What Tubby didn't do

I'm getting tired of most of the sports media running down the Kentucky basketball fans and saying that the fans basically ran Tubby Smith out of Lexington with their unrealistic expectations.

Today, I heard Michael Wilbon on ESPN radio joining the crowd of UK bashers. It makes me mad when I hear these people regurgitating Tubby's statistics. Yes, I know that Tubby averaged 26 wins a season at UK. Yes, I know that Tubby won a national championship at UK. Yes, I know that Tubby won 5 SEC championships at UK. Everybody wants to talk about what Tubby did at UK, but nobody is talking about what Tubby didn't do at UK.

Let's face it, when Tubby inherited the job at UK 10 years ago it was arguably the most successful basketball program in the NCAA at the time. Tubby inherited a very good team with a very talented roster. Rick Pitino won the championship in '96, and went to the championship game in '97 with a team that was very beat up. Rick lost the '97 championship game in overtime with a team that probably would have won easily if they were healthy. Tubby took over in '98 and won the championship with the players that Rick left for him. Most everyone will agree that there has been a steady decline at UK ever since. Tubby did average 26 wins a season, but his UK teams hadn't been very competitive the last few years against ranked opponents. Tubby was winning games, but he was winning them against unranked teams. Consider this for a moment; When Rick Pitino left UK, he left a program that was sitting atop the college basketball world. There were only a handful of coaches in the country at that time who wouldn't have accepted the UK job if it was offered to them.

Tubby has now vacated a UK program that is not nearly as successful as it was when Rick left. The fans are the same fans that were there in '97. But, Tubby has left the cupboards pretty bare. There doesn't appear to be too many high profile coaches across the country banging on UK's door trying to get the now vacant coaching job. I think this speaks volumes. Everyone knows that UK will have to rebuilt because Tubby left it in a shambles. The roster is filled with average players, with the exception of Jodie Meeks whom I think has a bright future. Whoever takes the job probably won't win twenty games next year.

I had to laugh when I heard Rick Pitino try to defend Tubby a few weeks ago by saying, "that if Tubby was fired it would set the Kentucky program back 10 -15 years." I have to say that I agree with Rick wholeheartedly. You see, 10 years ago would have been the year 1997. As I said earlier, UK basketball was the most successful basketball program in the country in the year 1997. I wouldn't mind it at all if Kentucky was as successful next season as they were in 1998. Rick should choose his words more carefully.

Tubby was run out of Kentucky because of what he didn't do. He didn't recruit well, he was no longer competitive against other good teams, and he was unable to put a team on the floor that was fun to watch. He lost 6 straight games to Florida and four straight to Vanderbilt. He inherited a team that was a perennial top 5 and turned it into a team that was barely able to stay in the top 25. One could argue that Tubby wasn't even able to keep UK in the top 5 of the SEC.

The top 25 will be a good thing at Minnesota, but its not a good thing at UK.