Concerned Fans Press Release #1

CONCERNED FANS FOR

BASKETBALL

AN OPEN LETTER TO MINNESOTA BASKETBALL FANS
by Badboy and Posted February 14, 2010

As a long time Kentucky fan, I read with interest your column on the lack of development of the Minnesota basketball program and its players under Tubby Smith. Unfortunately, political correctness prevented the Kentucky and national media from being as candid as you. But perhaps even more enlightening was the fan division evidenced in the comments to your article, as they mirror the strife among suffering Kentucky fans over the last five years of Tubby's tenure.

Three years ago, when Minnesota thankfully eased our burden, the vast majority of Kentucky fans predicted precisely what you and many Minnesota fans are beginning to realize—that Tubby Smith is a mediocre coach who would elevate Minnesota to the middle of the Big Ten pack, with occasional short lived trips to the Big Dance. Any honest and critical examination of Tubby Smith's entire body of work leads to no other conclusion.

Prior to being hired as an assistant at Kentucky by a younger, more dynamic and more successful Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith had spent 16 years laboring in obscurity as a high school coach and as an assistant under pedestrian coaches at VCU and then South Carolina. But for this most fortuitous hire, few among college basketball followers would even know Tubby's name.

In his two years as an assistant at Kentucky, Tubby's lack of work ethic was obvious. He would arrive at his office at an hour he deemed early, only to find that Rick Pitino had already been at work for two hours. Yet, with the virtual overnight success of Pitino's rebuilding effort at Kentucky, his assistants became hot commodities sought by teams hoping to find an acorn who might duplicate his success.

Before Tubby arrived at Tulsa in 1991, that program was no stranger to conference titles and post-season tournament appearances. Yet Tulsa has gone to the NCAA tournament more times following Tubby's departure than it did in the school's entire history prior to Tubby's tenure. Yes, he took them to the Sweet 16 in 1994 and 1995 but, with the expansion of the tournament to 64 teams, a Sweet 16 only requires two wins against lesser opponents—not quite the accomplishment it appears.

In a feat that would be repeated later, Tubby went to Georgia in 1995, inheriting a roster including all-SEC players Carlos Strong, Shandon Anderson, and Katu Davis. After taking that team to the Sweet 16, and instituting his son as the starting point guard, Georgia was eliminated in the first round of the NCAA tournament the following year.

With Rick Pitino's departure for the Boston “green” and with no significant coaching resume, Tubby Smith was handed the reins of the crown jewel of college basketball. Tubby Smith inherited a team that had appeared in two consecutive NCAA Tournament finals and boasted a roster with four future NBA players. Kentucky won the national title that year, making Tubby forever a media darling. But it was mostly downhill after that.

Once again installing a son as the starting point guard, Kentucky lost ten games in each of the three seasons from 1999-2002, a feat that had never before occurred in the storied history of Kentucky basketball. Indeed, Kentucky was to be absent from the Final Four for the rest of the decade of Tubby's tenure, setting yet another Kentucky record.

From his nadir in 2003, Tubby Smith's subjected Kentucky to a decline from national relevance. Recruiting declined. Player development was absent. Second round exits from the NCAA tournament became the norm. He proceeded to establish the following dubious records at Kentucky:

*Set the school record for consecutive years (9) not appearing in the Final Four
*First coach to have 2 consecutive 10+ loss seasons.
*First coach to have 3 consecutive 10+ loss seasons.
*First coach to have 5 10+ loss seasons.
*First time failing to beat a ranked opponent since 1974.
*First time losing four straight to an SEC opponent since 1980.
*First time losing five straight to an SEC opponent since 1977.
*First time ever losing six straight to an SEC opponent.
*Most Home losses than any UK coach
*First season sweep by Vanderbilt in 32 years.
*First time since 1974 losing 4 straight to Vanderbilt and only the second time in UK history.
*First loss to Ole Miss in Lexington since 1927.
*First (and only) coach to have 4 SEC losses in one year in Rupp Arena.
*Most losses over a two year period (outside of probation) in UK history
*Worst home loss since 1992 (105-88 to Arkansas).
*Worst loss to Indiana ever (26 points)
*Worst Senior Day loss since 1919.
*First third place SEC finish since expansion.
*First fourth place SEC finish since expansion.
*First time going an entire regular season without beating a ranked opponent since 1974.
*First and Second time UK played on the opening day of the SEC Tournament since the league split into divisional play (1992).
*First time since 1936 not getting to the SEC tourney finals in consecutive years.
*First time since the NCAA tourney was expanded to 64 teams in 1984 that UK did not get past the second round in consecutive seasons.
*First time since the NCAA tourney was expanded to 64 teams in 1984 that UK did not get past the second round in 3 out of 4 seasons.
*First coach never to have either an athletic or academic All-American.
*Worst number of weeks having a team ranked #1 (1).
*First time (except probation) UK finished back to back seasons unranked since 1959-1961 (46 years).
*47% of players do not see their Senior year at UK.
*Fewest NBA draft picks of any coach with at least 5 years (only 2 1st rounders in 10 years)

Even the most successful coaches say that you cannot win without good players. That seems axiomatic to everyone except Tubby Smith. In his last years at Kentucky, recruiting was little more than an afterthought to Tubby Smith. He was always late recruiting top players and each year found Kentucky in a springtime scramble to sign the rest, after the best had already been taken. Repeatedly, top recruits openly stated that they did not want to play in Tubby's system, which is best described as “Plow Ball.” In his last three years at Kentucky, Tubby offered and was rejected by no less than 29 top forward prospects (I have a list). Tubby Smith simply does not like recruiting and the results are obvious.

The same pattern is being repeated at UM. One can go to any of the popular basketball websites and run a simple screen for players being recruited by Minnesota. The screen will be littered with three star players, with the top players having already committed to the competition.

Which brings us to player development. In these days of instant gratification, recruits are looking for a coach to can “get me to the next level,” regardless of whether they actually have that potential. To be fair, there are plenty of highly rated players who simply fizzle, regardless of the coach. But the road out of Lexington is littered with the carcasses of players whose obvious talent was never developed by Tubby Smith.

Only a handful of Tubby's players were actually drafted by the NBA. Even fewer enjoyed long term success. Most of his players who ultimately made it in the NBA did so only after languishing for several years in the NBA Development League to acquire the skills that Tubby did not develop. Many other talented players simply faded into obscurity. Perhaps most telling is the comment from Joe Crawford, who played three years under Tubby and one year under Billy Gillispie, who remarked that he owed his entire development to Gillispie, not Tubby. And we all know how Gillispie turned out.

Then there is his coaching staff. Successful coaches surround themselves with talented assistants who will complement the talents of the head coach and perhaps fill weaknesses. Not Tubby. His modus operandi is to hire cronies and family members who pose no threat to Tubby. His Minnesota staff is a perfect example. Ron Jirsa was Tubby's assistant at Georgia and was fired after a dismal performance succeeding Tubby (not a hard act to follow). Jirsa was again fired at lowly Marshall. Saul Smith's only experience, after dropping out of law school, was a short stint under Tubby's crony at Tennessee Tech.

The Tubby Smith aura is nothing but a media myth, the result of fortuitous circumstances and from winning a national title with an inherited team with four NBA players. In almost twenty years as a head coach, Tubby Smith has never taken a team of his own players to a Final Four. He never will.

In hiring Tubby Smith, Minnesota drank the Kool-Aid and bought the entire myth that is Tubby Smith. Now you are watching your program decline from not very lofty heights. Tubby may succeed in “elevating” Minnesota to a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten team with occasional, short lived NCAA tournament trips. But to expect anything more is to ignore history and keep drinking the Kool-Aid.

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