UK Basketball and Tubby Smith

Most people outside of the state of Kentucky probably do not understand (and perhaps they don’t want to) the importance of basketball to University of Kentucky fans. Having been bred and born in Kentucky and having lived my first 25 years there, I can personally attest to the power and draw that UK basketball has on most Kentuckians. Kentucky has a rich history in the annals of college basketball. It is arguably the premiere program in the nation (and though some might argue for UCLA and it’s eleven NCAA championships, all but one of those championships came between 1964 and 1974). Kentucky is the leader in all time wins with 1,948 victories. It’s winning percentage is also the best among the leading college basketball programs with a .762. (source). As far as rankings in the Associated Press Poll the following figures also show how dominant UK basketball has been over the years.

 

 

AP History of Kentucky

Number of Times Ranked: 597
Number of Times Ranked #1: 84
Number of Times Top 5: 339
Number of Times Top 10: 494
(Source)

Highlights of UK’s basketball history include the following:

March 20, 1946 — UK wins the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) with a 46-45 victory over Rhode Island (This was when the NIT was the premiere tournament and not the NCAA).

March 23, 1948 — Adolph Rupp’s “Fabulous Five” wins UK’s first NCAA championship, 58-42, over Baylor. The team is met in Lexington by 15,000 fans and given a parade on a fire truck.

August 13, 1948 — The U.S. Olympic basketball team, featuring Kentucky’s Fabulous Five, wins the gold medal by defeating France, 64-21, at Wembley Stadium in London.

March 26, 1949 — UK wins its second consecutive NCAA championship, defeating Oklahoma A&M 46-36 in Seattle.

March 27, 1951 — UK wins its third NCAA title, defeating Kansas State, 68-58, in the finals in Minneapolis.

Jan. 8, 1955 — Fans are stunned as Georgia Tech defeats UK, 59-58, in Memorial Coliseum, ending a 129-game home winning streak that still stands as a national record.

March 22, 1958 — UK wins its fourth NCAA title by defeating Seattle, 84-72, in Louisville. The “Fiddlin’ Five” were led by Vernon Hatton’s 30 points. The win gave Rupp his most coveted title, the one he vowed to win after the NCAA had suspended UK’s 1953 season.

March 19, 1966 — In one of the biggest upsets in NCAA Tournament history, top-ranked UK, featuring “Rupp’s Runts,” loses in the NCAA championship game, 72-65, to Texas Western.

January 18, 1969 — On the road against its oldest rival, UK became the first team in college basketball history to win 1,000 games, defeating Tennessee, 69-66.

March 27, 1978 — Jack “Goose” Givens scores 41 points as UK wins its fifth NCAA championship, 94-88, over Duke in St. Louis. More than 10,000 fans greet the team at Blue Grass Airport and 15,000 more celebrate at Memorial Coliseum.

March 28, 1992 — In what many called the “best NCAA Tournament game ever,” Kentucky takes defending NCAA champion Duke into overtime in the East Regional finals in Philadelphia. A last-second shot by Christian Laettner sends Duke to the Final Four, and breaks the hearts of Wildcats fans everywhere. It is Cawood Ledford’s last game as the “Voice of the Wildcats.”

March 27, 1993 — Kentucky beats Florida State 106-81 to advance to the NCAA Final Four in New Orleans. The victory completes a string of four games in which the Wildcats blitzed their Southeast Region opponents by an average of 31.0 ppg - the largest margin of victory ever by a team through four games en route to the Final Four.

April 1,1996 — After avenging an early season loss to UMass with a win in the NCAA semifinals two days before, UK squashed a late Syracuse rally to win its sixth national title, 76-67.

March 31, 1997 —- Despite losing its star, Derek Anderson, to a knee injury on Jan. 18, UK returns to defend its NCAA title in the national championship game, falling in overtime to Arizona, 84-79. It would be the final game with Rick Pitino as coach.

March 30, 1998 — The “Comeback Cats” rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit to defeat Utah, 78-69, winning UK’s second national title in three years, its seventh overall.
(Source)

As many of my readers know by now, Tubby Smith, UK’s coach for the last ten years, resigned abruptly on Thursday in order to take over as head coach of Minnesota. There are some who claim that UK fans are unrealistic and that Tubby was basically run out of town by their rabid hatred of him for failing to maintain the prestige of the program. And while I have no doubt that UK fans are passionate about basketball, and that there are more than a few idiots among them (every program has a few – maybe UK has more), the truth as I see it is more nuanced than broad pronouncements about overzealous fans.

Tubby Smith is a class act and a great coach. He has maintained the stability of the program he inherited from Rick Pitino, as well as its integrity. I really like the man, and I wish that he had stayed at Kentucky for a few more years at least to see if he could turn around the program that has been performing (for Kentucky standards) at a sub-par level. While it is true that Smith won Kentucky’s seventh NCAA championship, he did so with a team of Rick Pitino’s recruits, and one of Smith’s weak points has been his ability to recruit top-notch players. In fact, several “Mr. Kentucky” basketball players of recent years weren’t even recruited at all by Smith and they are now enjoying great careers at other schools, and at times have helped defeat their home state team. Over the last ten years, Kentucky failed to capitalize on its success in the mid to late 90s and has had mediocre recruiting classes, and the blame for this must be laid at Smith’s feet.

I have no doubt that Tubby felt an extremely high amount of pressure from fans, especially these past few years. And some idiots should be shot for their obnoxious behavior, but UK is in many ways the Yankees of college basketball, and anyone who decides to manage the Yankees or coach the Wildcats knows what he is signing up for. Success is the norm. Sweet Sixteen and Final Four appearances are a necessity. Winning a championship on a regular basis is not an option. Is this a lot to ask? Yes, it is. But that’s the way it is at UK. Is this still reasonable given the increasing parity in college basketball? Maybe not, but again, UK fans expect and demand excellence.

UK has not been to a Final Four since winning its last championship in 1998. This drought of ten years is the longest in team history. Further, the last two years have seen UK lose 13 and 12 games respectively, and while a 22-13 or 22-12 record may be sufficient in most basketball programs, it is not good enough at UK. UK has also exited the NCAA in the second round the last two years, and has been seeded eighth in both the 2006 and 2007 tournaments.

Could Smith have turned the program around? I am sure he could have given his stellar record in his previous eight years (229-58) an average annual record of 29-7. But he would have had to work much harder at recruiting and may have had to hire new assistant coaches (a prospect many feel that he did not want to face). And maybe the pressure just became too much. In any case, Tubby has left UK and in a way this may be the best thing for all concerned. Tubby, UK and Minnesota. I wish him the very best at his new position.

So who will the new UK coach be? I will only say this: Donovan of Florida and Calipari of Memphis strike me as coaches just this side of sleazy, and I don’t think UK needs this kind of coach regardless of their recent successes. I would personally love to see Mark Few of Gonzaga come to UK, and I would absolutely love it if Pat Riley of the Miami Heat (and former UK player) would come back to take the reins of the program, as he has said he would love to do. Regardless of who it is, however, any incoming coach must be aware of the unique nature of UK basketball: it’s winning tradition, the extreme pressure exerted upon any coach, and the high expectations of its fans.

For a ton of information about UK Basketball, let me recommend this site, which is maitained by Jon (see comment below).

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