Almost famous

It seems impossible to "defend" an attitude that "we're just happy to be here" when you are an elite school like UK.  Fortunately, I don't think most UK fans do.  I think we all wonder when, in these last two seasons, the team will begin to assert itself again.  Unfortunately, I think we have to face the possibility that it may not occur.  I am not ready to cop to that, but so far, the team has a perfect record of disappointment.

So where does this leave us?  Well, we were all abjectly happy when Crawford, Morris and Rondo signed on the dotted line.  What hath this class wrought?  Well, outside of a final 8 finish in their freshman year, arguably very little when compared to expectations.  I think that many people see a bigger future with our current freshman class than our juniors.

So what is to blame for all this angst?  I think we can see that our junior class has underachieved significantly compared to expectations.  Tubby Smith must certainly get some of the blame for that - he recruited Morris, Crawford and Rondo and is responsible for developing their skills.  Funny thing is, their skills aren't really in dispute - it is their heart.  But then again, the senior class of North Carolina two years removed underachieved even more.  Some will say that replacing Dougherty with Williams was the solution, but was it really?  We will never know.

When it comes right down to it, and we look at the Flordia game in toto, the only thing that really went wrong was shooting.  This is an occasional bane of all teams, but the very best find a way to fight through bad shooting days most of the time.  I think arguably that explains why we failed - we simply aren't among the very best now.  

Will we be before season's end?  I have no idea.  But I do know this - UK currently lacks an on-court leader with a true understanding of what leadership really means.  Leadership isn't wanting to take a shot when the game is on the line, it is knowing what to do when the game is on the line.  It isn't acting brave and cocky and confident in the face of adversity, it is having the ability to instill in your teammates a sense of confidence and purpose, not just in your ability to get the job done, but in their ability to get the job done.

Right now, Ramel Bradley is only 50% of a leader.  He has confidence, but only in himself.  He does not believe in his teammates, and they can sense this.  That's why the ball is always firmly in his hands at the end of every close game, and why he only trusts himself to get the job done.  That isn't leadership - it's hubris, and it looks suspiciously like Rajon Rondo last year.

Until we find a leader for this team, or Ramel begins to understand what leadership really means, we will fail more often than not when lesser teams with true leadership would prevail.  I think Smith deserves some blame for being unable to demonstrate real leadership to Bradley, or being unwilling to force him to accept the leadership of someone more qualified (assuming such a person exists).  Tubby has made very few hard choices this season, and his failure to do so is a failure of his own leadership.  Teams are a reflection of their coach - if he won't make hard choices, they won't either.

Smith needs to do better.  So does Bradley.  So does the rest of the team when it comes to accepting leadership and coaching.  Randolph Morris needs to discover his inner Marquis Estil.  Joe Crawford must find a way to play the way Smith wants him to play, and stop being so distracted by every passing influence.  Bobby Perry must stop being such a sissy, and hit somebody out there - I don't mean nasty fouls, I mean taking the ball to the basket with bad intentions.

I think I'm engaging in wishful thinking, but this is basketball and not my career.  I can afford it.  So can all UK fans.  It's time we admit that and stop treating this like life or death.  But we should continue to demand more, especially when we now know the ability is there.  So should Smith.

A red herring.

The junior class is a problem.  All three have issues as college basketball players, but that is true of every school in America to some extent.  I believe it is true of ours to a greater extent than most of it's caliber.  

Smith has a responsibility to lead the team and develop leadership within them.  Either he is failing to do that because of his own insufficiency, or the deficiencies of the young men under his charge, or a combination of both.  Given Smith's success in the past, I am inclined to completely discard #1, giving the young men the benefit of the doubt requires that I choose to discard #2.  That leaves #3 as the most likely, and that's what I believe.

It is completely unfair to try to draw inferences about the past by excluding the successful teams.  It is an unworthy and indefensible argument.  Your criticism of his recruiting is more apt, although I am less concerned about "project 7 footers" than  getting consistently good recruiting classes.  The "lost" senior and sophomore classes are examples of my point.

Your comment about parity is simply unworthy of response.  Anyone who follows college basketball knows better than this, so I'll assume you just haven't thought it through.

See JL's comment for the answer.

I have only one response to your comment about the 1998 team - did not Roy Williams win the 2005 national championship with Matt Dougherty's players?  I see no rush to tar him with the same brush you are  so willing to slap Smith with.

Serious answer to your question:  Ask the UK Board of Regents and the UK Athletic Administration.  No, wait - the administration has already said that Smith can stay as long as he wants.  Therefore, that leaves the BOR or the President of the University.

I think it's funny that somehow the argument every critic hangs his hat on is Final Fours. It's understandable, but the minute he makes ONE Final Four, what will be the next issue ... no titles?

I find it hard to believe that the complaining will go away, just the complaint.

Tubby has done a fine job with the program. Not extraordinary, but certainly far better than the blowhards would have you believe.

I think a change in staff is the first step. If that doesn't produce an uptick in talent and/or results, you can start talking about buyouts, etc, but honestly, the dude isn't going anywhere averaging 25-27 wins a season and making the second round of the tourney every year, even if that isn't up to the standards some people want.

Last thing I'll say about it is that the idea that our current program is "mediocre" sure flies in the face of fact. Last season was brutal for him and for us. It's not up to par. But acting like THAT was the norm is just convenient posturing.

• Mediocre is Duke's 5-6 ACC mark.
  
• Mediocre is UConn's attempt to get to the BIG EAST tournament.
  
• Mediocre is Louisville in the NIT
  
• Mediocre is Kansas losing two straight years in the first round.
  
• Mediocre is Michigan St. facing the NIT
  
• Mediocre is Indiana in the NIT under Mike Davis

So can it with the "mediocre" garbage. You're just riled up and looking for a fight. Admit that if Tubby Smith's UK team went tot he Final Four this year, miraculously, you'd just latch onto some other perceived problem, like style of play or his wardrobe.

That's not an admission of my standards. Just a fact folks are refusing to get used to/resigned to.

You are certainly entitled to set whatever standard you want for UK basketball, reasonable or otherwise.  But you are not entitled to make up fiction and represent it as fact, such as the "Lexington media" crap.  That is simple nonsense.  What would you have them do, regurgitate the same LOD'r arguments that I see so often in your posts?  Even the national media folks such as Gregg Doyell and others don't belabor the criticism, as you apparently wish they would.

I'll give you a solution - write to the local media and complain.  Maybe they'll take you to heart.
 

And I appreciate the discussion in general.  I appreciate the nuance in opinion at this blog.   I tend to be a Tubby supporter, because I think he is a very good coach who has proven that he can wins lots of games here, as well as be a great representitve for Kentucky basketball.  But to me things aren't perfectly rosy either; I also am tired of coming "so close" in big games against top teams, and of whiffing on top player after top player.  Those two ideas--that Tubby CAN lead this program well, and yet things AREN'T where they should be right now--can coexist in a head without causing it to blow up.  Opinions on everything, not just sports but politics, everything seem so polarized now.  I think plenty of us fans out there manage to have this more nuanced, not so black and white view of things.  But you rarely see this point of view represented in the reaches of UK basketball online fan-dom. So thanks : )

Instead, we talk about what we didn't do.  Well, looking at the rankings, most analysts across the country still believe that UK is a threat come March, as indicated by us not dropping any spots in either poll.  This team has the potential there to be very scary, and I just have to believe that at some point everything will click.  If that happens, a Final Four is not out of the realm of possibility with a favorable draw.  

Our defense is keeping us in games.  The only thing left is allowing our offense to win the games.

Ever notice how a school claims a rivalry with UK whenever, during this or that decade, it meets with some success? Alabama became a rival in the late '80s. Arkansas became a rival in the early-mid '90's. Florida is now the rival. These things come and go.

There is only one constant over time. The school by which every other school in the SEC measures its success. It tells you something that anyone who manages a two- or three-game winning streak against UK becomes UK's rival.

Don't you think this rivalry business is more media invention than anything else? A newspaper's way to raise interest in a game, or ESPN's way of raising viewership during its invented Rivalry Week?

So who are the true rivals? Louisville, yes, though it was on life-support before Pitino arrived. Neighbors do make the best rivals. Indiana, not so much, even when Knight had a winning record against us. Notre Dame even less so. Not since Digger really. No team in the SEC has had more success against UK than has Tennessee (is that still true?). Maybe they feel more strongly about it than we do.

Duke? There is a mystique. On the short list of the best programs in the country, with Connecticut, North Carolina, UK, Arizona and Kansas, in no particular order (ahem). A game for the ages, but we don't play them enough to call it a rivalry.

Florida? For the time being, undoubtedly. Of course, they've been claiming preeminence in the SEC long before they won the crown. "If you want to win the SEC, you've got to go through us" crap. They surprised everyone last year in the tournament, and this year they deserve to crow about themselves (something they do oh so well). We'll see how long that lasts. If history is any guide, they'll regress to the mean. And join all the other rivals.

I'll have to admit to preferring the former tremendously.

Regardless, you're right about a lot of this and let's hope the Cats do indeed win.