Back In 2009 Dick Gabriel Of WKYT Lexington Said:
We had no way of knowing that Kentucky’s loss to Kansas in the 2007 NCAA Tournament would be Tubby Smith’s last game as the UK head coach. What has to be a bigger shock is just the suggestion that a loss to Creighton Monday night in the National Invitation Tournament could mark the end of the Billy Gillispie era as well.
How did we get here? How did it happen?
There are as many opinions as there are portals to the internet. And nobody has all the facts. We just know what we know.
Tubby Smith began thinking about an exit strategy long before that spring day, when he bolted for Minnesota. In fact, he himself told me Lou Holtz had advised him to get out, back when Smith was sending top-seeded teams to the NCAA tourney, in the early 2000’s. Holtz had learned first-hand, at Notre Dame, what it was like when the cheering ebbs. Get out while you’re ahead, he counseled Tubby.
What made Smith think about a change of address in earnest was his desire to have his son, Saul, join his coaching staff. Everybody knows what kind of pressure he was under to make changes among his assistants, even after the 2004-05 season that saw him a rebound or two away from that elusive second trip to the Final Four.
Call it loyalty, call it stubbornness, Tubby dug in. But toward the end, sources tell me, he agreed to clean house (with the exception of Dave Hobbs) if he could bring Saul on board.
Trouble was, UK has an anti-nepotism policy, the same one of which former Athletics Director Larry Ivy ran afoul when his step-son, Rob Manchester, landed a graduate assistant’s job with the football team. (EDITORIAL COMMENT: BOTH Saul (2004) and GG (2001, 2002) Smith were grad assistants at UK under Tubby)
It’s understandable as to why Smith would want to hire his own son, who eventually did join him at Minnesota. I can relate; my own son, Jack, sometimes travels with me to sporting events to lend a hand. My daughter Kate often pitches in on the UK broadcasts at Commonwealth Stadium and Rupp Arena. I enjoy having them around, seeing as how just last week they were toddlers.
And if you read Gene Wojciechowski’s excellent piece in ESPN The Magazine a few years ago, you’d understand the special bond between Tubby and Saul. Tubby and Donna nearly lost Saul when he was very young to a medical condition requiring extensive surgery, instilling within them the fear no parent should have to experience.
Tubby also told the administration he would shake things up if he could get a contract extension (either one or two years, depending on whom you believe). With 25 losses in the past two seasons, he didn’t really have much of a chance there.
So upon hearing “No, thank you,” he became a Gopher, leaving behind a body of work that was far more impressive in the first eight than it was in the last two.
And that’s where I part company with Tubby Bashers.
Disguised Racism
They embrace the notion that the 1998 NCAA Championship was somehow tainted, or worthless, because Rick Pitino recruited most of the players. Funny, nobody ripped Roy Williams for winning a title with kids recruited by Matt Doherty.
And those same malcontents will tell you that the program has been going downhill from the day Smith was hired.
That’s where the racism buzzer goes off in my head.
And don’t kid yourself, it was there. From the season ticket cancellations the day Smith was hired to the cowardly, anonymous phone calls to the talk shows – a faction of UK “fans” made themselves clear.
That, to me, was far more disappointing than the events that led to the infamous Sports Illustrated cover, which included the headline, “Kentucky’s Shame.”
Even if you didn’t like his style of play (understandable, after the way Pitino’s teams got up and down the floor) you couldn’t argue with the results: five SEC championships, five SEC tournament titles, a single season that saw his team race undefeated through both the league and tournament (only to be done in by Dwyane Wade) and four trips to the Elite Eight.
It was the lack of another trip to the Final Four that was conspicuous by its absence. But had it happened, in ’99, ’03 or ’95, the haters would have found a way to dis that, too. So Tubby left.
