Double Standards

Note to 99% of all college fans:

– You are not allowed to be unhappy with where your team finishes if they had a winning season.
– You are expected to support college athletics because your money helps support alot of scholarships; not because you expect excellence in the premiere sports.
– You need to accept your assigned place in the athletic world.
– Winning is not everything…after all, it’s just college sports.

Signed
Mass Media Morons

Kentucky’s 88-76 loss to Kansas looks a lot better on paper than it did during the game – the Jayhawks were in firm control throughout. So the question remains whether Tubby Smith will return (or will even want to) for an 11th season in Lexington. I wrote this last week, but to lay down blanket criticism of Kentucky fans for growing restless is disingenuous.

They give more financially and emotionally than any other fan base in the country – Kentucky’s success is based solely on its fan commitment, not on proximity to talent or major media markets. It is quite reasonable for them to expect a return on that investment. And Smith hasn’t provided it with 25 losses in the last two years, few good recruits and nearly 20 transfers under his watch.

The program isn’t what it should be. Smith is a tremendous game coach and defensive strategist but sometimes that isn’t enough. It’s doubtful UK fires him, but he may walk. And if not, he better find some recruits.


Dan Wetzel

About VaWolf82

Engineer living in Central Va. and senior curmudgeon amongst SFN authors One wife, two kids, one dog, four vehicles on insurance, and four phones on cell plan...looking forward to empty nest status. Graduated 1982

06-07 Basketball General NCS Basketball

140 Responses to Double Standards

  1. redfred2 03/19/2007 at 10:50 AM #

    primacy

    That was a truly inspirational link up there. I guess there must have been a chewing gum wrapper in the corner of the room, and that was a little overwhelming for the professor. It seemed to kinda throw him off his tumultuous building to the grande finale for that day’s lecture.

    The use of the dry erase board was spectacular. Now if those students can just go out and EXECUTE that motivational speech, they’ll do well in life. AND, BY GOLLY, they’ll have fun doing it.

  2. noah 03/19/2007 at 10:57 AM #

    I haven’t heard anyone mention race as a reason Tubby Smith might not be popular with the fans. I don’t know why that would even come up.

    I sorta look at the job the way I saw the Alabama football job. It’s going to pay well and it’s going to have ENORMOUS pressure. And you can get fired for having a great year.

    To me, the Florida job in both football and basketball is probably a top-five job. You can get every single one of your recruits into school. You’ll never be told that a recruit doesn’t meet academic requirements.

    It’s an east coast gig, so you’re playing in primetime. In basketball, you’re the top dog in a mediocre conference. Tons of girls. Florida’s not a BAD school by any means. It’s an attractive destination. Facilities galore.

    I don’t see Lexington as being anywhere near as desirable…

  3. CaptainCraptacular 03/19/2007 at 11:02 AM #

    *Cap’n, Kentucky fans were openly rooting for us to take him. It wasn’t suddenly THIS year that they wanted a change.*

    Up until the downward trend truly became clear, I thought they were suffering from “coach who follows the legend and will never be good enough” syndrome.

  4. VaWolf82 03/19/2007 at 11:11 AM #

    It wasn’t suddenly THIS year that they wanted a change. There have been rumblings and discontent for quite a while.

    This is certainly true for the UK fan that I work with. When you earn a number 1/2 seed and then get quickly bounced from the NCAAT….you better not be coaching at UK.

  5. choppack1 03/19/2007 at 11:25 AM #

    Noah – While FL may have better looking girls and you can recreate the same “student-athlete” there, Kentucky isn’t bad either. Rupp arena is a palace and they probably have the most rabid college basketball fanbase in the country.

    Right now, what Florida has is Billy Donovan – a coach lots of kids want to play for. I just don’t see a lot of kids really burning to play for Tubby Smith – especially w/ that ugly-ass offense that they allegedly run. Put Billy at UK and Tubby at UF, and you probably see Florida doing what Kentucky is doing and vice-versa…

  6. nsj 03/19/2007 at 11:32 AM #

    FWIW, more than a handful of Texas A&M fans are nervous about UK’s growing discontent with Smith, fearing that folks in Lexington might think a great up-and-coming coach at a traditionally football-only school might prefer to hop into an established hoops powerhouse rather than build one in College Station.

    There are a number of arguments against that — mainly centered around Gillispie’s connections to Texas high school hoops and implications that might have for his ability to recruit elsewhere. However, with the amount of national exposure Texas A&M has gotten and continues to get — as well the positive press surrounding Gillispie’s handling of Melvin Waktins recruit Acie Law, IV — that argument loses more of its impact every day.

  7. Tau837 03/19/2007 at 11:36 AM #

    Not the greatest place to post this, but didn’t think it would get noticed if I went back to the ACC tournament topics. I sent this to Caulton Tudor:

    “Meant to email you back last week and didn’t get around to it. Did you have a vote for the ACC tournament MVP? (I’m not sure who votes.) Once again, it was criminal that Wright won over Costner.

    There have been 3 times in ACC tournament history that a player whose team did not win the championship won the award. The last time was 1980, so I am taking the fact that it has been that long along with the result this year to mean that we will never again have a winner that isn’t on the winning team.

    I mean, it seems to me like you have to have two things for it to happen:
    1. An outstanding performance, both in the tournament overall and in the final, by a player whose team loses in the final.
    2. No standout player on the winning team, either in the final game or in the tournament overall.

    We had that exact situation this year. Heck, if I was going to pick a player for Carolina, I would have picked both Lawson and Hansbrough ahead of Wright. And maybe Ellington.”

    He replied with this: “I agree with you. I didnt vote but I would have gone with Costner MVP.”

  8. ncsu96 03/19/2007 at 11:53 AM #

    Tau – good stuff, thanks for sharing. I usually find myself agreeing with Tudor.

  9. ChuckAllYall 03/19/2007 at 12:06 PM #

    Tudor predicted the Pack’s win over Duke in the first round.

  10. chris92heel 03/19/2007 at 12:06 PM #

    My personal opinion on Race and Tubby is that most UK fans couldn’t give a dang that he’s black. I think that its possible, though, that the UK administration has kept him on for a year or two longer than you’d expect because of concerns about appearances, especially given their history.

  11. bTHEredterror 03/19/2007 at 12:43 PM #

    Good point chris92heel, I think that they were worried about public perception too. The entertaining part about this is that Tubby is the College Basketball version of Tony Dungy. He will deflect criticism of Kentucky when he’s fired and spin to the positive. Michigan’s opening is intriguing, but I expect he’ll pull a Herb and wind up somewhere like Colorado or South Florida, where he will have low expectations and still be in a competitive conference. These are places where Tubby can be himself and 20-10 seasons would be considered the best in school history.

  12. primacyone 03/19/2007 at 12:50 PM #
  13. primacyone 03/19/2007 at 12:56 PM #

    You will have to copy and paste the above link.

    Another example of how this site can effect change. Another example of how free speech and free format and free trade . . . maye not, but another example of how a well written email to the right person can effect minor changes.

    Thanks again to the poster that sent that email to Anabelle last week. And credit Anabelle for moving it forward.

  14. redfred2 03/19/2007 at 12:57 PM #

    Man o man, those guys are right on top of it. What a crew.

  15. BJD95 03/19/2007 at 12:59 PM #

    Hiring Lowery would also insulate them against race claims. But I would expect them to make a full-court press for Gillispie or Barnes. Or maybe Calipari.

  16. BoKnowsNCS71 03/19/2007 at 1:00 PM #

    Fan BB guide looks great with Coaches Yow and Lowe.

    Guess TOB has to prove himself to get his pic on the FB guide.

  17. beowolf 03/19/2007 at 1:06 PM #

    ^ Old pic of C-F, too.

  18. noah 03/19/2007 at 1:07 PM #

    I dont think race will be an issue if UKs next coach is white.

  19. Mr O 03/19/2007 at 1:12 PM #

    Numbers from Wikopedia

    5 SEC Regular Season titles
    5 SEC Tournament titles
    1 National Title
    6 Sweet 16s
    3 Final 8s

    The NCAA finishes don’t add up, but those are probably at least close.

    Tubby’s problem is only 1 Final Four appearance. I think this is another example of a coach who has done a good job, but after 10 years it makes sense for both sides to go in a different direction.

  20. McPete 03/19/2007 at 1:15 PM #

    Why do so many people see the ‘mass media’ or ‘local’ or ‘national’ media as one voice? Show me specific examples of one columnist contradicting himself (not that it doesn’t happen), don’t just assume all media have one opinion and one voice.

  21. RedTerror29 03/19/2007 at 1:25 PM #

    ^The media is just lazy. How many Notre Dame is racist, Notre Dame is not a desirable job, TO is trouble, NC State is not a desirable job, Alabama is not a desirable job, Tyler Hansborough’s mask, etc, etc. articles have you read over the past few years?

  22. gopack617 03/19/2007 at 1:34 PM #

    this has nothing at all to do with this, but…

    Yahoo! has a wonderful article on former NC State star Cullen Jones.
    http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ap-cullensmission&prov=ap&type=lgns

  23. choppack1 03/19/2007 at 1:48 PM #

    Mr O – Agree. I think Tubby is hurt by the perceived lack of progress w/ his program. I also think Florida’s emergence and more consistent results hurts Tubby. It also can’t hurt that UT is on the way back and that Vandy is in second sweet 16 in the last 4 years…Vanderbuilt dammit!

    It’s one thing not to get it done on a national scale – if you’re getting some trophies at home and you’re kicking your rivals butts. However, Kentucky is not doing that right now, and that doesn’t bode well for Tubby.

  24. noah 03/19/2007 at 1:58 PM #

    “How many Notre Dame is racist, Notre Dame is not a desirable job, TO is trouble, NC State is not a desirable job, Alabama is not a desirable job, Tyler Hansborough’s mask, etc, etc. articles have you read over the past few years?”

    Quite a few. Because that’s a pretty disparate list of topics you’ve named.

    I don’t remember any “Notre Dame is racist” articles or columns. Probably because any such columns or articles would be pretty stupid and I try not to remember stupid things that I read.

    And for what it’s worth, Notre Dame is one of the more difficult jobs in sports. Hardly comparable to Alabama or NC State (and I don;t know where Hansborough’s mask comes in).

    You’ve got crap facilities. According to Lou Holtz, the pay sucks. You’ve got extremely difficult academic standards for admissions. And you’ve got unreal expectations.

    Since they’ve raised the standards for student-athletes (the year that Holtz left), have they ever been a factor for a national title? How many big wins have they had? I bet you could count them on your hands. They’ve been to a few BCS bowls due to favorable bowl contracts, but they usually get waxed in the game because they’re over their head.

  25. noah 03/19/2007 at 2:02 PM #

    Getting back to UK, I can’t remember the last marquee recruit they landed. Randolph Morris, maybe?

    They don’t ever seem to be a factor for the top-25 kids. Or have I missed something?

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