March 17, 200719 yr UK's Smith should leave before he's eventually fired http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=2802027&sportCat=ncb CHICAGO -- Fire Tubby Smith? How do you deep-six a guy who won you a national championship, who wins nearly eight of out 10 games he coaches, who gets rave reviews from his peers? How do you stick a buyout fork in a distinguished 10-year Kentucky career that has lasted longer than beloved (pre-Louisville, of course) Rick Pitino's tenure in Lexington and includes exactly zero NCAA penalties? You don't. You can't … except at Kentucky, where, said Wildcats junior guard Joe Crawford, "people expect us to be in the Final Four every year." Those expectations, no longer realistic in an age of Winthrops and George Masons, is why Smith should think long and hard about a change in hoops venue. That's right: He should think about walking away from Kentucky before Kentucky walks away from him. He won't, of course. He can't. To resign at season's end would be, in the Tubby universe, the same as admitting defeat. He would be giving in to the growing number of vocal critics who ask -- no, demand -- why the winningest program in the history of Division I basketball can do no better than a No. 8 seed (for the second consecutive season) and a 67-58 grinder win against a flawed Villanova team Friday evening in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. If you know anything about Smith, you know he is genetically incapable of signing that sort of resignation letter. Pride, stubborness and a will as strong as a steel I-beam are part of his personality DNA. They'll have to fire him first. And if his program doesn't start producing some signature wins and a few more rafter banners, they just might.
March 17, 200719 yr Quote of the day: Ten years at Kentucky are like dog years at almost any other program.
March 17, 200719 yr Tubby is happy with UK. This is where he wants to be. All the fans are to hard on Tubby. He is a good coach, he just needs to recruit better. If Tubby starts to recruit better players, everything would be perfectly fine. I look for UK to hire some new recruiters and keep Tubby around.
March 17, 200719 yr Tubby is happy with UK. This is where he wants to be. All the fans are to hard on Tubby. He is a good coach, he just needs to recruit better. If Tubby starts to recruit better players, everything would be perfectly fine. I look for UK to hire some new recruiters and keep Tubby around. Thats just it. He is recruiting, the problem is the good kids don't wanna come play for him. No NBA bound kid wants to play a slow boring offensive scheme and hard nosed D. 2 first round draft picks in 10 years is sickening...
March 17, 200719 yr ^ I think it is actually three (Prince, Bogans and Rondo) but nonetheless, still not too many round one draft picks. I think those are the three that Tubby actually recruited, maybe Magloire and Mohammed were round one picks too. Still not too impressive considering from the 1996 team there were three first round and one second and off of the 1997 there were two first round picks. Good example of the difference of players UK is getting now.
March 17, 200719 yr Thats just it. He is recruiting, the problem is the good kids don't wanna come play for him. No NBA bound kid wants to play a slow boring offensive scheme and hard nosed D. 2 first round draft picks in 10 years is sickening... I personally could care less about having players that are going to play only for a year maybe two.
March 17, 200719 yr This imo is another in now what seems like thousands of Tubby threads and I agree with c-a-t-s on the :sleep: :sleep: :sleep: :sleep: .
March 17, 200719 yr Author Hey I agree. But why go to sleep on my thread & not the 284629342364756 before mine. Maybe because the loyal UK fans know this article is telling the 234234525% truth & you can't handle it. Truth hurts don't it?
March 17, 200719 yr Hey I agree. But why go to sleep on my thread & not the 284629342364756 before mine. Maybe because the loyal UK fans know this article is telling the 234234525% truth & you can't handle it. Post deleted by cvillecat.
March 17, 200719 yr This imo is another in now what seems like thousands of Tubby threads and I agree with c-a-t-s on the :sleep: :sleep: :sleep: :sleep: . You don't mind twisting the knife into the sides of Duke fans in their threads or take pot shots at Louisville. But when a national columnist writes an article on Tubby, the best you can come up with is :sleep: :sleep: :sleep: ??? Like many Kentucky fans, if you can't take the criticism, then maybe you should counter with something more substantive than :sleep: :sleep: :sleep: . As far as Kentucky fans go, they should look no further than their own mirror to see what's wrong with the program.
March 17, 200719 yr You don't mind twisting the knife into the sides of Duke fans in their threads or take pot shots at Louisville. But when a national columnist writes an article on Tubby, the best you can come up with is :sleep: :sleep: :sleep: ??? Like many Kentucky fans, if you can't take the criticism, then maybe you should counter with something more substantive than :sleep: :sleep: :sleep: . As far as Kentucky fans go, they should look no further than their own mirror to see what's wrong with the program. I just looked in my mirror:scared: Don't really see how I have any impact on the program at UK. Maybe you should elaborate on your last sentence Fletch.
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