Kentucky offered immediate playing time, seven national championships and, oh yes, don’t forget, immediate playing time.
Florida offered a spot on the bench until the vital cogs — Noah, Horford and Brewer — which produced last year’s national title decide to head to the next level.
Dan Werner chose Florida, anyway.
His father, Ron Werner, told our Jerry Tipton that it was hard for his son, the New Jersey Player of the Year, to turn down Florida’s fun and sun, but there had to be more to it than that. After all, the 6-foot-8 Werner chose a program that returns all five of its starters over a program that for the last couple of years has been all but begging for a 6-8 forward in the Werner mold.
So, for those of us who still think that Tubby Smith is an excellent basketball coach who has done an admirable job at Kentucky, his recruiting difficulties are becoming harder and harder to defend. The Cats continue to swing and miss on power forward prospects. Just this spring, UK lost 6-7 Tyler Smith to Iowa. Now add Werner to the likes of Smith, Brandan Wright, Deon Thompson and Thaddeus Young.
Then again, in Werner’s case it may have come down to the fact that (a) Billy Donovan is hard to out-recruit, and (b) Florida has beaten UK four straight times.
Either way, the list of UK’s recruiting whiffs is growing.
It is obvious that Tubby can’t recruit with the major basketball powers any longer. Just maybe he never could if you look at his results and not count the accomplishments of Rick Pitino’s recruits. It is time for tubby to move on!
I agree. It’s just amazing people are just starting to figure it out. The problem is: it is likely to get even worse.
Other that Hernol Hall, there is no one else worth chasing in the class of ’06. In addition to that, many players from the class of ’07 are flying off the board. We’re staying 2 steps behind.
Top that off with the fact that the team will not be in the top 25 next year & the Fire Tubby mantra will gain steam, it will make landing a recruit even more difficult.