Orlando Smith, also known as “Tubby,” “The Tub” and “the guy who’s wrecking Kentucky basketball,” bailed out today for the basketball powerhouse that is the University of Minnesota.
He’s not leaving much behind for the next guy, but be warned: Kentucky basketball is coming back, and it’s coming back soon.
But … but … I’m really going to miss him doing those “Kentucky Proud” commercials. When he tells you that locally grown produce is better, you believe it!
Funny how perceptions differ. Minnesota fans and local sports yappers are acting like this is the coup of the century for U of M. It’s ball-line defense this, national championship that.
Seriously, he can’t do anything but improve the Gophers. The fans here don’t need a title, they’d be happy just to make it back to the dance at all.
Not to be mean, Dio, but I could take over the Golden Vermin and put up a better record.
And just wait: within five years, you’ll be sick of the plodding, aimless offense, the 1950s-era ball-line defense, the recruits that belong at a much smaller school and the inability to speak three sentences without tripping over his own tongue.
Leaving Kentucky to coach Minnesota in basketball is like leaving Michigan to coach Kentucky in football. He’s taking a huge (and warranted) step down to take that job.
And Snooooopy, yeah, I’ll miss the Kroger commercials the most. That bewildered, wide-eyed stare was just hilarious. It’s like he’d never seen the inside of a grocery before.
I agree with your basic points, BJ, but I also think UK is going to be hard-pressed to do much better. Main reason: more parity, exacerbated by early exits to the NBA.
In other words, I don’t think that any college basketball program will/can attain the same “dynasty” level that UK had in its past. Which is where UK’s fan base is still living.
“Hard-pressed to do much better” than a senior class of Woo, Sheray and Bobby Perry? “Hard-pressed to do much better” than a current recruiting class of… a 7-foot British center who’s only been in organized basketball for a couple of years and the 12th-best forward in the city of Jacksonville? “Hard-pressed to do much better” than playing on the first day of the SEC tournament in consecutive years and not getting out of the first weekend of the NCAA tournament?
I think they can do a lot better than that.
That’s my feeling - this whole thing reminds me of a great thread about Nick Saban and Alabama from a few months ago. But I don’t know enough about Smith’s record to say for sure.
I hope the UK team crashes and burns. Oh, I’m sure they’ll get a white coach this time, since that was the only thing any so-called fan of the team ever complained about in my hearing.
Maybe we should put Patrick Patterson and Jai Lucas on the search committee for a new coach.
Oh, right, I forgot, all Kentucky fans are racists. :rolleyes:
Nope. I’m married to a non-racist UK fan.
He’s in the minority amongst UK fans I’ve met.
What?
I’ve been a UK student for longer than - well - anybody really should be a UK student. No one has ever complained about Tubby Smith’s racial identity within my range of hearing.
Calipari plz.
I feel bad about being so happy about this, since he’s such a likable guy. But jesus, remember when they won 30 games every year? And had players who could do things?
Just how many UK fans have you spoken to about their feelings regarding Tubby Smith’s race, jsgoddess?
Calipari? Why, so we can have another Eddie Sutton situation?
I’ve actually met Orlando. Got his autograph, in fact, while I was still a student. He didn’t strike me then as acting like a coach.
The most interesting names I’ve heard so far today:
Mark Few - Done a pretty good job at Gonzaga. Pacific Northwest connection, which means Barnhart will like him. I’d be worried about how well he controls his players in light of the drug arrests this year.
Jay Wright - You saw what Villanova could do against us last weekend. Has experience building on very little (and next year’s roster is the definition of Very Little.) May not quite be ready for the kind of spotlight that Kentucky is.
Thad Matta - Can obviously recruit (Greg Oden, anyone?) and plays a Kentuckyesque style. Kentucky would be a pretty big step up from Ohio State.
And then of course, there are the big names everyone’s dreaming about: Donovan, Crean, Izzo, Pitino (again), but I don’t think any of them will end up taking it (but Crean will consider it, and Donovan MIGHT.)
Billy D won’t leave, I don’t think. If he does obviously I’m fine with that. Crean does nothing for me. Mark Few, Thad Matta likewise. Jay Wright’s interesting, I suppose; I’m right here by Nova so I’m well aware of how good a job he’s done. But the way I see it, the current roster shouldn’t dictate anything about the coaching search – this isn’t “build a program” time. The program’s there. This is Kentucky. The athletes just aren’t there, and haven’t been. It’s not football – this could be turned around in two seasons, fairly easily (I mean, relatively). I want a guy who can and will go out and bring in the immediate difference-makers and turn them back into Kentucky again, not start all over and put together some scrappy underdogs.
To me Calipari’s the guy, for a couple reasons. First of all, his track record is pretty outstanding. He turned fucking UMass into a 30-win Final 4 team. He went 35-2 (bonus points if you can guess which powerhouse finally knocked them off, and whether or not that team won on the strength of multiple foreign 7-footers). UMass! OK, then he went to the NBA, which is a plus to me – get to that in a second. Look how fast he turned Memphis into a super-dangerous team when he got there. Memphis has now won 30 games in consecutive years and made it to the Elite 8 both times. So on a superficial level, he’s always turned his team into killers in short order. Obviously there’s more to it than that; Memphis isn’t playing an SEC schedule, but they’re winning, is the point. While Kentucky sits and watches, Calipari’s got Memphis in the Elite 8.
More important to me, though, is the way he wins games. He’s kind of a basketball genius, if I’m going to just come right out and say it. He plays fast, just blinds people with athleticism and depth and pressure. And to play that way, he recruits a certain way. He gets guys who can do things. No spindly 7 footers. No clunky-ass 5s who can’t play facing the basket. Finishers and attackers and ball-handlers and shooters. Everybody he uses has a way of adding something dangerous to his arsenal. I think that’s exactly what Kentucky needs – an immediate infusion of high octane. How many Tub-era UK players were dangerous, in any of the many possible ways they could’ve been dangerous on the floor? They just weren’t. They were steady, and hard-working, and gritty, and just damned boring. Nobody could shoot, nobody got to the rim, nobody dunked on anybody in traffic. Just interior passing, swing the ball, chuck a three, defend defend defend. At Kentucky! I want blood in the water ASAP, is what I’m saying. I know everybody right now is getting all upset because, oh, Kentucky fans expect so ridiculously much, but come on – not a single Final 4 with his own players? 5 10-loss seasons? It’s one thing to say the fans shouldn’t expect a championship team every year, but how about getting close every few years or so? Of the names I’ve heard, Calipari is the one guy who I’d be most confident would use the embarrassment of riches at his disposal to turn the program back into what it has no excuse not to be – a perennial contender. Not 35 wins every year, or a Final 4 every year, just back to being an elite basketball team. That’s not unreasonable. And it takes players to get there.
And obviously, right, Calipari’s a bad guy. He’s a sleaze. There are some stories I’ve heard that I hesitate to relate on here because I’m not really sure if the people who told me the stories would appreciate it, but in the coaching community he’s apparently fairly legendary as a maniac. I hate to say it, but I kind of like that. Because he’ll tell a player that he’s coached in the League and he can get that player there, and he’ll encourage a player to go pro if he thinks the player should go pro, and as a result the kind of player who is thinking along those lines anyway is going to respond to him. He’s going to be signing those players for a year or two, and signing quality 4-year guys as well, and he’s going to win games with them. I don’t really see the problem with the one-and-done guys, really. It doesn’t seem to me that programs really end up hurting all that much in the long run if they recruit one of them every few years. At least, they don’t hurt more than they benefited from having them in the first place. Think about what it would be like to have a Durant in a Kentucky uniform. That sort of thing used to happen, you know? That’s all I’m saying.
I have been (unwillingly) in the presence of a couple dozen UK fans total, all from Louisville and Bowling Green. Virtually all of my experiences were shortly after he was hired, and in only one of the cases did it involve me speaking to anyone about their feelings. The feelings of people who are tossing around “nigger” are fairly easy to discern.
My husband is a white Kentuckian and he thinks racism plays a major role in the way fans have treated Tubby. If other Kentuckians have had different experiences, that’s great.
As a Texas Longhorn fan, I’d urge Kentucky to do us AND themselves a favor, and hire the best man available for the job: Billy Gillispie!
There are racist UK fans, just like there are racist IU fans, and racist Tennesse fans, and racist UF fans, etc.
How far under the radar is Travis Ford for this job?
Tubby is not being criticized because he is black. He isn’t recruiting ANYONE, and UK is now a 2nd tier team in the SEC. There are some racist fans who never accepted him. They are not now, all of a sudden, vocal. They have always been against Tubby.
Nope, sorry, he will not consider going to UK. But I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a public rejection.
Longtime UK fan, and I’m glad Tubby is gone. But I really only started feeling that way over the past two years.
First, I could care less what race the coach is. I really don’t see how that matters, except for people to slam UK, because of Rupp and our history. Cause lord knows UK has always been so much more racist than everyone else.
The reason I’m glad that Tubby is gone is that we’ve become a second tier program under him, specifically because of recruiting. He never recruited enough in state, letting people like Chris Lofton go out of state. You know, he was Mr. Basketball in Kentucky. You may want to have a look at him.
And don’t tell me about parity and people leaving early. How many down years has Kansas had? Duke, as much as I hate them, had a bad year this year, but previously had year after year being at the top. UCONN is the same. Look, it’s unrealistic to think that you’re going to be in the Final Four every year, but we’re not even discussed like that anymore. Add in four losses in a row to Vandy, six losses in a row to Florida(first time any SEC team has 6 wins in a row versus UK), not winning the SEC consistently, being a eight seed two years in row in the NCAA, and having some of the worst recruiting classes Kentucky has ever seen. So, I’m glad he’s gone. Not sure who they’ll bring in, since I wouldn’t trust Mitch Barnhart to make me a cup of coffee, much less pick a good coach.