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. choppack1 03/22/2007 at 10:57 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.”

    Joe – you’re totally missing the point. No one is talking about importance, we’re talking about traditions and the elite programs of all time. At Kentucky, multiple coaches have won national championships. At Duke, it’s only one.

    Duke has a solid tradition, but clearly Coach K has changed everything there. He’s taken them from an above average school to the cream of the crop.

    Look at the other national powers – Kentucky, Kansas, Carolina, UCLA – and see if you notice a slight difference between these schools and Duke.

    Yea, Duke had a nice tradition, but at best it should have been a Stanford. If Coach K’s other mentors are any indicators, Dawkins won’t exactly tear it up.

    No doubt, coaches can make certain programs great. But some programs have advantages over others.

    Look around, there’s not a lot of smaller, private schools w/ pristine academic reputations that dominate college basketball. OTOH, Kentucky, Kansas, UCLA and Keroliner are fairly similar.

  2. BJD95 03/23/2007 at 12:28 AM #

    I’m not saying Duke is a BAD program without K, just not one of the “golden” ones. It’s in that next tier of 20 or 25 schools that have everything you need to succeed if you have a very good-to-great coach. But, it’s not a program that you need to be a complete idiot to screw up b/c of its inherent advantages (e.g., UCLA, UNC, and Kentucky).

  3. ktpritch 03/23/2007 at 6:37 AM #

    And so it begins:

    From Andy Katz:

    4. Tubby Smith is a smart guy. By leaving Kentucky on his own terms to take over at Minnesota, Smith showed a perfect sense of timing. It was clear that a large portion of Big Blue fans would never accept Smith despite all the success he’s had in Lexington over the past 10 seasons. Simply put, they don’t deserve him. And much like Herb Sendek, who finally got so tired of his hysterical detractors at N.C. State that he skedaddled for Arizona State, Smith decided enough was enough. Imagine that: It isn’t all about the money. (Good on UK, though, if the administration goes ahead and gives Smith the $1.5 million loyalty bonus that he was supposed to earn for staying through April 3.)

    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/grant_wahl/03/23/five.things/index.html

  4. ktpritch 03/23/2007 at 6:38 AM #

    Sorry…the above should be “credited” Grant Wahl

  5. joe 03/23/2007 at 8:08 AM #

    Every time a good coach is forced out by the fans the media is going to write the same stuff they did about Sendek – there is no bias against NCSU in that regard.

  6. noah 03/23/2007 at 8:18 AM #

    From waaay back: “Noah – do you not consider KY one of the “golden” jobs with inherent advantages over everyone else?”

    No. It has tons of history, but I don’t think it’s as great a job as some people think.

    I could certainly be wrong…

  7. Mike 03/23/2007 at 8:41 AM #

    Primacy, Classic!

  8. harrisek 03/23/2007 at 9:21 AM #

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

    If memory serves, Duke did make a Final Four appearence in 1978 a couple years before Coach K was hired. The coach was Bill “Gamecock” Foster (not to be confused with Bill “Tiger” Foster of Clemson).

  9. packof81 03/23/2007 at 10:02 AM #

    Sendek at KY … the idea …

    I listened to Vitale and Digger going on about Tubby’s departure last night. Digger says no coach should overstay their welcome. I didn’t hear a comparison to Sendek’s departure but they both thought Minnesota was the winner.

    As for KY being a great job, when I lived in Indiana, the joke up there was they teach 3 things in Kentucky. Readin’, Writin’ and Route 31 North.

  10. BoKnowsNCS71 03/23/2007 at 10:12 AM #

    It’s all fan expectations and there is nothing wrong with that. Tubby wins. Minnesota wins. KY wins. Sure the fans were not happy but no one was.

    Tubby can get a change of venue and recharge his batteries. Sometimes all programs have downturns. Maybe becasue the coach loses his edge or fire or maybe he loses his assistant coaches to HC jobs or maybe he is distracted by all the other things (like AMEX ads, coke ads, or coaching teams in the Olympic.)

    The question that comes to mind is this — was this season merely a bump in the road for Coach K or is this a sign of a worse year next year and an average one after that. Youth and inexperience and early departures are also having a significant impact on lots of the big programs like Dook.

  11. class of 74 03/23/2007 at 10:16 AM #

    ^Vic Bubas, an NCSU grad and former E. Case right hand man, began Duke’s tradition going to back to back Final Fours in ’63 and ’64. He set the bar at Duke and actually had a lot to do with pushing Duke’s expectations. Bill Foster as someone alluded to also went to the final four and lost to Louisville and Denny Crum. Anyone who says Duke B-ball is all Coach K is not over 35 years of age or doesn’t know Duke basketball history at all. I say this as I was a big time Art Heyman, Jeff Mullins, Hack Tyson, Denny Ferguson, Jay Buckley and crew fan as a kid growing up in the shadow of Duke Chapel. Later I got religion and followed other family members to the true basketball school, that being our own NCSU.

  12. noah 03/23/2007 at 10:50 AM #

    When people make out their all-time ACC lists, they often leave Heyman off. But he’s absolutely one of the all-time greats in the ACC. 25 points and 11 rebounds a game EVERY SINGLE YEAR.

    His numbers are basically carbon-copies of Lenny Rosenbluth’s.

  13. Trout 03/23/2007 at 11:45 AM #

    It is rare that I disagree with BJD95, but in this case, I do. I think both Kansas and Duke are gold standard schools. If Duke is K-dependent than why is UCLA considered “gold standard” – wouldnt they be eliminated by being “Wooden-dependent.” They struggled for almost 20 years w/o Wooden – they made one Final 4 in the 20 year span after Wooden left and before Harrick (a known NCAA cheater) won the NCAA title in ’96. They went through coaches like crazy.

    Kansas a “poor man’s Indiana?” Indiana hasn’t been relevant in basketball since Keith Smart hit his famous shot in 1987. One Final 4 since then.

    Kansas is top 3 all-time in wins. There former coach INVENTED the game. Dean played at Kansas. Kansas has 2 national titles, has played for the national title in 1940, 1953, 1957, 1991 and 2003. Other Final 4 trips in 1971, 1974, 1986, 1993 and 2002.

    IMO, there are 6 gold standard schools: UNC, Kentucky, Kansas, UCLA, Duke and Indiana

  14. joe 03/23/2007 at 11:51 AM #

    UCLA went through 5 coaches in 13 years after Wooden. I hope they had a revolving door in the coach’s office.

  15. noah 03/23/2007 at 12:01 PM #

    They had some good coaches there too. Larry Brown and Gene Bartow…was Denny Crum ever head coach there? Or just a Wooden assistant?

    Garry Cunningham went 50-8 and sort of set the table for Brown.

    Who followed Brown? Larry Farmer or Walt Hazzard?

  16. noah 03/23/2007 at 12:03 PM #

    Here it is:

    John Wooden 1948-1975 620-147 .808
    Gene Bartow 1975-1977 52-9 .852
    Gary Cunningham 1977-1979 50-8 .862
    Larry Brown 1979-1981 42-17 .712
    Larry Farmer 1981-1984 61-23 .726
    Walt Hazzard 1984-1988 77-47 .621
    Jim Harrick 1988-1996 192-62 .756
    Steve Lavin 1996-2003 145-78 .650
    Ben Howland 2003- 89-41 .685

  17. Trout 03/23/2007 at 12:07 PM #

    Did Bartow leave UCLA for UAB? If so, that’s gotta be one of the most shocking coaching moves of all-time.

    What happened to Cinningham? Dude won 86% of his games.

  18. joe 03/23/2007 at 12:10 PM #

    UCLA got stuck with hiring “one of our own” with Cunningham, Farmer, and Hazard.

  19. RickJ 03/23/2007 at 12:24 PM #

    Trout – Bartow did leave UCLA for UAB. I can remember 2 things about a long article on Bartow in SI after he took the job at UAB. First, the only picture on his wall was of the Final Four appearance he had at Memphis. Nothing about UCLA.

    The other was hilarious & strange at the same time. When Bartow took the job at UCLA, Coach Wooden wanted to keep a desk at the basketball office so he could come in from time to time – sort of like Dean – I think he has an office in the basement of the Smith Center. Anyway, Bartow comes in one day and Wooden is at his desk and the phone rings – Wooden answers the phone and says – “Coach Bartow’s office, this is John Wooden, may I help you.”

  20. RedTerror29 03/23/2007 at 12:36 PM #

    Good article about the UK situation from Pat Forde, who obviously gets it:

    http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=2808739&sportCat=ncb

    He also gets bonus points for committing MSM heresy at the end and referring to UK/Louisville as the most heated rivalry in college basketball.

  21. redfred2 03/23/2007 at 1:08 PM #

    “About their rough treatment of a class act.”

    The dreaded “CLASS ACT” scenario.

    “It isn’t like Smith was yanked through the spin cycle like Mike Shula. Ten years in one place is a pretty long run.”

    A whole DECADE.

    What name does Forde go by here on SFN? That absolutely cracks me up.

  22. noah 03/23/2007 at 1:08 PM #

    Bartow got death threats at UCLA. I’m not surprised that he left and was bitter bout it.

    I also recall reading somewhere about how John Wooden decided that enough was enough after winning the 1975 title and a fan saying, “Congratulations on the win. That makes up for letting us down last year.”

  23. RickJ 03/23/2007 at 1:15 PM #

    Noah – along those same lines, when Larry Brown took a bunch of freshman (4 started?) to the final game and lost – after the game a fan came up and said “You are the first Bruin coach to lose in a final”. Maybe it was the same guy.

    To be fair, can you imagine how crazy State fans would be if we won 7 National Championships in a row?

  24. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 03/23/2007 at 1:30 PM #

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

    I can’t agree with that one. It was A&M that missed a layup and allowed Memphis four rebounds in the final 10 seconds only to foul. I thought the refs took off to much time but maybe only a few tenths of a second because the ball bounced in bounds and didn’t hit anyone out of bounds for a bit.

    Anyway A&M lost that game on their own.

  25. BoKnowsNCS71 03/23/2007 at 1:35 PM #

    True about Bartow. He followed a legend and could not keep winning national championships and the LA folks were spoiled. Situation got so bad that Bartow opted to leave for a position with less stress. His UAB teams were good but he enjoyed his job more.

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