Dick Vitale: What happened?

[Log Mountain Boy]

I have always liked Vitale because he is so passionate and positive about college basketball. And to an extent I understand him being critical of Kentucky fans. But all of a sudden all you hear out of his mouth just sounds like hatred for UK.

Yesterday he said that the 1st day the new UK coach is hired will be his best day as UK coach and that it will all be downhill from there. Why would he say that?

The way I see it, we did not fire Tubby Smith or give him an ultimatum. Also a large part of the state still supported Tubby Smith and did not initially want him to leave.

His recent statements has really changed my views on a guy I used to admire.

[RockPride]

Yesterday he said that the 1st day the new UK coach is hired will be his best day as UK coach and that it will all be downhill from there. Why would he say that?

Because there is a degree of truth to it. The sky will be the limit when the new coach is announced...but they won't get to the Final Four next year, they will likey lose double digit games again....then it is a race to get the best recruits in, as quickly as possible... becuase that streak would just continue...then let's say the coach does win a title....he had better do it again within another 8 years...or the natives get restless again.

[newarkcatholicfan]

I agree with D.V. on this one.

[Log Mountain Boy]

Because there is a degree of truth to it. The sky will be the limit when the new coach is announced...but they won't get to the Final Four next year, they will likey lose double digit games again....then it is a race to get the best recruits in, as quickly as possible... becuase that streak would just continue...then let's say the coach does win a title....he had better do it again within another 8 years...or the natives get restless again.

 

The thing is, whoever we get to coach, atleast 95% of the fans will realize it will take a little time to rebuild. Also, what Vitale is not realizing is that while Kentucky can particularly be harsh when things arent going well, there is no better place to coach when things are going well. As Pitino said, its like Camelot.

[RockPride]

^ 95%? Come on....UK has more than 5% complete morons.

[02Ram54]

^ 95%? Come on....UK has more than 5% complete morons.

Nearly 4 times that number...

[RockPride]

^ Somewhere around 18% right?

[4chs]

^ 95%? Come on....UK has more than 5% complete morons.

 

Did any of you guys read the UL message boards early in the season? There were a very larger percentage wanting to fire Pitino this year.

[BANKSHOT]

Vitale is upset because he feels people in Ky were to hard on Tubby....but when Tubby was hired everyone in the country agreed that UK was the best job in the country....Now Vitale is saying that KY is a terrible job what happened in ten years? Are the fans more passionate and critical now than they were then...I dont think so...If you look at what Tubby walked into and compare that with what he is walking away from Dicky V or anyone else can see that UK's program did go downhill under Smith's tenure. What these guys need to remember is that Smith walked away...No fans, alumni, boosters or anyone else had anything to do with that but him. Tubby is a great solid man and mentor but is only a good basketball coach and KENTUCKY expects greatness. Six straight losses to Florida and four straight to Vandy is not greatness.

[02Ram54]

Did any of you guys read the UL message boards early in the season? There were a very larger percentage wanting to fire Pitino this year.

Yes I did, and no there wasn't.

 

There were a handful. If it were a big chunk of the Louisville faithful that wanted Rick out, I would have met a few of them. I never did.

[fieldhousekrayzie21]

^ 95%? Come on....UK has more than 5% complete morons.

I would say UK has about 10-15% of people that are irrational and have no idea what they are talking about.

 

Louisville is probably 89% moron though...:laugh:

[Log Mountain Boy]

^ 95%? Come on....UK has more than 5% complete morons.

 

Even the so-called morons who know anything at all about basketball will not expect much from UK unless we were to get some good recruits in for next year.

[IAmAFan]

People liked Hall, Sutton, and Pitino.............. Smith had problems the entire time he was here. After the NC there were always recruiting issues and there was always Tubby Ball. I liked and supported Smith until the last few years and it really wasn't from the losses. I understand you go up and down. I understand you can't sign every recruit. However, when you announce changes (running with Rondo, Crawford, Bradley) (major changes in recruiting) and they just don't happen what do you expect. Tubby saw his problems, said he'd address them and then didn't. That was by far the biggest problem I had with Smith. Bil.... I mean the next coach will not be liked by all, but if he's a good coach then he'll be more popular than OTS.

[IAmAFan]

Vitale is upset because he feels people in Ky were to hard on Tubby....but when Tubby was hired everyone in the country agreed that UK was the best job in the country....Now Vitale is saying that KY is a terrible job what happened in ten years? Are the fans more passionate and critical now than they were then...I dont think so...If you look at what Tubby walked into and compare that with what he is walking away from Dicky V or anyone else can see that UK's program did go downhill under Smith's tenure. What these guys need to remember is that Smith walked away...No fans, alumni, boosters or anyone else had anything to do with that but him. Tubby is a great solid man and mentor but is only a good basketball coach and KENTUCKY expects greatness. Six straight losses to Florida and four straight to Vandy is not greatness.

 

Orlando Tubby Smith and his inability to adapt and change happened.

[oldrambler]

I have always liked Vitale because he is so passionate and positive about college basketball. And to an extent I understand him being critical of Kentucky fans. But all of a sudden all you hear out of his mouth just sounds like hatred for UK.

Yesterday he said that the 1st day the new UK coach is hired will be his best day as UK coach and that it will all be downhill from there. Why would he say that?

The way I see it, we did not fire Tubby Smith or give him an ultimatum. Also a large part of the state still supported Tubby Smith and did not initially want him to leave.

His recent statements has really changed my views on a guy I used to admire.

Imo Vitale has a point to this statement. U.K. is considered the best program/job in college b.b. and continues to. I believe that what he meant was from the day that a coach is hired, the so called U.K. fans/bashers are just waiting with baited breath to jump on anything for any reason. There are FAR more what I call (True) U.K. fans than the so called bgp 18% of idiots. This MINORITY are simply the most vocal and make the biggest badonkadonk of themselves, therefore casting a "black eye" on all U.K. fans. I mean, OTS won a NC in his first season at the helm and when he didn't repeat the next year - it was "he won it with Pitno's players" :irked: the bashing started and just steamrolled from that point on.

 

ALL schools have their pct. of idiot fans, NO ONE is immune to it, U.L. and Duke just to name a couple certainly have their idiot fans on here as do all teams/schools. I would rather hear critisizm of U.K. fans from the U.K. fan base itself than from self proclaimed U.K. haters that have posted on this thread. Their (U.K. haters) opinion doesn't carry much weight with me. Yes, U.K. has the number of idiot fans that happen to be a minority of the fan base, just the most vocal and thus cast that image on all U.K. fans. As for the self proclaimed U.K. haters..............my advice would be to take care of your own house before commenting on anyone else's:rolleyes: . As for the ones that claim to love U.K. and wait with baited breath to jump on anything and anyone ant any opportunity, imo you are doing much more harm to the program that you claim to be a fan of than good.

 

JMO.