now.
Reggie: Yes, Tubby did get support when he first got here. But to say that under-the-table racism wasn’t a factor is to be naive. You can’t tell me you’ve never heard “get that nigger out of here” or “why the hell is that nigger still here” while you were watching a UK game out at a bar or even at someone’s house.
John V: I will admit to everyone commenting that Tubby Smith leaving UK was probably in the best interest of both parties. But I’m still sticking with my opinion that the fact he was black played a role in how a lot of fans viewed him.
Joyce: Lofton is really just one recruiting miss among many.