Dick Vitale: What happened?

[Lone Wolf]

Let's face it. Tubby just didn't get the job done in recent years. His early years were his glory years when he inherited Pitino's players.

 

His failure to adapt, and failure to recruit the top players (by his own admission he hates recruiting !) was not up to standards for the highest paid college basketball coaching job in America. We're not talking mid-range or good paid coaches jobs --- we're paying him the most and he had ten great years on the UK gravy train and took plenty of lettuce out the door with him when he left.

 

Furthermore, he walked directly into a fat paying job of some 1.4 mil per year, so who in the world was unfair to the Tub !!? He took the cash and left us with the mess to clean up.

[gametime]

Let's face it. Tubby just didn't get the job done in recent years. His early years were his glory years when he inherited Pitino's players.

 

His failure to adapt, and failure to recruit the top players (by his own admission he hates recruiting !) was not up to standards for the highest paid college basketball coaching job in America. We're not talking mid-range or good paid coaches jobs --- we're paying him the most and he had ten great years on the UK gravy train and took plenty of lettuce out the door with him when he left.

 

Furthermore, he walked directly into a fat paying job of some 1.4 mil per year, so who in the world was unfair to the Tub !!? He took the cash and left us with the mess to clean up.

Tubby wasn't the highest paid coach over the last few years...

[halfback20]

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.

 

They don't see through their blinders.

[gametime]

Remember Dickie V is a former coach and always will be in situations like this. So far it's been a positive for UK, but you have to expect backlash from the coaching community for what happened. It was ugly on all sides from that perspective...

[strongopenyon]

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.

Does it not make sense that Dickie V. thinks, and I have been told by a person very close to the program, that Tubby Smith was in fact fired by Mitch Barnhart.

 

Fortunately, Tubby had already been working on another job and landed it quickly.

 

This is why Vitale has been so outspoken against Kentucky's over zealous fans and administration.

[SMOKEANDMIRRORS]

Dick Vitale all year bashed the UK fans and people for driving him out, BUT when the Villanova match up came up on Sunday.. he said on the selection show "The Kentucky people are mad now, wait till the see Nova." I think he is losing it.

Its called Dementia.

[Big Game Player]

At any level if a team or place is use to winning then thats what they demand, well Kentucky demands greatness year in and year out since we are the winningest program of all time....simple as that. If the coach now cant do it(tubby , Biily D or even Pitino) and keep our expectations where they need to be then we'll get someone else, simple as that because they are a coach somewhere, someday that will make the puzzle complete sooner or later and we have the souces to do so.

 

As far as Dick V. , IMO hes never been a consistant Kentucky fan except when they are winning titles, also known as bandwagon jumper. He stays right beside any Duke or NC team and particularly around ACC teams(which most the time are good teams). He bashes KY fans becasue he blames them for running out Tubby. Even he knows that if Billy D comes to KY then his ACC teams better watch out year in and year out. Dicky V knows Billy D's coaching and UK basketball could be another bad result for any ACC team. Billy D is doing a great job at Florida, just imagine if he had UK's resources in the basketball field instead of always having to wait till football season is over and still cant get any fans. I always listen to Bilas, Phelps or Kellog anyway.

I think Dicky V needs to go eat some more delivery pizza...lol

[4chs]

But the guy that really matters, Jurich, stood by his guy and declared that "Rick Pitino will be the coach at UofL for as long as he wants to, period". To the contrary Barnhart flip-flopped around until Tubby decided to get out of Dodge. I'd say the "Boot Pitino" fans were out-numbered 10-1 by the "Tubby Bashers".

 

The 10-1 ratio could be right, which only means that the percentage of each team's fans with unrealistic expectations would be about the same. I would venture that around 40-50% of the posts made in late Dec. and early Jan. were negative concerning Pitino's job performance with many stating that Jurich needed to pull the plug.

[GulfCoastTyrant]

Blah, blah, blah....

I heard Dickie V all weekend.

 

26 wins a season baby.

26 wins a season.

 

ugh.

 

26 wins a season.......against inferior competition.

 

LOST to all ranked opponents this year!!!

 

I have said it before.

 

A 10 loss season

A 10 loss season

A 10 loss season

A 10 loss season

A 12 loss season

A 13 loss season

 

And can't beat Vandy, Florida, UNC, Kansas, Michigan State, Georgia swept Uk just recently, UCLA, Memphis,

[h.s.sportsrbest]

All of these comments about how much Tubby was making are funny. It's the business of College Basketball, he was paid to scale for a program that went to 4 Elite 8's in 10 years.

 

If they pay the "next coach" twice what Tubby was making, does that mean he has to make 8 Elite 8's in 10 years? Wow, that'll be tough.

 

Outside of Tubby's last two years (when they still made the NCAA and won their first game), it is hard to find much fault with his tenure.

 

The guy made the mistake of following a legend, and like Joe B. Hall, Mike Davis, and Bill Guthridge, etc., he never would measure up in a certain portion of the fans' eyes.

[hardball]

Vitale simply talks too much. Seniority does not give someone the right to spout on and on like he does. His ideas and opinions that actually make sense (which are becoming fewer and fewer), consistently get overshadowed by his babbling.

[IAmAFan]

Blah, blah, blah....

I heard Dickie V all weekend.

 

26 wins a season baby.

26 wins a season.

 

ugh.

 

26 wins a season.......against inferior competition.

 

LOST to all ranked opponents this year!!!

 

I have said it before.

 

A 10 loss season

A 10 loss season

A 10 loss season

A 10 loss season

A 12 loss season

A 13 loss season

 

And can't beat Vandy, Florida, UNC, Kansas, Michigan State, Georgia swept Uk just recently, UCLA, Memphis,

 

 

0 wins against talent and several losses to inferior teams. That and no improvemenent in sight for OTS at KY? He bailed because he wanted to stop the bleeding before he made the program 100% trash.

[02Ram54]

The 10-1 ratio could be right, which only means that the percentage of each team's fans with unrealistic expectations would be about the same.

Actually, it's closer to 4-1 statewide in basketball. Just 2-1 in football, although that number is a little bogus because I would say that the missing 25% compared to the basketball numbers are UK fans that root for Ohio State in football. :thumb:

 

Per the infamous "18 Percent" article:

 

The survey of 1,281 adults in Kentucky, conducted Feb. 16-28, confirmed UK's overwhelming support among people who said they were very interested or somewhat interested in college basketball and football. The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.

 

Kentucky is a blue state. The Wildcats were the favorite basketball team of 67 percent of those fans, with 17 percent rooting for UofL. Subtracting the Jefferson County numbers, UK's edge swells to 75 to 8.

 

Jefferson County, however, is resoundingly red. The Cardinals hold a solid majority, with 57 percent choosing UofL as their favorite team to 33 percent for UK. It's a margin that was larger than even some at UofL expected.

 

"When I came here, I was told that the fan bases in Louisville were pretty similar," UofL athletic director Tom Jurich said. "I take the results in Jefferson County as a sign of progress for us, and we're really happy with the numbers from out in the state."

 

Said Johnny Wayne Cox, a UofL fan from Jeffersontown: "A lot of people are jumping on UofL football in the city, and (coach) Rick Pitino has the basketball going. I think there's a lot more UofL fans in the city right now."

Cox and Franklin were among the poll respondents who agreed to follow-up interviews.

 

UK holds a similar but less substantial edge in football statewide, 41-20, while UofL football was the favorite of 61 percent of respondents in Jefferson County, compared with 21 percent for UK.

 

UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart said that overall, "Those numbers are consistent with what you see as you travel throughout the Commonwealth. So there's nothing surprising about them. UK has the best fan base in the nation, not just in numbers but also in terms of passion. ...Keeping up with UK sports is a part of Kentucky's culture."

 

And because it can't be posted enough...

 

For the most part, fans of both UK and UofL see the other as their team's biggest basketball rival, with 66 percent of UofL fans picking the Wildcats and 49 percent of UK fans picking the Cardinals.

 

But 18 percent of UK fans picked Duke as the Wildcats' biggest rival, followed by Tennessee with 6 percent and Indiana and North Carolina at 4 percent each.

 

"That, to me is the most surprising number," said Pitino, who coached at UK for eight years. "When I was coach at UK, it was beat UofL, and then beat Indiana. So that's a change."

 

Behind UK, 16 percent of UofL basketball fans picked Cincinnati as the school's biggest rival, while seven percent chose Memphis.

[UKMustangFan]

I've been one of the few on this site that hasn't liked Vitale for some time. His recent antics of overgeneralizing the UK fanbase make me loathe him. The next time he shows up in Rupp Arena, whenever that may be, he will be showered with boos and I'm going to absolutely love it.

[h.s.sportsrbest]

He bailed because he wanted to stop the bleeding before he made the program 100% trash.

Keep telling yourself that....

 

Two bad years and we see comments like "100% trash", that is priceless.