But if we don't land Donovan, or maybe Crean or Pearl, (really anyone who ought to be a top coach) then UK fans are going to have no one to blame but themselves if we end up right back in this place 3 years from now.  That's been my biggest fear about losing Tubby: You can't guarantee who/what you will replace him with.

I think it is probably the best for everyone involved.  Tubby just seemed tired.  Some will say he is run off.. dunno how true that is.  It's all perception I suppose.

I didn't expect it this quickly.  I hope we can make the right decision here.

Regardless of your Tubby Love/Hate, this is great timing. The worst case would be him leaving in the summer. Now we have a chance to line up a solid coach. I can't see Donovan leaving UFL. He has proven he can win a championship at Florida and their AD Foley has committed large resources to the program.

Please don't mention Crean. He has missed 4 NCAAs in 8 years and only made if pass the 1st round in 2003 with Dwayne Wade on the bench.

I'm interested in the Billy Gillispie pursuit. If you can make Texas A&M a power, you must be a good coach. He is young, but that is not bad thing in today's high pressure world of college basketball.

They says the official spoke on condition of anonymity because the school has not announced the hire.

The AP reports basketball spokesman Scott Stricklin said Smith met with the Kentucky players today.

They report that Stricklin said he didn't know what Smith told the players.

You can check out the story here: http://www.wtvq.tv/blogs/solid_blue_blog

• Wasn't he involved with the U of Illinois recruiting violations when Bill Self was there?
  
• The well-worn rumors that he's quite the drinker brings way too many memories back that end with "Sutton".
  
• According to the SI article I read about him a few weeks back, he's quite overly obsessed with basketball. The article reported that he still had a plastic Christmas tree up in his apartment/house in late February.

kentucky is still a premier job because of its name, but if you take the name out of it (i know, it matters just listen to me) there is no way that any of the possible candidates would leave their current positions to go to uk.

donavan is out of the possibility, but someone like pearl is VERY likely to me. brean could easily be had, but i dont think he would do anything close to as well as tubby. kentucky made tubby smith the coach he was thought to be, you guys want a coach like rick pitino who is actually a good coach and can come in and improve upon the kentucky name instead of just feeding off of it.

my prediction on who you guys will get? tom crean. izzo is too high profile to make lateral move from michigan state to kentucky (yes a move from msu to uk is lateral right now) but crean is a level below uk, a G-R-E-A-T coach and will make you guys a better program.

mark my words, the next kentucky coach will be tom crean.

Outsiders: Wright and Izzo