Tubby Smith to leave Kentucky for Minnesota

General111

Tubby Smith will leave Kentucky to take over the head coaching job at Minnesota, multiple sources told ESPN.com’s Andy Katz.

Let the coaching circus begin…

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111 Responses to Tubby Smith to leave Kentucky for Minnesota

  1. Astral Rain2 03/22/2007 at 4:34 PM #

    One difference- Tubby Smith is a good coach. He’s gotten results, and can still get results occasionally. His weakness is recruiting it seems.

    Kentucky is also one of the “Big Blues” so they are “allowed” to aim higher.

    That said, I wish him the best at Minnesota, unless it’s against us in an ACC-Big 10, or NCAA tourney matchup…

  2. choppack1 03/22/2007 at 4:42 PM #

    AR2 – I’d rather play against a Tubby coached team in the post-season than a Beilein coached-team – especially if you put Beilein at UK.

    Does Patterson play his high school ball w/ OJ Mayo? If that’s the same kid I saw in that one game, he seemed really raw and appeared to be about the 4th best player on the court.

  3. joe 03/22/2007 at 4:44 PM #

    Why exactly is Duke dependent on K? Don’t forget they did very well in the 60s too.

    Duke has been an elite team for 20 years now , that’s what they have over 95% of other teams.

  4. Gene 03/22/2007 at 5:09 PM #

    The name that my UK friend has been saying for the last few weeks is Jay Wright.

    He has ties to Villanova; he was either a player and / or assistant for Massimino and I think his wife’s a Villanova grad.

    He’s a great coach, who does wonders with whatever talent he has available.

    Not sure how much Kentucky would have to throw at him to pry him out of Philadelphia or make him take a look at another school.

  5. choppack1 03/22/2007 at 5:13 PM #

    joe – The question is – where they great before Coach K arrived? They were good – like the other Tobacco Road programs, but were squarely 3rd before Coach K had arrived. They are squarely 2nd now, and close to first.

    Some coaches make a program, some programs don’t need a great coach. While Coach K has built a dynasty at Duke – it remains to be seen whether he has created something that can be passed on when he retires. None of K’s protegees has demonstrated the ability to build something spectacular like Roy demonstrated.

    Is UConn dependent on Calhoun?

    Kentucky has won national championships w/ Rupp, Hall, Pitino and Tubby. Duke has won only w/ K. Keroliner has won w/ 3 different coaches. We’ve won w/ 2 different coaches. Kansas has won w/ 2 different coaches. UCLA has won w/ 2 different coaches.

    UCLA is an excellent case study in the value of a great coach. Because of Wooden – and I would argue strictly because of Wooden – they are an elite basketball program. Since he’s left, they’ve been to some final 4s and won at least 1 national title. Without him, I think they’re just another Pac-10 school in SoCal – probably similar to their middling football team.

  6. CarnifeX 03/22/2007 at 5:15 PM #

    Over/Under on the salary?

    $3.5M?

  7. chris92heel 03/22/2007 at 5:21 PM #

    Gene, we do know that Nova can’t come close to paying him what UK can and will.

  8. choppack1 03/22/2007 at 5:25 PM #

    Gene- Wright’s name keeps on coming up. Either he wants a raise or he can’t do what he wants to do in Philly.

  9. Cedarblockhead 03/22/2007 at 5:37 PM #

    I am telling you they will be chasing after the master of the PO.

    HERB SENDEK!!!11!!!

    They know talent when they see it. With the built in advantages at UK he will be making yearly trips to the sweet 16.

  10. class of 74 03/22/2007 at 5:40 PM #

    Wait a minute fella’s you all have been missing the obvious answer to UK’s problem. Man oh man, first we lose the Great Herbie, then the Great Chest and now may I promote my choice for the UK job. None other than “Mr. I Know Basketball” himself, yes our own Lee Fowler for new head coach at UK.
    He always wanted an SEC job and here it is. Go Lee, Go and the sooner the better!

  11. Gene 03/22/2007 at 5:44 PM #

    Didn’t say Wright wouldn’t take the Kentucky job. He has ties to the school he is coaching at, which would mean any prospective job offers would have to be very attractive for him to leave. He’s not actively looking to change jobs, from what I understand.

    Tubby was making about $2Mil per year and I don’t think they’ll pay there next coach less than Tubby.

  12. class of 74 03/22/2007 at 5:51 PM #

    My gut hunch for the UK job is one of their former players like Pelphrey, Ford etc. because all of the big guys are apt to get major bank from their present jobs just to ward off UK’s advances. UK’s fans put the UNC crowd to shame when it comes to pressure to win and win big.

  13. bTHEredterror 03/22/2007 at 6:08 PM #

    I bet they go after Donovan hard, cuz its the SEC and thats how they do things.

  14. tvp 03/22/2007 at 6:33 PM #

    Donovan would be absolutely insane to leave Florida.

    I might put Kansas in the UNC/UCLA/UK group. There is no reason they shouldn’t run the Big 12, and they do. I mean, Naismith coached there.

    I also agree on Duke. Let’s see how well Duke is thought of in, say, 25 years after K retires and Johnny Dawkins runs that program into the ground.

  15. Wolf-n-Atl 03/22/2007 at 6:39 PM #

    bTHEredterror- do you mean like us taking TOB?

  16. joe 03/22/2007 at 7:07 PM #

    Duke’s 3 national titles are less important because they were won with 1 coach? That’s really bizarre. What does it matter what coach K’s players have done at other schools as coaches? Only 1 of them is probably going to succeed K and that’s Dawkins. And it’s far from sure he’s going to be a bad coach.

    Duke won 6 ACC titles and went to 4 Final 4s before K was hired. They did not win a national title but they have 3 now.

  17. Gene 03/22/2007 at 7:21 PM #

    Wonder if Kentucky fans dream that they could pry their favorite son, Pat Riley, out of the NBA…

  18. CaptainCraptacular 03/22/2007 at 7:59 PM #

    *Okay. One more. From the KY board. I think this one was posted by *“cedargrovewildcat”.*

    *“Well, you so called “fans” really screwed us this time…”*

    Primacy. ROFL. Since no-one else has said anything.. props on that one.

    *Duke is entirely Coach K-dependent, not inherent to the program. Duke has nothing on myriad other schools (including NC State) without Coach K.*

    Have to respectfully disagree with you BJD. Duke has achieved what I would classify as success (Winning the ACC and reaching the NCAA title game) under 3 different coaches in 4 different decades. It doesn’t match Kentucky with 4 title winning coaches, but its not “entirely K-dependant” either.

    That said, I do agree with you that Duke doesn’t have the built in advantages of UCLA, UK, and UNC. Don’t have any facts to back this up, but I’d wager Duke can’t make as many academic exceptions that a UCLA or a UK may. And Duke’s upper crust prestige probably works against it or is at least a small factor when recruiting an inner city kid or someone who may feel alienated by the snobbery factor. How many city ballers has K recruited besides Hurley?

  19. buttPACKer 03/22/2007 at 8:45 PM #

    this is completely off-thread, but here’s a fun blog post from a WFU fan in reference to Tobacco Rd. Rivalry/ies

  20. buttPACKer 03/22/2007 at 8:45 PM #

    sorry, here it is :

    http://ogb.wfu.edu/?id=4234_0_7_0_M

  21. PurplePeopleEaters 03/22/2007 at 8:49 PM #

    Kentucky will have a rebuilding year next year just like we did but will show tons of promise etc. This is almost an exact herb sendek situation.. it’s almost eerie.

    Fans tired of overrated coach with decent success at premier program.
    Fans voice displeasure in form of “lunatic fringe”.
    Coach has decent season earning a middle of the road bid in the NCAA.
    Team wins first game of tournament only to lose to high seeded team in 2nd round.
    Coach goes under scrutiny.
    Coach bails to lesser program that will likely finish at the bottom of a big conference leaving old program with open opportunites.

    Very strange how similiar it is.

  22. Rick 03/22/2007 at 9:13 PM #

    Anybody watch the refs just give Memphis the win over A&M?

    Another Dukie gate except they took time off the clock.

    Refs are ruining basketball.

  23. Wulfpack 03/22/2007 at 9:19 PM #

    Interesting stuff:

    “Even The Wall Street Journal is into March Madness. It had an interesting article on Saturday entitled Good Coach, Bad Mentor. The author, Darren Everson, focused on successful college basketball coaches who are the best and worst mentors. Mr. Everson equates success in developing future head coaches with mentoring success.”

    “He makes a good point. The ability to develop future leaders is one of the hallmarks of great leadership. Mr. Everson identifies Rick Pitino of Louisville, Herb Sendek of Arizona State, Jim Calhoun of Connecticut, Jim Boeheim of Syracuse and Tom Izzo of Michigan State as the best mentors in college basketball. Tubby Smith of Kentucky and Billy Donovan of Florida are former Pitino assistants. Both have won National Championships. Jim Boeheim gave Pitino his first college assistant coaching job. Thad Matta of Ohio State, the 2007 Big Ten champions and a number one seed in this year’s tournament coached for Herb Sendek.”

    “Mr. Everson says that Roy Williams of North Carolina, Tubby Smith of Kentucky, Lute Olson of Arizona, Mike Kryzewski of Duke and Bobby Knight of Texas Tech are the worst mentors among big time college coaches. All have won the National Championship. Mssrs. Kryzewski and Knight have won more than one National Championship. In fairness to Mr. Knight, Coach K played and coached for him at Army. Mr. Everson notes that his former players have done better as head coaches than his assistant. Tommy Amaker, a former Duke assistant was fired by Michigan over the weekend. Quin Snyder, another former Duke assistant, was asked to leave Missouri at the end of the 2006 season. No former Williams, Smith or Olson assistant has had significant success as a head coach.”

    “Mr. Everson hypothesizes that college assistant basketball coaches don’t get the depth of training that their counterparts in other sports get. He cites Mr. Sendek who says, “in (college) basketball, assistant are more apt to get pigeonholed into narrow roles.”

    “Mr. Pitino seems to be the exception to this rule. Jeff Van Gundy, the current coach of the NBA Houston Rockets was an assistant for Mr. Pitino. He says that even though he was the fourth of four assistants, he was expected to devise game strategies for each opponent and help coach on the floor in practice. He also says that Mr. Pitino held coaches accountable for their mistakes in front of the entire team – “a practice that made the assistants uncomfortable, but is invaluable to their development.”

  24. blpack 03/22/2007 at 9:25 PM #

    Good luck to Calipari at UK. That will be the end of my pulling for them except when they play UNC-ch. Maybe UK will raid Texas instead.

  25. Champs 03/22/2007 at 9:50 PM #

    He has 1 NC and still got ran off. I’m ready to hear how awful the UK fans are now.

    I’m still waiting. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

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