Concerned Fans Tubby on SEC Team To Beat

CONCERNED FANS FOR

BASKETBALL

TUBBY SMITH, LEE TODD, AND MITCH BARNHART
COMMENTS ABOUT THE UK FAN BASE

Selected quotes from Coach Tubby Smith, AD Mitch Barnhart, and President Lee Todd aimed at blaming the fan base for Tubby Smith's failures at Kentucky:

“anyone who calls for someone's job is a sick person”
Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith. Tue, Mar. 7, 2006 PTI TV show

"And those same people who are calling for my job, were calling for it before I even got the job. So that's the way it goes."
Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith. Tue, Mar. 7, 2006 PTI TV show

“Those who truly are Big Blue fans have the University's best interest at heart and will abstain from anything that would harm the University.”
Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart. Mon., Jul. 31, 2006 UKathletics.com

“There is much written, talked and rumored about this basketball program.”
Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart. Mon., Jul. 31, 2006 UKathletics.com

"I'm worried somebody might try to string me up," the UK coach said before easing the awkwardness by adding, "Clothes that rip off, that's what I try to wear."
Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith at Kentucky Basketball Tip-Off Luncheon. Reported in LHL Sat, Dec. 16, 2006

"I'd never be here now if I wasn't," he said. "I'd be long gone. This is like water off my back.”
Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith. Reported in LHL Sat, Dec. 16, 2006

"When asked why he believed UK fans booed, Todd said, "I'm not sure I can diagnose the fan base.”
University President Lee Todd. Sun, Dec. 24, 2006 LHL

Notice Todd uses the word “diagnose” knowing full well Tubby Smith characterized anyone that wanted someone fired as “sick.” Also note that Todd's remarks were published on Christmas Eve. I guess that was his "present” to the fan base.

Notice Tubby's attempts to characterize those fans who oppose his tenure in racist terms including the a potential "lynching" and the assertion that those who do not want him here now did not ever want him here.

Thank you Tubby, Mitch and Lee for clarifying for all UK fans how you regard the value and integrity of the Big Blue Nation.

Over the many decades of success that the UK Basketball program has enjoyed, one of its distinguishing characteristics has been a fervent and loyal fan base. That fan base, affectionately named the Big Blue Nation, has been the envy of all other programs. Tubby Smith has succeeded in driving a wedge into the Big Blue Nation, and the fan base has never been so divided over any issue like it is now divided over Tubby Smith. The ability of this program to regain its national prominence and success will depend, in part, upon the restoration of this fan base. Yet, these comments by Tubby Smith, Mitch Barnhart, and Lee Todd indicate a disdain for the Big Blue Nation; a disdain that seems driven by an elitist attitude.

What we have seen from UKAA in these statements is an attempt to deflect responsibility away from themselves and cast our fan base as overly demanding, unfairly critical, and "sick" if they do not believe in what UKAA is telling them. Look at Barnhart's quotes. His are the most slickly done. What he is basically saying is that you are not a Kentucky fan if you are critical of the sorry job they are doing.

"Those who truly are Big Blue fans have the University's best interest at heart and will abstain from anything that would harm the University."

That is right out of the Joseph McCarthy playbook as this passage illustrates:

The Korean War (1950-53) was, however, largely coincidental with the so-called McCarthy period (1950-54), when the search for persons suspected of disloyal intentions became a witch-hunt, which seemed to revive the common law idea that it was treasonable merely to “compass or imagine” an act against American interests or institutions, or what Senator Joseph R. McCarthy construed as a disloyal subversive, communist, or un-American act. In addition to conventional criminal law prosecutions, there were federal and state hearings, employment security checks, loyalty oaths, blacklistings of members of “front” organizations, legislative enactments, administrative proceedings (e.g., by the Subversive Activities Control Board), grand jury investigations, registration requirements, listings of organizations—allegedly subversive— by the Attorney General and the House Un-American
Activities Committee, restrictions on the right to passports, and prosecutions for perjury and making false statements or affidavits. The McCarthy period did not generate an intensified patriotic fervor; it generated mutual suspicions which affected obscure men and persons holding the highest positions and rocked churches no less than labor unions.

The effect on the Kentucky fan base is exactly the same. We are divided by suspicion and certainly their quotes and actions have not generated an "intensified patriotic fervor" like they foolishly imagined they would by creating their little "loyalty test" whereby if you criticize the program you are not a Big Blue Fan.

These are incompetent imbeciles that are naive of history and reckless in their custody of something so grand as Kentucky Basketball. Not only are they destroying the program, but they are mocking us every step along the way. "We're the ones that know what we are doing" is the message and "You must be sick" is the punishment.

Submit to them or you are not a fan. Get back in line. Trust us, not your eyes. We know what is good for you.

Thank you Tubby, Mitch and Lee for clarifying for all UK fans how you regard the value and integrity of the Big Blue Nation. Whether Tubby Smith, Mitch Barnhart, or Dr. Lee Todd choose to read or ignore the internet, the Big Blue Nation does not ignore the internet, neither do members of the National Press.

READ WHAT TUBBY SMITH HAS TO SAY ABOUT WHETHER UK DESERVES TO BE RANKED IN THE TOP 25

READ WHAT TUBBY SMITH HAS TO SAY ABOUT
UK SCORING AVERAGES FOR 2006-07

READ WHAT TUBBY SMITH HAS TO SAY ABOUT
HIS TRAIN OF THOUGHT

READ WHAT TUBBY SMITH HAS TO SAY ABOUT UK BEING THE
TEAM TO BEAT IN THE SEC IN 2007

READ WHAT TUBBY SMITH HAS TO SAY ABOUT THE
IMPORTANCE OF WINNING AND LOSING

READ WHAT TUBBY SMITH HAS TO SAY ABOUT HIS FAILURE
TO PREPARE HIS TEAM PROPERLY TO PLAY MIAMI OF OHIO'S OFFENSE

READ WHAT TUBBY SMITH HAS TO SAY ABOUT
THE IMPORTANCE OF FINAL FOURS AND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

READ WHAT TUBBY SMITH HAS TO SAY ABOUT THE DEPTH POSSESSED BY
THE 2006-07 UK BASKETBALL TEAM

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