Tubby Smith Leaves Kentucky For...

[bill2266]

go minny

 

[HinesWard86]

Yeah I didn't consider the black aspect. The coach for the Salukis is black though...

Bruce Pearl is staying put, no way does that guy leave after all the PR he's done for the Vols.

Not saying Leonard is a great coach but he does know how to get great athletes. I really think Few and the Nevada coach would thrive, hell with Kruger's son almost done at UNLV they might as well go after Lon Kruger, his stock went through the roof this year...

Had no idea that the Salukis coach was black, kinda think that counts him out then. Even if a black candidate is their first choice I can't see Kentucky fans accepting another black head coach. At the outset of the Tubby Smith era they were very lukewarm about it and I can't see them being okay with going that route again.

Yea, Leonard knows how to get pretty good athletes but man it is frustrating watching him misuse them when they get here. That being said if Alexander Johnson would've came back this year the Noles would've won 24 or 25 games and might still be playing.

I can see the Nevada coach leaving but I think Few really loves it out in Gonzaga and can't see him going anywhere unless he is offered Spurrier money. Kruger makes a ton of sense and I hadn't thought of that.

I don't know if Pitino would go back to Kentucky, it's rare that you go back to a place that you left behind already, especially one where your legacy is very high.

Anyone else out there that Kentucky might go after?

 

[Buster]

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070322/SPORTS03/70322029

Tubby Smith resigns, going to Minnesota
By Brett Dawson
bdawson@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal





LEXINGTON, Ky. – Tubby Smith has resigned as basketball coach at the University of Kentucky and will accept the same position at the University of Minnesota, according to sources close to Smith and to the university.

Smith, whose record is 263-83 in 10 seasons at UK, will take over a program that played most of this season with an interim coach, Jim Molinari, at the helm. The Gophers’ head coach, Dan Monson, resigned last November at the start of the season.

Smith reportedly told the UK players today that his contract in Minnesota is $2.5 million a year.

Smith had been under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks after back-to-back second-round losses in the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats lost seven of their last 11 games and lost a combined 25 games the past two seasons – the most ever in a two-year window at UK that was not affected by NCAA probation.

UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart could not be reached for comment.

wow,can't sat where i remember the coach telling players what he is going to be paid.

" Smith reportedly told the UK players today that his contract in Minnesota is $2.5 million a year."

 

[anpyanks]

i think they will take a long look at john belein from wvu

 

[Rev_Al]

dr03....has always been a moron.

Minnesota made regular tounament appearances before Clem Haskins? Ummm....

the 'great power house' of Minnesota Gopher basketball has not won a single NCAA Championship after 1919...and made total of 4 NCAA Tourney appearances in the 70's & 80's....roughly 40%...how is this anything compared to other Big Ten teams????

The only time they were NCAA regulars were doing the Haskins' era...which is erased from the history books.

What are you smoking?

 

[dr03]

ya'll are dumb

 

[WVU]

If Kentucky steals Belein I am going to have to kill somebody.

 

[anpyanks]

If Kentucky steals Belein I am going to have to kill somebody.

there is already speculationg up here wvu... he has i believe a 2M buyout (which is why he didnt go to nc st last year)from another school but i hear kentucky could care less about that and are more than willing to pay it...

 

[patswin]

They should go after Calipari from Memphis.

 

[ButI'mTedBell]

That's my point Journeyman. I'd say Pitino is in the TOP 3 best coach coaching today. I always admired the guy. He tried doing his thing in the NBA and everyone knows how that worked out, but in college hoops, he is a mastermind. He literally BUILT L'Ville out of dirt into a legitimate contender for the past few years. I don't think there would be ANY question as to whether or not UK would take him, but that if IF he wants to go back there. I think it would be very sweet to say the least if he goes back there, build UK back into a powerhouse it once was, and retire as a UK coach and go out like Wooden, Dean, and the rest of the hall of fame coaches. That would be awesome.

Rick Pitino built the Ville? :WTF:
Yes, Crum's last few years were not good, and RP has done an incredible job at bringing the program back. It's also a lot easier with the rich tradition, fan base, and revenue and attendance near the top of college hoops every season. He's a hell of a coach, but this program was built before Pitino was born. The day he signed with UL erased any chance of a UK reunion..

As a Card fan, I'm glad to see Tubby go. His has owned us recently. But I like him as a coach. He record speaks for itself. With apologies to UCLA, I agree that the UK job is arguably at the top in terms of history. But they better be careful. Their coach just left for Minnesota. Minnesota. Good hire for the Gophers, but Kevin McHale's not walking through that door..

Hamilton may be a possibility because of his UK ties, but I doubt it. Race may not be the issue it once was there(born, raised, and lived there for the first 25 years of my life), but there is an undercurrent that still exists. That is also part of their history. As well as point shaving, but that's another story..

It will be interesting to see who takes the job.

 

[catsfan]

Wonder how many transfers and lost recruits this is going to cost UK. Bad, bad move...

It may cost them short term but in the long run the recruiting will improve if the right coach is brought in.

Bad, bad move?
Tubby didn't get fired. He quit. He would have been brought back. UK had no intentions of buying him out for 4 million dollars.

 

[trytrytry]

im still just in shock over this turn of events here in Minny

the last big name coach we had in Minnesota with Lou Holtz and that was just a total blast, it changes everything about the program..

(I realize Jacques Lemeire is big time as well but few follow hockey)

 

[Thrillseeker]

Here's someone who gets it...

Tubby blew it with Wildcats; what chance do Gophers have?

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Don't feel bad today for Tubby Smith, who woke up Thursday as the coach at Kentucky but will wake up Friday at Minnesota. That's a ghastly career arc, but Tubby did this to himself. Kentucky fans didn't help the situation, but they aren't the losers here. Tubby is.

[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Tubby had one of the best jobs in college basketball and drove it right up to the side of the cliff. He didn't drive Kentucky over that cliff -- that would have come next year, assuming junior center Randolph Morris turns pro -- but he had this monster of a basketball program creeping right up to the edge. [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Tubby couldn't figure out how to fix it, so now Tubby is gone to Minnesota, and I've got news for the good folks at Minnesota who clearly haven't been paying attention to the details at Kentucky: Unless Tubby changes his ways, he'll flop at Minnesota. I mean, he'll be a complete and total failure. If he couldn't attract marquee players at Kentucky -- Kentucky for God's sake -- how is he all of a sudden going to bring them to maudlin Minnesota? [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Kentucky is one of the top three coaching jobs in college basketball, right up there with North Carolina and Duke. And Tubby recruited like he was at, well, Minnesota. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Now he is at Minnesota, which isn't one of the top three coaching jobs in the Big Ten. Or one of the top six. In the Big Ten alone, the Minnesota job is behind Ohio State, Michigan State, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, and probably on par with Iowa. If I'm right about that -- and I'm right -- that means Minnesota is seventh or eighth among the basketball programs in its conference, ahead only of Purdue, Penn State and Northwestern. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] So who here believes uninspiring Tubby Smith is going to do at Minnesota what he couldn't do at Kentucky -- which is to say, overachieve? [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] At Kentucky, Tubby underachieved. There's not a lot of debate about that one. In the smaller sense he overachieved with this team, because his 2006-07 squad didn't have blatant NCAA Tournament talent and yet Tubby got the Wildcats there with ease. But he's at Kentucky, not Toledo. With so much wind in his sails at Kentucky, he should have had Duke-like talent. UNC-like talent. Not the dreck he was starting at point guard and power forward. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Tubby was a victim of himself, of his own confidence. He's so good at X's and O's -- and he is really, really good with a clipboard -- that he thought he could hire whoever he wanted for his staff and be able to get it done. And the evidence is overwhelming that he could not. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Look at Tubby's resume. There have been times in his career when he has won big, but those times almost always were with someone else's players. He was at Tulsa for only four years, which means he was winning for most of that time with someone else's recruits. He was at Georgia for just two years, which means he won completely with someone else's players. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] At Kentucky he won his national championship in his first year, with Rick Pitino's roster. In the last two years, stuck with players that were signed solely by Tubby's staff, Kentucky lost a total of 25 games. That's not Kentucky. That's Kennesaw State. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Tubby has turned his coaching staff into an old boys' club, hiring only cronies. Tubby worked with David Hobbs at VCU in the mid-1980s. He worked with Scott Rigot at
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]South Carolina in the late-80s. He coached Reggie Hanson (as an assistant) at Kentucky in the early 90s. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Clearly the key to working for Tubby isn't your ability. It's having worked with Tubby before. That's the kind of myopic world-view that can get you fired, which is what would have happened at Kentucky as soon as the inevitable NIT season happened, possibly as soon as next season. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Meantime, Kentucky fans were going nuts. Around the country they have been perceived -- and they will be perceived in the coming days, mark my words -- as out of control, ungrateful, cruel. Inside the state borders, though, UK fans saw what Tubby was doing to this gem of a basketball program. He was turning it into cubic zirconium. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Now he's Minnesota's problem. And Tubby will have problems at Minnesota, believe me. I'll hang him with his own words, because a few years back Tubby said something to the Dallas Morning News that should scare the absolute hell out of the state of Minnesota: [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] "All we promise (potential recruits) is an education and the opportunity to be part of the winningest college basketball program in America," Smith said in March 2005. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] At Minnesota, he'll promise recruits an education and the opportunity to be part of one of the worst college basketball programs in the Big Ten. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] He'll be fired by 2012. [/FONT]

 

[Thrillseeker]

A Few FACTS....

In 2001, Tubby accepted the Sou Car job and then backed out at the last second...2 years ago, he had similar conversations with VA...he was way, way, way, over his head at KY...he can go to some middle of the road program & go 22-12, win an occasional 1st round game, and live like a king with no pressure & expectations...also, he had to leave NOW - nobody would hire him next yr after Morris goes pro & he runs Ky from a national championship down to fighting for a freakin' NIT berth next yr...



Ky's Record the last 2 years vs. RP's 1st 2 years while on probation....

Won/Loss record:
Probation - 36-20 (64.29%)
Past 2 yrs - 44 - 25 (63.77%)

SEC record:
Probation - 24-12 (66.67%)
Past 2 yrs - 18-14 (56.25%)

Wins against ranked opponents:
Probation - 5-6 (45.45%)
Past 2 yrs - 3-14 (17.65%)


Tubby Achievements:

First UK coach to go 8 straight years without a final four.

First UK coach to have to play on Thursday in a SEC tournament since the expansion to the current 12 team format.

First UK coach to lose 10 or more games three years in a row and 4 of the last 7 years.

First UK coach to lose to Vandy in Rupp

First UK coach to be swept by Vandy in a season in 32 years.

First UK coach to lose 4 straight to a SEC opponent in 30 years.

Only coach to lose to Ole Miss at Rupp

Only coach to lose to Vandy twice at Rupp

Only coach to lose 4 home games to SEC opponents

More home losses than any previous UK coach

Most Double digit loss seasons of any UK coach.

First UK coach to not finish at least 2nd in the East since the SEC expansion

Most transfers and problem players of any UK coach

Never recruited a player to play in a final four in 16 years as a head coach

Fewest NBA draft picks of any coach with at least 5 years (only 2 1st rounders in 10 years)

47% of his recruits don't make their senior year(and not because of the draft..see above)

Current 6 game losing streak to Florida is a new record

Only coach with the overall #1 seed in the NCAA to lose in the 2nd round

Lowest average points scored per game since the 3 point shot was introduced.

Worst loss to Indiana ever (26 points)

Only UK coach to lose consecutive games to Kansas

Worst loss on Senior Day since 1919

Only UK Coach with a losing record vs. Michigan State (2-4)

Only coach to ever lose to a number 1 ranked team at Rupp

Only coach to ever begin the season ranked in the top 10 and finish the season unranked.

Worst average attendance at Rupp Arena for one season under Tubby (00-01 avg. 21,014) since

it opened in 1976.

Rupp Arena hasn't averaged 23,000 + since the 98-99 season

 

[slapshot]

great day for Kentucky :toast:


Minny will feel this way in a few years also hno:

 

[royboy_3831]

They should go after Calipari from Memphis.

Yeah I was thinking Calipari and Billy Donavan would be at the top of the Wildcats wishlist.

 

[WVU]

Billy Donavan is not going anywhere. Are you kidding me?

 

[royboy_3831]

Billy Donavan is not going anywhere. Are you kidding me?

Pretty sure I didn't say he was, but I don't think it's unthinkable that Kentucky would ask.

 

[Dawoofdaddy]

Why no mention of UMass coach Travis Ford?

He is a Kentucky guy.

Still new at UMass but UK is probably the dream job he desires.

 

[dr03]

once double t trent tucker gets on board with the gopher staff his recruiting power alone will make us a top 15-20 team. he got humphries to leave duke for minnesota and is good friends with michael jordan.