Couple thoughts on Tubby Smith, the Barn, recruiting, etc.
1. Take a look at the history of Tubby's recruiting at Kentucky and I think you can get a pretty good idea of the type of recruits that fit most comfortably with his coaching style/personality. While he had his fair share of top-end recruits, I would say that the problems/disappointments/drama (Rashard Carruth, Marvin Stone, Jason Parker, Randolph Morris, Joe Crawford, lesser degree Rondo) outweighed the successes with the true top-enders (Keith Bogans, Tayshaun Prince).
When you think of the prototypical Kentucky players during Tubby's stint, the names of Chuck Hayes, Cliff Hawkins, Kelenna Azuibke, Gerald Fitch, Jules Camara, Patrick Sparks come to mind. While some of these guys were very solid recruits (according to the numbers) others were overlooked or lightly regarded.
Even while recruiting at one of the true national programs, it felt from afar that Tubby was more comfortable and did better with the mid-level to lesser regarded recruits. He's not the only coach to operate like this-consider Bobby Knight, Gary Williams, Jamie Dixon, Bo Ryan. You can win and succeed with those type of players, but it may not be as flashy or consistently hitting the heights that occurs in other locales.
2. How many programs are truly national programs, able to recruit and procure players seemingly at their will, no matter the locale? I don't need all my fingers to count them out-UNC, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, UCLA, Indiana, Syracuse, UConn, Michigan State. You have upstarts such as Ohio State, Villanova, Texas, Florida, Memphis, Washington, Baylor who are attempting to join those ranks.
As I see it, to break into these ranks you either have to establish or have established long term success on the court to be a national program. To join that crew, you have to be able to recruit your backyard extremely well (such as Izzo at Michigan State) or find a way to strike out nationally.
So how do head coaches at Texas, Baylor, Washington, Kansas State, etc., with limited college bb history/success break those ranks? With top flight talent. How do they get that talent? By establishing relationships, one presumes with AAU coaches, talent brokers, siblings, etc. etc.
I'm certainly not an insider, but I've read enough to figure out that Tubby Smith is one of the very few coaches who doesn't play this game with the AAU coaches/talent brokers. So, if he's not playing the game (which I admire), how is he going to get the elite talent that's wrapped up in the twisted system? He's likely not going to. He's going to have to rely on getting homegrown/midwest talent (Williams, Coleman, R. White, Mbawke, Eliason, Iverson) and players with pretty solid family backgrounds/basketball background (Austin Hollins, Sampson III, perhaps Andre Hollins).
3. While a new practice facility is likely to come in very handy in future recruiting, as with others I don't see a new arena to automatically open the doors to McDonald's All-Americans unless Tubby starts recruiting differently. One need to look out the front doors of Williams Arena to see that a new stadium/arena does not overcome everything. And if you think a new practice facility or spanking new arena would have been the difference for Cory Joseph coming here, well. . .I think you need to examine the chummy relationship between the Findlay coach and Rick Barnes a bit closer.
