Concerned Fans Press Release #1

CONCERNED FANS FOR

BASKETBALL

RESPONSE TO COLUMN BY CHUCK HAMILTON

18 November 2006

Dear Mr. Hamilton, I read your column of Nov 17, 2006 captioned " Bashing the Tubby Bashers" http://www.maysville-online.com/articles/2006/11/17/sports/734bashingtubbybashers.txt .

Your column totally misses the point.

Why is it that 17 of the 37 players that Tubby Smith has recruited, and signed to play basketball for UK during his first 9 years have left the program prematurely with eligibility remaining? Surely, you don't believe that is normal for a typical college basketball program, or for those programs that have been able to maintain their elite status.

Only one of the 17 players who have actually fled went to the next level to play basketball, and if you recall Tubby Smith invited him to leave following last season, making him the public scapegoat goat for the turmoil that swirled around the UK program throughout the 2006 season. However, Mr. Rondo has been successful with his basketball endeavors at all levels, high school, prep school, international US team play, and now as a rookie in the NBA.

His only difficulties occurred during his time at UK with Tubby Smith.

If 2006 had been the only year in 9 that was marked by turmoil, it might be even plausible that Tubby's Rondo did it excuse could have merit. However, you and I both know that other Tubby Smith led teams have been troubled by similar turmoil. Rondo was not part of those other teams, and the only common denominator has been Tubby Smith.

Add to these events the obvious correlation that the higher the quality of the players on the team, the more likely that team will end in turmoil. Recruits now see this pattern as well, and the top recruits have connected the dots. They no longer are willing to place their basketball futures into Tubby Smith's hands. I am certain that opposing coaches are helping these recruits, and their parents connect these dots, but that is the competitive nature of this business.

The bottom line is that Tubby has now been through 3 recruiting cycles without finding a suitable replacement for Chuck Hayes and Kalena Azibuike. This UK basketball team is very thin and weak on the front line. So what has the impact been on the UK basketball program?

Eight consecutive years without a final four appearance. This is the longest stretch without a final four in UK history with a single coach, and after this season, it will be nine, and Tubby will hold the dubious record without any needed asterisk about spanning coaching changes. You also tell us in your column that we should not expect another final four anytime soon. Sadly, I agree with you because the current condition of the UK basketball program is not compatible with final four contenders.

It will take a few years after Tubby is gone before the next coach can restore UK basketball to this status. However, your suggestion that this is a natural outcome, affecting all programs in the same way is simply not supported by the facts. Did you know that over the last eight years seven programs have had multiple final four appearances, claiming seven of the eight championships. These elite programs are still dominating this sport. The problem is that UK is no longer even mentioned among the list of those elites as it always had been, prior to Tubby's arrival.

That may be acceptable to you, but it is unacceptable to the vast majority of UK basketball fans. Now, we have learned that UK Basketball's graduation rates for the most recent year for which data is available is 25% for 4 years, and 33% for 6 years. These graduation rates are well below the graduation rates for all University of Kentucky athletes for the same period for all sports [77%] and under half of the average graduation rate for all NCAA D1 basketball programs.

You will notice that this summary of Tubby's record does not include any technical analysis of the results that his teams produce on the floor. This data and the analysis of it could fill volumes and I won't bore you with those technical details at this time. Suffice it to say that as Tubby Smith has installed his program with his own recruits, the on-the-floor performance levels have steadily declined and the UK program is sliding toward mediocrity. There is absolutely no basis to believe that this trend will reverse anytime soon given his current inability to recruit quality players that an elite program must have to maintain its lofty status and his inability to coach at that level of competition..

Richard Cheeks
Concerned Fans For UK

Many Concerned Fans wrote Mr. Hamilton in the aftermath of this article, and Mr. Hamilton responded to this flood of correspondence this week in his column. READ IT HERE.

Needless to say, Mr. Hamilton did not respond to any of the specific points that Concerned Fans made to him, and only assured us all that he is a fan, is the objective one, and that Concerned Fans don't understand the game and have unreasonable expectations for this program.

Go Back

Did you know that Coach Smith's best offensive team was no better than Coach Pitino's average? To learn more, CLICK HERE