My opinion would be that Donovan wouldn't live up to the expectations of half the UK fans. It's alway going to be half of the fans happy and the other half mad. It's never going to change, when Pitino was here half the people hated him the other half loved him until he wins a championship then everyone wanted on the wagon. Tubby comes in fans create a special statistical category just for him "10 loss Tubby". Coaching at UK is a no win situation unless you never lose, it's that simple. Until this past season, you could make a new category for Billy D too "1 and Done Donny"

 

What makes everyone think Billy D wants to come to UK?

Because the fact that he mentioned he was interseted in UK. If the job came open.

Pitino recommended Donovan, and all the players supported the choice, but Newton decided they would "look" for a coach and then they hired Tubby. You can check some of the internet sites and there is stuff about it. When I get a spare minute, I will search it up and provide a link.

No, Pitino said he thought Tubby would be the best coach for UK...

No, Pitino said he thought Tubby would be the best coach for UK...

 

Here C-A-T-S... Straight from the "paper."

 

 

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Rick Pitino recommended University of Florida coach Billy Donovan to be his Wildcats successor Tuesday, and Donovan got the endorsement of UK players, as well, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

 

Sources said Pitino advised Kentucky Athletic Director C.M. Newton, to go after the 31-year-old Donovan, whom he coached to stardom at Providence and groomed as an assistant on his UK staff from 1988-94. Pitino has said many times that nobody, player or coach, knows his up-tempo, pressing system better than Donovan.

 

Later Tuesday, the seven returning Wildcats players reportedly met as a team and by a 5-2 vote favored Donovan as Pitino's replacement.

 

Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley said Tuesday night that he had not been contacted by UK officials regarding permission to speak with Donovan, who went 13-17 in his first season with the Gators.

JMO I don't think Billy D. or anyone would live up to expectations that we set in Kentucky for a coach. Its quite possible that we would be in a similiar or worse situation if he had taken the position. If you think about it Tubby & Billy were both assistant coaches under Pitino. The only difference between the two is Tubby is older and has more experience coaching.

 

I can remember when Pitino had first come to UK. He was a guest on a talk show and they asked, "How do you like Ky?" He replied, " I didn't realize there were so many coaches in Ky til I got here."

Here C-A-T-S... Straight from the "paper."

 

 

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Rick Pitino recommended University of Florida coach Billy Donovan to be his Wildcats successor Tuesday, and Donovan got the endorsement of UK players, as well, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

 

Sources said Pitino advised Kentucky Athletic Director C.M. Newton, to go after the 31-year-old Donovan, whom he coached to stardom at Providence and groomed as an assistant on his UK staff from 1988-94. Pitino has said many times that nobody, player or coach, knows his up-tempo, pressing system better than Donovan.

 

Later Tuesday, the seven returning Wildcats players reportedly met as a team and by a 5-2 vote favored Donovan as Pitino's replacement.

 

Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley said Tuesday night that he had not been contacted by UK officials regarding permission to speak with Donovan, who went 13-17 in his first season with the Gators.

 

Would UK at the time want a coach who went 13-17 the previous year...I think not...

From everything I heard he recommened Tubby to be his succesor, so I dont know where that came from because this is the first I heard of this..

:thumb: I agree, that is everything that I had heard also (that he reccommended Tubby), and the purpose of this thread is??:confused:

Would UK at the time want a coach who went 13-17 the previous year...I think not...

 

But we're not talking about records, C-A-T-S. We're talking about Pitino recommending Donovan, which was in the "paper," so there goes the Tubby recommendation.

But we're not talking about records, C-A-T-S. We're talking about Pitino recommending Donovan, which was in the "paper," so there goes the Tubby recommendation.

 

This is the first thing any of us besides you have heard or seen of that had Pitino recommending Donovan and not Tubby. There are alot of articles and alot of sport reporters who have always said Tubby was the first one he recommended from the start, and that is why we hired Tubby so fast. I even heard in a interview from Pitino, him saying that Tubby was the guy he wanted to give the job too...My guess is Donovan might have been ONE of the choices but not the top choice that Pitino recommended, and they probably took a vote on the team with all the players on a few coaches that Pitino thought should replace him, and this florida newspaper just ran with it. However Tubby was the first and main guy Pitino wanted to replace him...

This is the first thing any of us besides you have heard or seen of that had Pitino recommending Donovan and not Tubby. There are alot of articles and alot of sport reporters who have always said Tubby was the first one he recommended from the start, and that is why we hired Tubby so fast. I even heard in a interview from Pitino, him saying that Tubby was the guy he wanted to give the job too...My guess is Donovan might have been ONE of the choices but not the top choice that Pitino recommended, and they probably took a vote on the team with all the players on a few coaches that Pitino thought should replace him, and this florida newspaper just ran with it. However Tubby was the first and main guy Pitino wanted to replace him...

:thumb:

My opinion is Billy D would have been fired around the turn of the century after failing his first few years. No 98 title or elite 8 in 99. Tubby, I firmly believe, is the better coach but Billly is the better recruiter. He would not have won with the players Tubby had and would have been Mercer-less in 98. I don't know how long everyone would have waited for him to attain the numbers he has now.

 

As for who found whom, I recall CM hired Tubby but Rick recommended Billy; but Rick tried to take credit for recomending Tubby to CM after Tubby won the title in 98. Then CM contradicted Rick and Rick backed down.

My opinion is Billy D would have been fired around the turn of the century after failing his first few years. No 98 title or elite 8 in 99. Tubby, I firmly believe, is the better coach but Billly is the better recruiter. He would not have won with the players Tubby had and would have been Mercer-less in 98. I don't know how long everyone would have waited for him to attain the numbers he has now.

 

As for who found whom, I recall CM hired Tubby but Rick recommended Billy; but Rick tried to take credit for recomending Tubby to CM after Tubby won the title in 98. Then CM contradicted Rick and Rick backed down.

 

My point of this is no one has ever heard until now that Donovan was the guy Pitino recommended, it has always been Tubby. If this was so true, I think we would hear about it from the announcers every game when UK plays Florida. I mean the announcers talked about how Brewer wanted to come to UK, so if this was true then I pretty sure they would have talked about it when Florida was beating us on how Donovan could have been here...

This is the first thing any of us besides you have heard or seen of that had Pitino recommending Donovan and not Tubby. There are alot of articles and alot of sport reporters who have always said Tubby was the first one he recommended from the start, and that is why we hired Tubby so fast. I even heard in a interview from Pitino, him saying that Tubby was the guy he wanted to give the job too...My guess is Donovan might have been ONE of the choices but not the top choice that Pitino recommended, and they probably took a vote on the team with all the players on a few coaches that Pitino thought should replace him, and this florida newspaper just ran with it. However Tubby was the first and main guy Pitino wanted to replace him...

:thumb: :thumb: I also believe that at the time it was a very short (one man) list that consisted of OTS. That, I believe came from C.M. Newton himself. "If" OTS would had turned it down I still don''t believe that Donovan would had been next in line. Point is, it was Tubbys job from the start.....................period.

My opinion is Billy D would have been fired around the turn of the century after failing his first few years. No 98 title or elite 8 in 99. Tubby, I firmly believe, is the better coach but Billly is the better recruiter. He would not have won with the players Tubby had and would have been Mercer-less in 98. I don't know how long everyone would have waited for him to attain the numbers he has now.

 

:thumb: I agree, very good points atticus.

Before Donovan won it all last year and before he finally won the sec (only the tourney in 05) all anyone did was say he couldn't win the big one. What about the Job Tubby has done. Since he got to UK he has won or shared the SEC regular championship almost every year. Not even Adolf Rupp won it every year. The coach has one subpar year last year and he's tomorrow's garbage? Give me a break. He can recruit obviously. This years Juniors were the #1 recuit class for 05. A coach can only coach he can't box out, make shots, free throws, rebound or make his players play any harder than they want to. All he can do is put them in position to make plays. Go TUBBY

Before Donovan won it all last year and before he finally won the sec (only the tourney in 05) all anyone did was say he couldn't win the big one. What about the Job Tubby has done. Since he got to UK he has won or shared the SEC regular championship almost every year. Not even Adolf Rupp won it every year. The coach has one subpar year last year and he's tomorrow's garbage? Give me a break. He can recruit obviously. This years Juniors were the #1 recuit class for 05. A coach can only coach he can't box out, make shots, free throws, rebound or make his players play any harder than they want to. All he can do is put them in position to make plays. Go TUBBY

:thumb: :ylsuper: :ylsuper: Great Post right here!!!!