ESPN Magazine Dec 4, 2006 Katz on Tubby Smith

[SamKat]

Full two page spread showing Tubby Smith with five points highlighted. Thecoach may not like this.

[ukwebfan]

That mag was a gift from my wife that I never enjoyed reading. That and SI are 2 ad-infested toilet papers not fit for my backside.:thumbdown

[wildcat74]

So what were the points?

[EricBigNally]

wildcat74 wrote: So what were the points?
Same question...

[Spanish Moss]

I would like to see the article and will not pass judgement on whether it is fair or not until I read it.

If I were an outsider evaluating Kentucky today several things pop out immediately.

1) The talent level. Today's UK team is sorely lacking in talent at key positions.

2) Players attitude. Tubby's teams just don't put fear in the opponents the way past
teams did. I guess you call it swagger.

3) Tubby's reputation as a Top 5 coach is about to run it's course. The longer the Final Four drought continues the lower he will drop. New coaches coming on the scene will pass him by.

I am anxious to see what the writer said and if any of the above are mentioned.

[SamKat]

I can't find a link and the oversized magazine (11 x 14) won't allow me to scan easily. Perhaps someone else can if they so desire. The mag was gratus to me through some type of promotion.

Andy Katz heads up the prose that accompanies a full size Tubby in an angry game moment, but with his suit coat still on, by saying:

"Eight years and no final four. Has Tubby's final countdown begun?"

The five points are titled:

1 Talent Puddle

2 Not Close Enough

3 State's Rights

4 Insecure

5 Slow Fractions

Katz and ESPN have a novel way of not subtly pointing to Coach Tubby's dilemma at UK.

Partially Paraphrased:

1 Talent Puddle ... Youused to go into Rupp and face four AA's ...

2 Not Close Enough Post season lack of cut-down nets

3 State's Rights Louisville'slimiting the Cats neutral site game date availability at Freedom Hall

4 Insecure Poor SEC record last season (9-7 and 4th place)

5 Slow Fractions In horse country you can tell a lot about the colt by its gait. There is no longer the swagger

[JohnJ]

I don't see "State's Rights" so I would leave that off. And I would say, please correct these points or at least work on them.

My points:

1 Talent Puddle ... You used to go into Rupp and face four AA's ... (and I would merge "Slow Fractions" into this point; I do not care if say Tubby Smith and Sheray Thomas have the swagger to think that Sheray should be taking potentially game-winning shots because, if Sheray does not have the talent to create his own shot, the shotis not going to get off and in). I blame this talent puddle on the same factors that caused Denny Crum and Bobby Knight to go through talent puddles late in their careers at U of L and IU.

2 Not Close Enough Post season lack of cut-down nets. Need to recruit more talent andplay more offense.

3 Insecure Poor SEC record last season (9-7 and 4th place)

4 Lack of completeness UK basketball does not field a complete product due to stubbornness and design because talent and offense are neglected or not valued like they should be. UK sometimes now plays ugly, unbalanced basketball like Temple, and has an unimaginative offense and a grind-em-out style a la Bill Curry. Uggh. Abother thing very unbalanced and disorganized is recruiting. Other coaches seem to be able to look down the road and recruit to field balanced and complete teams, but UK gets stuck with 2 7-footers and 2 forwards (4 front court players) in the same class. Please, I really, really wish the plan was to be more complete and balanced in approach to the game.

5 Lack of Public Relations SkillsTubby does not seem to enjoy p.r. any more than he does offense or recruiting IMO.

[Spanish Moss]

Having seen the headers from the article my thoughts are: Most UK fans could write the same essay and not even Coach Smith should disagree. I do not see anything I would disagree with and I do not see it as a cheap shot from the writer. The plain truth is, the rest of college basketball is wondering what has happened to Kentucky and I expect more such articles unless things improve soon.

I understand his point about "States Rights". Kentucky was once portrayed on the national scene as having rabid fans from border to border and that included Jefferson County. Freedom Hall was Kentucky's home away from home and it was unthinkable that they would get the cold shoulder when scheduling a game during December. They even drew 10,000 or more fans for morning shoot arounds. Those days are gone and their " right " to the state has been taken away. To an outsider looking in on the program, that means it has slipped in importance in it's own state. Now think how much it has slipped nationally.

JohnJ, your point regarding lack of public relations skills is also on the money. This permeates the entire athletic department. For some reason they have a horrible time marketing the product. This may be due in part to such a hostile local press but in basketball I see it more of Coach Smith's inarticulate style or bashfulness before the camera. He does not seem comfortable with the camera on him and if you notice very few media outlets ask him for interviews or put him on TV. That hurts on the national scene.

I don't know if the AD does an annual job performance on a man he pays $2 million a year but if he does, the article would be an exellent template to use.

The article is a good snapshot of where our team is on Sunday, November 26, 2006.