Would Tubby head to Michigan?

by JL Blue on Mar 6, 2007 1:16 PM EST in Kentucky Wildcats Basketball

Before anyone goes and gets their panties in a wad, the following is not based on any existing rumor or source, just speculation.

It seems we have ourselves a quandry. Tubby Smith sure looks unhappy at Kentucky these days. He's lost that fire, that intensity, and seems resigned to resting his coaching fate on a pack of guys that don't float his boat.

Meanwhile, back in Ann Arbor, Tommy Amaker's attempts to bring the Wolverines out of the dark depths of probation have proven fruitless, as he has been unable to turn solid recruiting into results.

Could these two situations have a common solution? Our colleague over at Maize N' Brew beat me to the punch, but has read my mind. He has penned an "open letter" to Coach Smith, asking him to consider taking over the UM job.

You shouldn't have to put up with that [garbage], T-bone.

You don't have to. Look at Tommy Amaker. He can take two senior laden squads with multiple offensive threats, make them worse, make them miss the tournament, embarrass themselves in a weak conference and never hear a peep out of the athletic director. ... [Y]ou're one of, if not the classiest and cleanest coaches in America. Since you've been at Kentucky there hasn't even been a whiff of anything amiss.

Seriously though. Talk about a free ride. Amaker hasn't developed a single athlete into an NBA quality player. Can you imagine how much fun you would've had with Daniel Horton or Dion Harris? How many first rounders have you produced? Five? Sweet. Michigan hasn't had a guy play in the Association in, well, good question. It's pretty apparent watching Michigan play that the gameplan is "how high can you shove your head up your colon?" Not a peep out of the AD. Nothing but support. You're one of the better X's and O's coaches in the country. Imagine being able to coach in an environment without having to look over your shoulder.

I have been proposing the same thing for several months now in private. The Michigan job is one of the unheralded "good" jobs in the game, and has been run into the ground by Brian Ellerby and then Amaker, whose credentials as a quality coach seem to begin and end with "former Duke assistant."

Smith would be free of the shackles of expectations he himself created at Kentucky, and Michigan would have a squeaky-clean championship-winning coach, no more probation and plenty of Michigan talent to keep him from having to recruit from afar.

Heck, Smith's first 2008 committment at Kentucky is a Michiganer (?), Draymond Green, a kid a bunch of UK fans are already slagging because he isn't ranked highly enough by some guru who hasn't seen half the kids he's ranking.

It's an interesting scenario. Not sure it would ever work out, but Smith could demand an upgrade to the facilities and step in and win more games than Amaker right away. And the fans would be ecstatic over Tubby's humility and grace under pressure.

Meanwhile, grumbling UK fans could get their Calipari or [insert name of overhyped coach here] on and pretend they were answering the "higher call" of protecting Kentucky hoops.

What do you think, Big Blue Nation?

Tweet Comment 9 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

michigan??

I believe that dude just called Tubby a clean black man.

I hope Tubby doesn't leave cause tho we certainly suck right now, I think he deserves the chance to turn it around--for all the reasons the author here states...the championship, multiple conference crowns, all those wins and all. But if he does leave, Michigan sounds like it would be a good place for him to land. Seems like I remember some talk of Pitino to Michigan before he took the Louisville job.

by blue kentucky girl on Mar 6, 2007 1:52 PM EST reply actions

dont like it

Whether Tubby leaves or stays I want a coach with charchter and a reputation like Tubby Smith. John Calipari is sleazy.

by davw83 on Mar 6, 2007 1:57 PM EST reply actions

Extremely sleazy ...

That's my point. Kentucky fans deserve a coach like Calipari, for whom winning is everything. My own sense of schadenfreude has me wishing we get some guy who flames out, just so the LOD/Concerned fans for Prof. Cheeks' ego would never be able to utter another friggin peep.

The Online home of Big Blue Nation ...

by JL Blue on Mar 6, 2007 2:36 PM EST up reply actions

Heh. Read that again ...

These guys would "utter ... peep[s]" no matter what. You think hypocrisy will shame them when situational ethics are their stock in trade?

"Win at all costs" overwhelms hypocrisy every time. It's for the "good of the program", you know.

by Glenn Logan on Mar 6, 2007 3:56 PM EST up reply actions

i just be missing something

so, UK fans deserve to be punished for expecting more than what Tubby has given in the last 10 years? we should not expect to avoid consecutive 10-loss seasons? UK should not expect to place higher than 4th in the SEC? UK should not expect to have a few wins, let alone a winning record, against top 25 teams?

and now, all of a sudden, any replacement to Tubby would be a "win at all costs" coach? It is not feasible for UK to hope for a coach who can produce consistently and run a clean program?

i am disappointed in your reply JL.

by small balls on Mar 7, 2007 10:33 AM EST up reply actions

I don't think anyone with influence

would seriously consider Calipari. That said, I think a low-pressure job like Michigan is probably exactly the sort of job that Tubby is made for. It's becoming increasingly clear that he's not the right guy to handle the pressure of a UK or UNC type of job.

by Logan5 on Mar 6, 2007 2:42 PM EST reply actions

I don't know ...

Smith seems to handle the pressure fine. It's the other things, like the media, he doesn't do so well on.

But who really knows? Perhaps he is so fed up with this crap he can hardly wait for the season to end so he can rush out the door. There isn't any way for us to know what he is really thinking.

Smith plays his cards very close to the vest. That's one of the reasons he is unpopular here, notwithstanding his teams' recent difficulties.

by Glenn Logan on Mar 6, 2007 4:00 PM EST up reply actions

Stupid Stupid Stupid

It is absolutely stupid to even think of getting rid of Tubby. How many coaching changes do you see these days in various sports which end up with a program much worse off. Alabama and Notre Dame football continue to change coaches looking for anything resembling a "good" season. You may be able to lose an Amaker or Dougherty and improve, but you can't lose a Tubby. Recruiting will come around because he does things right.

You can go get [insert name here] who plays an uptempo 3 point barrage game plan. Don't forget Pitino's teams waxed teams by 30 until a bad shooting night. Tubby is a great coach. You see him win a 60 point game vs a Knight coached IU team and then turn around and win the next week in a game in 90's. You see great defense.

UK was never out of game with 5 minutes left this season. Every other team in the SEC was waxed bad by somebody.

UK will be lucky if Tubby stays. They will be lucky to get the third guy on their list if he goes.

I was born in Lexington and am a long time UK fan. I did not turn the TV off during the 31 point comeback at LSU, driven hours to watch a game. Talk of getting rid of Tubby is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

If Tubby bolts for UM:

Instead of the NCAA tourney always pairing a UK-Duke rematch, they would pair a Michigan-UK game, and it would suck for the Cats.

BigBlueinTn

by BigBlueInTn on Mar 6, 2007 10:11 PM EST reply actions

really?

"...Notre Dame football continue to change coaches looking for anything resembling a "good" season."

ND is 10-3 (2206) and 9-3 (2005) under chuck and were 6-6 (2004) and 5-7 (2003) before him. i would say that is improvement. i have not heard any grumblings from ND fans calling for charlie weis's job.

"Don't forget Pitino's teams waxed teams by 30 until a bad shooting night."

really? how many bad shooting nights did pitino's teams have? how many ten loss seasons did pitino have. i would take 5 bad shooting nights and 25 great ones (25-5) over 10-12 losses any day.

"UK was never out of game with 5 minutes left this season."

really, i could also say they never were really in them either. so, you thought in the last five minutes of the most recent loss to UF that we were still in it? what about UNC and Memphis?

please man, please.

by small balls on Mar 7, 2007 10:26 AM EST up reply actions