Tubby Article

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When talking about leaving Kentucky:

“I don’t think it wore on me,” [Tubby] says. “Whenever you see successful coaches moving to other jobs, there’s usually something going on in the hierarchy (of the athletic department). That’s all I’ve got to say about that.”

Sorry if this is old news, but does anyone know what Tubby is referring to? I thought he had a good relationship with the AD at Kentucky. Any insights?
 

opinion here, and opinion only. AD probably getting heat from the "faithful KY fans" which created discension. That is my opinion only.
 

Tubtastic said:
When talking about leaving Kentucky:

“I don’t think it wore on me,” [Tubby] says. “Whenever you see successful coaches moving to other jobs, there’s usually something going on in the hierarchy (of the athletic department). That’s all I’ve got to say about that.”

Sorry if this is old news, but does anyone know what Tubby is referring to? I thought he had a good relationship with the AD at Kentucky. Any insights?
Click to expand...

The last 2 seasons of the Tubby Smith era at Kentucky were not considered successful.
Smith was asked to to make changes to his assistant coaching staff in hopes of improving
the situation. Tubby refused to dismiss any of his assistant coaches. You are correct that
Tubby and UK's AD ( Mitch Barnhart ) had a good relationship, but this refusal MAY have
been taken as a stubbornness to make the necessary changes to help improve the situation.
 

Tubtastic said:
When talking about leaving Kentucky:

“I don’t think it wore on me,” [Tubby] says. “Whenever you see successful coaches moving to other jobs, there’s usually something going on in the hierarchy (of the athletic department). That’s all I’ve got to say about that.”

Sorry if this is old news, but does anyone know what Tubby is referring to? I thought he had a good relationship with the AD at Kentucky. Any insights?
Click to expand...

Yes. No. Yes. To your last 3 sentences.
 


24KGOPHER said:
The last 2 seasons of the Tubby Smith era at Kentucky were not considered successful.
Smith was asked to to make changes to his assistant coaching staff in hopes of improving
the situation. Tubby refused to dismiss any of his assistant coaches. You are correct that
Tubby and UK's AD ( Mitch Barnhart ) had a good relationship, but this refusal MAY have
been taken as a stubbornness to make the necessary changes to help improve the situation.
Click to expand...

Not correct.
 

24KGOPHER said:
The last 2 seasons of the Tubby Smith era at Kentucky were not considered successful.
Smith was asked to to make changes to his assistant coaching staff in hopes of improving
the situation. Tubby refused to dismiss any of his assistant coaches. You are correct that
Tubby and UK's AD ( Mitch Barnhart ) had a good relationship, but this refusal MAY have
been taken as a stubbornness to make the necessary changes to help improve the situation.
Click to expand...

Here's the facts about his UK assistants. David Hobbs, Reggie Hanson, and Scott Rigot served as UK assistants from 2003 through 2007 seasons. UK was 131-40 (77%) with them as UK staff, winning 2 SEC titles, 2 SECT championships, 2 Elite 8, 2 NCAA #1 seeds, and #1 finish in AP poll (2003).

They signed the #1 recruiting class in 2004. Top 15 recruiting class in 2006. Top 20 class in 2003. Then #1 JuCo player (over Texas A&M and Billy Gillispie, his #2 choice) in 2005. And were primed to sign Patrick Patterson and Jai Lucas in the spring of 2007.

The BS about his UK assistants is pure hogwash. They were (and are) very capable coaches who had many good achievements at UK.

They are a Red Herring. (Kentucky fans are mostly Too Dumb to understand the meaning of RH)
 

FOT,

I'm not trying to rip these guys, but if Tubby's staff at Kentucky was so strong, then why didn't he bring any of them with him to Minnesota?

I can understand not bringing everyone, but he didn't bring a single one of them. And it wasn't as if he hired all these guys with Big Ten ties.

I think Tubby is a good coach and deserved to be treated better by fans in Kentucky. There was a 2OT loss in the Elite Eight to Michigan State and then the triple-double by D-Wade against Marquette. Those don't happen and he gets to three Final Fours. That's pretty darn good.

But defending his final staff is pretty difficult.
 

anonymous said:
FOT,

I'm not trying to rip these guys, but if Tubby's staff at Kentucky was so strong, then why didn't he bring any of them with him to Minnesota?

I can understand not bringing everyone, but he didn't bring a single one of them. And it wasn't as if he hired all these guys with Big Ten ties.

I think Tubby is a good coach and deserved to be treated better by fans in Kentucky. There was a 2OT loss in the Elite Eight to Michigan State and then the triple-double by D-Wade against Marquette. Those don't happen and he gets to three Final Fours. That's pretty darn good.

But defending his final staff is pretty difficult.
Click to expand...

I'll give U my opinion.

(1) He wanted Saul on his staff.

(2) He wanted a recruiter (VT) with Minnesota contacts.

(3) He wanted someone with HC experience (Jirsa) as his Associate HC.

The only one I thought he might bring was Shawn Finney. He didn't want to move up North.
 



Coach Smith is never wrong. Coach Smith never makes mistakes. It's always someone else's fault.


FoT should just copy and paste this to every post. It would save him and everyone else time.
 

The Truth said:
Coach Smith is never wrong. Coach Smith never makes mistakes. It's always someone else's fault.


FoT should just copy and paste this to every post. It would save him and everyone else time.
Click to expand...

Hogwash. As usual. How'd that Ole Miss game turn out?
 

We lost to a team on the road that played with immense effort and had a great gameplan. It happens.


It was nothing like losing in the second round as the overall number 1 seed or losing for the first time ever to Ole Miss in Rupp Arena. That stuff happened a lot more than many folks were comfortable with.


See how that works?
 

The Truth said:
We lost to a team on the road that played with immense effort and had a great gameplan. It happens.


It was nothing like losing in the second round as the overall number 1 seed or losing for the first time ever to Ole Miss in Rupp Arena. That stuff happened a lot more than many folks were comfortable with.


See how that works?
Click to expand...

Bring it. UK won 76% of its games the 10 years under OTS. And 43-14 in postseason (NCAA, SECT) games. UK has won 65% of its games since he left. 0-2 in postseason games.

I remember Tubby being the only UK coach to beat Duke in the past 30 years. Only UK coach EVER to beat UNC 4 straight and have winning (more W than L) record over UNC. On and on.

Gillispie leads in NIT record (2-1 to 0-1) and DUI arrests (2 to 0). Tubby leads everything else.
 



FOT, you almost always add a touch of humor in your posts, and I appreciate the chuckles you provided me with comments like the DUI reference. Thanks.
 

Dr.Don said:
FOT, you almost always add a touch of humor in your posts, and I appreciate the chuckles you provided me with comments like the DUI reference. Thanks.
Click to expand...

U R welcome.

Gillispie is a good, young (7th year) head coach.

Tubby is a better, veteran (18th year) head coach.
 

Have you noticed that The Truth's true colors come out when he gets in those pissing matches with FOT? He comes on here claiming to be a Tubby supporter, while he does nothing but bashes Tubby on the Kentucky boards. Obviously, he's trying to NOT get banned on here, however, his true colors come out when he starts going at it with FOT.
 

The Truth said:
We lost to a team on the road that played with immense effort and had a great gameplan. It happens.


It was nothing like losing in the second round as the overall number 1 seed or losing for the first time ever to Ole Miss in Rupp Arena. That stuff happened a lot more than many folks were comfortable with.


See how that works?
Click to expand...

Gillispie has loss to teams unimaginable like Gardner Webb, VMI, San Diego...all in Rupp Arena!!! It seems that those types of losses happen more than most UK fans are comfortable with. How's that working out? :D

Say what you want about Tubby, but you won't see him losing to D1 bottom feeder teams. With Gillispie...well, not so much.
 


People move on to new jobs for many, many reasons...can't we just leave it at that? A change sometimes is needed, Tubby saw that, and when the offer came (and it met his requirements) he took it. Plain and simple, it WAS time to move on for Tubby.
 

freshtrout said:
People move on to new jobs for many, many reasons...can't we just leave it at that? A change sometimes is needed, Tubby saw that, and when the offer came (and it met his requirements) he took it. Plain and simple, it WAS time to move on for Tubby.
Click to expand...

Bingo. Key factor is the rapport Tubby has with Maturi and Bruininks.

Just the reverse of his situation with Mitch Barnhart and Lee Todd.
 

Question to FOT and others who know Kentucky BB

I don't want to start a thread on this so I'll just try and hijack this one. What can you tell us about Tubby and the building of a practice facility at UK? I find this fascinating and would love to have some background to compare to Tubby's push to get a plush basketball practice facility built here.
 

Roy Christensen said:
I don't want to start a thread on this so I'll just try and hijack this one. What can you tell us about Tubby and the building of a practice facility at UK? I find this fascinating and would love to have some background to compare to Tubby's push to get a plush basketball practice facility built here.
Click to expand...

Tubby wanted one there (at UK) for many years. Finally UK started fundraising for it but was millions short before Tubby's friend (from Tulsa) Joe Craft, UK alum, donated the last few million $ for it.
 

Lost a really long post so I'm going to summarize my thoughts

-Like Coach Smith and was sorry to see him go. Was disappointed that he stayed around long enough to collect his 1.5 million dollar retention bonus and not fix the problems. I hope he cements his legacy by bringing another championship to Minnesota. I will counter baseless claims, malicious statements about folks or things that I feel don't illustrate the whole story. Most of those are not done by any REAL Gopher fan.

-Don't post on Catspause. Hasn't been a good discussion board since the KSR split some time back. Message boards give people a bad name.

-Kentucky basketball and Minnesota hockey are great parallels to draw. History and a legacy of excellence create expectations. Some people say that Don Lucia is only the third best coach in Minnesota hockey history? Is that crazy fan talk? I think the questions offer insight rather than the answers.

-There was a gradual degradation of performance and talent at Kentucky under Coach Smith. Whatever the reasons, he didn't want to stay to fix them. Dr. Todd and Mitch made him the highest paid coach in college basketball and gave him what he wanted in terms of facilities. He didn't seem to return the favor in terms of recruiting or on the court performance. Coupled with a lack of at least another Final Four appearance led to fan displeasure.

-Coach Gillispie has made mistakes. He's raw and still learning the ropes but has potential. Patience is not a virtue at Kentucky but it comes with the job. The talent level had to be rebuilt and it is. Some of the losses to teams we should beat are disappointing. A lot of current fan dissatisfaction comes from a feeling that Kentucky has lost some of its luster and that happened under Coach Smith's watch.

-Stereotypes are bad. Kentucky has provided a lot to this nation: Harry Dean Stanton, Louis Brandies, Happy Chandler, John Marshall Harlan, Alben Barkly, Clarence "Big House" Gaines and I could go on and on. Kentuckians are not all toothless, sister marrying rednecks. That's Tennessee.
 

Kentuckians are not all toothless, sister marrying rednecks. That's Tennessee.
Click to expand...

Your argument lost all credibility with this final statement. Everybody knows That's Wisconsin.
 

The Truth said:
Lost a really long post so I'm going to summarize my thoughts

-Like Coach Smith and was sorry to see him go. Was disappointed that he stayed around long enough to collect his 1.5 million dollar retention bonus and not fix the problems. I hope he cements his legacy by bringing another championship to Minnesota. I will counter baseless claims, malicious statements about folks or things that I feel don't illustrate the whole story. Most of those are not done by any REAL Gopher fan.

-Don't post on Catspause. Hasn't been a good discussion board since the KSR split some time back. Message boards give people a bad name.

-Kentucky basketball and Minnesota hockey are great parallels to draw. History and a legacy of excellence create expectations. Some people say that Don Lucia is only the third best coach in Minnesota hockey history? Is that crazy fan talk? I think the questions offer insight rather than the answers.

-There was a gradual degradation of performance and talent at Kentucky under Coach Smith. Whatever the reasons, he didn't want to stay to fix them. Dr. Todd and Mitch made him the highest paid coach in college basketball and gave him what he wanted in terms of facilities. He didn't seem to return the favor in terms of recruiting or on the court performance. Coupled with a lack of at least another Final Four appearance led to fan displeasure.

-Coach Gillispie has made mistakes. He's raw and still learning the ropes but has potential. Patience is not a virtue at Kentucky but it comes with the job. The talent level had to be rebuilt and it is. Some of the losses to teams we should beat are disappointing. A lot of current fan dissatisfaction comes from a feeling that Kentucky has lost some of its luster and that happened under Coach Smith's watch.

-Stereotypes are bad. Kentucky has provided a lot to this nation: Harry Dean Stanton, Louis Brandies, Happy Chandler, John Marshall Harlan, Alben Barkly, Clarence "Big House" Gaines and I could go on and on. Kentuckians are not all toothless, sister marrying rednecks. That's Tennessee.
Click to expand...

Earned the $1.5 MM bonus by coaching 2004 thru 07 seasons. Passed up larger bonuses that were due later if he coached a few more seasons.

Ditto on TCP. Only good UK website is A Sea Of Blue.

No comment on UK basketball vis-a-vis Minnesota hockey.

35-4. 28-9. 23-10. 24-10. 22-10. (132-43, 75.4% first 5 seasons)
32-4. 27-5. 28-6. 22-13. 22-12. (131-40, 76.6% last 5 seasons)

Signed #1 class in 2004. Signed #1 JuCo recruit in 2005. Signed Top 15 class in 2006.

Chuck Hayes, Kelenna Azubuike to NBA in 2005. Rajon Rondo in 2006. Randolph Morris in 2007.

Hardly gradual deterioration in performance or talent. You be the judge. Jay Bilas opined correctly. Many UK fans don't.

L to Gardner Webb, UAB, Houston, San Diego, VMI (etc) were due to lousy coaching by Gillispie.

Gillispie is 34-19 at UK. He inherited 22-12. Tubby is 38-17 at Minnesota. He inherited 9-22.

Stereotypes about Tennessee are every bit as stupid as those about Kentucky.
 

The Truth said:
-Kentucky basketball and Minnesota hockey are great parallels to draw. History and a legacy of excellence create expectations. Some people say that Don Lucia is only the third best coach in Minnesota hockey history? Is that crazy fan talk? I think the questions offer insight rather than the answers.
Click to expand...

That's because so far he is and it would be hard to top the Miracle Man and your arena's namesake. High expectations but we don't call for Lucia's head the way Kentucky wanted Tubby's.
 

The Truth said:
-Kentucky basketball and Minnesota hockey are great parallels to draw. History and a legacy of excellence create expectations.
Click to expand...

One major difference. Gopher hockey gets almost 100% of its talent from in-state, much like Texas football.
 

Kentuckians are not all toothless, sister marrying rednecks. That's Tennessee.

Your argument lost all credibility with this final statement. Everybody knows That's Wisconsin.
Click to expand...

Now that's just funny right there !

FWIW I think most if not all Kentucky fans are good reasonable people. Like here and elsewhere there is an outspoken group of fans that take things to an extreme. Sports, Politics, Religion, can bring out the best and worst in all of us in discussions.
 

So the facility was paid for by private donations rather than out of the school budget or funds allocated by the legislature? Is that the way it is done at most schools? Truth suggests the facility was given by the AD to Tubby but FOT suggests that Tubby was a major mover in getting the funds raised. When was the facility completed? How would Minnesota best go about getting a facility built? FOT does your work involve examining lots of statistics or is this more of a personal hobby for you?
 

Roy Christensen said:
So the facility was paid for by private donations rather than out of the school budget or funds allocated by the legislature? Is that the way it is done at most schools? Truth suggests the facility was given by the AD to Tubby but FOT suggests that Tubby was a major mover in getting the funds raised. When was the facility completed? How would Minnesota best go about getting a facility built? FOT does your work involve examining lots of statistics or is this more of a personal hobby for you?
Click to expand...

The Craft Center was done with private funds. I don't want to bore you with the history of the Kentucky Athletics Department but I will say that the AD before Mitch Barnhardt wasn't as dedicated to providing or updating facilities in any sport as Mitch is. Most of these projects are undertaken with private funds I believe. I know Florida's were as one of my Great-Uncles wrote a rather large check a few years ago to fund their basketball facility.


As far as statistics I refer you to Mark Twain on that account. Case in point: That number 1 Juco player? Washed out after a year due to drugs and partying after being in the doghouse with Coach Smith most of the year, ended up at Fresno State were he was involved in a robbery of a disabled person and got kicked out of school.

I'm not blaming any of Rekalin's poor choices or associations on Coach Smith but rather illustrating that without context stats are easily distorted or their value is highly overstated.
 

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