Photo by Charles Bertram.
All kinds of reports and rumors this morning linking Tubby Smith with Auburn’s search for a basketball coach.
Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports claims Auburn is about to hire Smith: “Auburn is “close to hiring” Tubby Smith as its new basketball coach, a source that I trust told me Thursday night.”
Charles Goldberg of the Birmingham News writes on the Tubby rumors: “People familiar with the search process say the university is willing to significantly increase what it has paid former coaches in order to attract someone with a proven record to replace Jeff Lebo, who was fired last Friday. A list of candidates includes coaches who could command high salaries, such as Minnesota’s Tubby Smith, who has SEC experience at Kentucky and Georgia.”
Smith’s Minnesota team, a No. 11 seed in the West Region, plays No. 6 seed Xavier today.
I hope this isn’t going down. What does Tubby say to his team before they play one of their biggest games of the season tonight? I wish the NCAA would mandate that all coaching hires happen after the final game of the tournament.
This wrong on so many levels
I like Tubby and always did, but he really upset me by the way he left UK. Specifically, Tubby has a history of accepting jobs before the season ends. According to the interview he gave after he accepted, he was having talks with Minn’s AD during his final season at UK. It would not surprise me if he was on a plane to Auburn tonight if the story is true. Looks like he is going to bow out in the first round again anyway.
First of all he was run out of Kentucky and how you could blame him for the way he left is ridiculous and just downright stupid. Second, I hope Tubby does make the move back to the SEC because this is probably as good as its going to get at Minnesota with the ceiling there probably being the Sweet 16, plus I’d love to see him beat Kentucky every year
Tubby sucks, he only gets hired because he’s “African-American”. Couldn’t even beat a SINGLE ranked team his last year or so at UK. At U K !!!!!!!!!
Kevin, he was talking to Minnesota while he was still coaching UK. You aren’t supposed to do that in coaching. I’m sure it happens, but it isn’t supposed to. He quit UK, not the other way around. At most, he was going to be asked to upgrade his staff. He was not going to be fired. My point was simple – if he has already reached a deal with Auburn, it would not be surprising. He has broken that “rule” before. It certainly lowers my esteem of him.
I have no problem with you having another position, but my position is not ridiculous or “downright stupid.” Is that your retort to everyone that disagrees with you? Very well thought out argument. My 3 year old made that same argument to my 8 year old the other day. BTW, when Tubby was at Georgia, he could never beat Kentucky. I don’t see why one should expect anything better at Auburn.
Tubby was not run out of town. Fans were upset because they were tired of 10 plus losses per year, 3 second round defeats in a row, and slowly diminishing talent each year, and some were very vocal about it. It comes with the job. We had fans complain about Pitino, Hall and Rupp. Tubby doesn’t get special treatment, especially after coaching the longest final four drout in school history that continues to this day. Our fans can be happy not being no. 1 every year, but we do have pretty high expectation.
Tubby did not like the stress of high expectations, so he went to Minnesota. I get that. UK isn’t for a coach with that career outlook. Now, the folks in Minnesota, where expectations are not that high, are complaining some about Tubby’s record, and now he may be headed to Auburn, where they kept a coach that did not make a single NCAA tourney in 6 years. Maybe he can find peace and well paid obscurity there. I wish him the best.
But I still think he should finish one coaching job before he agrees to the next one.
Tubby wasnt run out of Ky.He left on his own but I was glad to see him go.Tubby got too comfortable in his position and quit recruiting.Didnt Tubby say he wasnt going to recruit players that were only going to stay a year or maybe two before jumping to the NBA? It reached a point that if Tubby lost out on a great recruit he basically accepted anyone else that could lace up a pair of sneakers to fill out the roster.Talent didnt seem to matter he still took them.Remember how the word “project” was used to describe alot of Tubbys recruits.Shagari Allenye and Orbzut come to mind.There were several more.Things were going down hill and gathering speed at the time he left.Ky fans expect and deserve better than what they were getting from Tubby at the time he left.
to be fair, Tubby was a Dwayne Wade triple-double away from making the Final Four…2003 was it…anyway, he did recruit Randolph Morris, Rajon Rondo, Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford (and had that group played together another year–without Morris testing then coming back from the NBA waters–or Rajon bolting–perhaps he could have added another Final Four)…I think the combination of off field issues (NBA defections, transfers, DUIs et al) and not getting top flight recruits EVERY year took their toll on Tubby…he is a class act (regardless of the timing of job recruiters inquiring about his services)…now, with that said…he still left UK and UK didn’t force him out (either the university or its fans) and I am of the belief that UK is better with Cal than we would have been with Tubby…but I believe that is due to the fact that Cal is a better coach and recruiter/motivator than Tubby…I think it would be a mistake for Tubby to take the Auburn job…he may be a better fit at Oregon (now that Ernie Kent is finally unemployed) where he can have “legal support” from Nike and Phil Knight to rebuild that program in a very weak Pac 10…regardless of the players left over from the Pitino era, Tubby still had to pull the strings on the 98 championship team (and anyone who remembers Tubby not calling a timeout vs Duke in the Elite 8 after Coach K burned his last TO with 5 minutes to go so that Duke couldn’t reset and catch their breath has to admit that Tubby outcoached Coach K and that alone allowed UK to reach the Final Four and eventually win the title)…that should cut him some slack on merit alone…Sutton never won a title…nor did BCG…Rupp, Hall, Pitino AND Smith…show him some respect
Yea Tubby was a poor recruiter right, Jodie Meeks was a real poor player too.
Bill Keightley once told me that Tubby Smith was the classiest coach ever to coach at Kentucky. And Mr. Bill should have known since he was there from Rupp to Gillespie and Mr Bill honestly never did have anything good to say about Memphis Calipari. He just didnt seem to care for Cal.
I hope Tubby comes back to the SEC. Tubby is a very good person and some people are just ignorant and did not like him because he was black.
If you ever knew Bill Keightley, you would have know what Mr Bill thought of Tubby. He loved Tubby, and no fan has ever loved UK basketball more than Mr Bill.