Tubby gone...

[morgousky]

They have their whole team returning coming off of a 21-13 season and he drove them into the ground? Just another example of the poor education system in Kentucky. How dumb do you have to be to claim Memphis was ran into the ground with those circumstances?

You don't seem to be able to read through things well. Stop talking out of your ***.

Tubby did well enough by your standards. But that's the extremely low bar you've invented for him.

Tubby made enemies fast in Memphis. He screwed with the Lawsons because he's not going to give an inch; he's too stubborn. In Memphis you cannot burn the local bridges if you can't recruit nationally, which he can't. Memphis wants to win, they want fans to show up to games. They want to recruit city kids. They don't want record setting losses at home to Tulane. The conference after 2/ teams is trash. 20 wins in that conference is nothing. The vast majority of the year Memphis was just hoping for an NIT birth.

The Memphis fan base is Kentucky-lite, a mid major version. I don't blame them because I understand Memphis recruiting. Bowen just proved that these academic AD's are clueless. Tubby was his call, no one else wanted it.

Tubby was told countless times to stop pushing Saul Smith over the interests of the program. He was asked to pacify the Lawson's and make inroads at home. He agreed to those terms then immediately pulled a Tubby. He's not as classy as most here believe, he's a selfish and egotistical manipulator who gets by because he doesn't cheat. But that's just his vision of himself, a man above others. That's why he can't recruit, he thinks it's about him. And he wants to be seen as some morality pioneer.

We get it - you love Tubby and think you've got it figured out over the rest of the country, but you're clueless. Memphis has a shot to grab a former player who's loved in the city and has connections to top talent tomorrow. AAU boys love him.

The fact is, I'll take Penny Hardaway at Kentucky before I'd hire Tubby. 100% guaranteed. Wouldn't have to think at all.

Would I hire Penny at Memphis? Probably at this point. But only because they've botched their program so badly it's literally worth the shot. They've got nothing to lose now.

 

[Big John Stud]

Read the linked article. That is running the program in the ground. NOBODY wanted to watch this team play against cupcakes and lose while scoring 59 points.

https://www.commercialappeal.com/st...1/why-memphis-may-fire-tubby-smith/414598002/

Nah, that's ignorance and ageda. To say something was ran into the ground means it was ruined or destroyed. The Memphis basketball program is in no way ruined or destroyed. Saying that it is because of low attendance is just dumb. The Louisville basketball program was ran into the ground, has no recruits going forward and is looking at harsh sanctions. The Memphis program has no such problems and returns everyone from a 21-13 team.

 

[Cindog28]

According to your logic I assume Billy Gillispie didn't "run UK into the ground" either? Talk about ignorance and agenda. Look in a mirror!

Like Tubby, Gillispie was terrible with the public and boosters (i.e. Rotary Club), awful with recruiting, attendance was down, but not a bad x's/o's guy.

I assume you'll just call me a name or use ANOTHER racial epithet that doesn't belong on this board, so don't waste your time.

 

[CatfanMike47]

Cal has not officially landed Jeffries. He can not sign until next year.

Can sign in the fall

 

[Blueworld_3.0]

I will never understand the loyalty and outright nuthugging that many UK fans have for OTS.
Why do people completely ignore the fact that he flirted with both the South Carolina and Virginia programs while still employed by UK?
Why do people ignore the fact that he directed his agent to negotiate with Minnesota for a full month before RESIGNING from UK without saying goodbye to his players?
And all of that was on top of his refusal to work the AAU system to gain inroads and make connections to help land prime recruits.
BTW, those who despise the current system that Tony Bennett uses at Virginia, do I have to remind you of the plowhorse brand of basketball OTS employed while at UK?

I just get the feeling that the OTS legend is greater than the sum of his parts. He hasn't been able to even come close to duplicating a fraction of the success he had at UK. Why???
There seems to be a lot of selective memory involved with the guy. At least regarding his tenure at UK.

 

[Midway Cat]

I'm still shocked they hired him in the first place. You could pick names out of a hat and not find a coach who was a worse fit for their program. They must have thought they were on the verge of some kind of recruiting scandal and needed a coach that absolutely wouldn't push the envelope.

$10 million to leave? Hope it was worth it. Whoever negotiated that ridiculous contract should be fired along with him.

 

[Big John Stud]

According to your logic I assume Billy Gillispie didn't "run UK into the ground" either? Talk about ignorance and agenda. Look in a mirror!

Like Tubby, Gillispie was terrible with the public and boosters (i.e. Rotary Club), awful with recruiting, attendance was down, but not a bad x's/o's guy.

I assume you'll just call me a name or use ANOTHER racial epithet that doesn't belong on this board, so don't waste your time.

Nah I won't call you names, I'll just laugh at your predictable fake outrage and let you acting like Tubby and Gillispie are the same thing speak for itself. Gillispie was terrible and an abusive prick to boot, nothing like Tubby, but he didn't run UK into the ground either, you don't seem to understand the meaning of the phrase like the others. When he left we had a few solid players and after Cal brought in his recruiting class, it was one of the most exciting UK teams ever. You couldnt have that the very next year if the program was ran into the ground.

Eddie Sutton ran the program into the ground and it took years to recover if you want an actual example of your extreme phrase.

 

[Dirk2Bowie]

Has Vitale's browbeating of Memphis let up yet so he can yammer more about us?
-Oh, you say he hasnt even mentioned Memphis???

 

[BlueVelvetFog]

Not really. He’s never won anything of any value that he did on his own without Pitino’s players.

Stop

 

[Blue Decade]

He might be a great person, but he’s a very mediocre coach.

Wrong on both counts.

 

[BlueVelvetFog]

What a stand up guy you are then. Congratulations for being so evolved. Knuckle dragger here; doesn't change the reality that many of the loudest mouthpieces across the college basketball landscape labeled an entire fan base and state racists. From where I stand, that's disgusting. And as I see now, and a few times since, it doesn't apply anywhere else but here. I take issue with that. I'm glad you don't. Don't know what I would do (or the entire fan base for that matter) without you telling me to settle down.

Members of our fan base didn’t do our fans many favors with its image BEFORE Tubby got here, either. Remember, the loudest and squeakiest get attention

 

[BigBlueCatNation]

Stop

Most of us could’ve won with that team.

 

[John Henry]

Nah I won't call you names, I'll just laugh at your predictable fake outrage and let you acting like Tubby and Gillispie are the same thing speak for itself. Gillispie was terrible and an abusive prick to boot, nothing like Tubby, but he didn't run UK into the ground either, you don't seem to understand the meaning of the phrase like the others. When he left we had a few solid players and after Cal brought in his recruiting class, it was one of the most exciting UK teams ever. You couldnt have that the very next year if the program was ran into the ground.

Eddie Sutton ran the program into the ground and it took years to recover if you want an actual example of your extreme phrase.

What is your definition of years? The UK program was back on top immediately after the two year NCAA ban. The program at Memphis is only a shell of what it was when Calipari coached there. With the Tubster as coach there was no enthusiasm, the attendance was dropping and Memphis fans did not respect him. That is a program being run into the ground. Had Memphis allowed Tubby to remain through his contract the program would have been in flames. Memphis bit the bullet and told him to get out of town. This makes his third unsuccessful coaching job since he bailed out of Kentucky in the middle of the night after negotiating in secret with Minnesota during the regular season. That sure was a classy move now wasn't it? You see in Tubby's world it is all about him. He is stubborn to a fault and the game passed his kind by years ago. It is time for him to take his mult-millions and exit the stage. He does not belong in today's coaching world and is radioactive to a program. Any serious program will stay away from him. Memphis has seen the light and packed his bags. So Tubby won again with his million dollar buyout if that makes you feel any better.

Thank God he is not our coach anymore.

 

[Cindog28]

Nah I won't call you names, I'll just laugh at your predictable fake outrage and let you acting like Tubby and Gillispie are the same thing speak for itself. Gillispie was terrible and an abusive prick to boot, nothing like Tubby, but he didn't run UK into the ground either, you don't seem to understand the meaning of the phrase like the others. When he left we had a few solid players and after Cal brought in his recruiting class, it was one of the most exciting UK teams ever. You couldnt have that the very next year if the program was ran into the ground.

Eddie Sutton ran the program into the ground and it took years to recover if you want an actual example of your extreme phrase.

I don't know you, but I pity you. Act so intelligent, but you are not. I will no longer respond to your bullying on this board. Rafters may not be the best, but the posters here do not deserve to be put down CONSTANTLY by you.

EAD.

-Cindy

 

[Catfan in Tn.]

The $9.75 million still owed Tubby, according to his contract could be paid over 6 years. As of this morning Tubby is still the Coach at Memphis.

 

[Bkocats]

I don't know you, but I pity you. Act so intelligent, but you are not. I will no longer respond to your bullying on this board. Rafters may not be the best, but the posters here do not deserve to be put down CONSTANTLY by you.

EAD.

-Cindy

You forgot to say and bless your heart

 

[Cindog28]

You forgot to say and bless your heart

My mistake.

"Bless your...

heart."

Better? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

 

[CELTICAT]

EAD.

-Cindy

In a fire. Amirite?

 

[Blue Decade]

Wnere are all the tv pundits on espn calling Memphis fans racists? Where are they crying?

Because that’s what almost all TV pundits do.

**** man, Tubby snuck out of here in the middle of the night, no notice, didn't even tell or talk to his players. Coward. But we are the racists monsters that ran him out of town.

Come on. Tubby has been gone from Lexington for a decade. At the time of his departure, I heard surprisingly little discussion of race being a factor. Because it wasn’t a factor. Tubby resigned from UK. He wasn’t fired here. He left on his own terms to take the Minnesota job because everyone on earth knew Tubby couldn’t recruit to UK standards. It was a shrewd, proactive move to fix a bad fit. Whatever the deal is or isn’t, this current situation is Memphis’ problem. It isn’t UK’s problem, so don’t try top make it a UK problem.

Only in Lex did we run off a hell of good coach and a hell of a good man. I've got nothing against Tubby. I like the guy.

Have you ever met Tubby? You might not like what I am going to tell you. Tubby is, at the same time, a much better basketball coach and less of a gentleman that you might think. The guy can really coach, but he can’t recruit. He is 1 of the most manipulative people I have ever been around. Tubby is high maintenance. He and his wife wear on other people pretty quickly. That’s why he moves a lot.

 

[KMKAT]

It’s incredible that the media might get this story exactly right in advance of what happens.

The moral of the boosters must be really low to move out a coach who just signed his deal the previous August. How the AD keeps his job should be questionable.

The Smith family was being applauded for the work he did to get them to the tournament. But Memphis not extending their season tells me Tubby was hired without a lot of booster support. His agent is simply getting paid every turn however; that guy must be able to sell ice in Alaska.

BTW, did BCG get his $$ after the Cutler chase down?

 

[Bobcat94_rivals]

All I'm going to say is I'm sure glad Tubby and Gillespie isn't our problem anymore lol. I stayed a fan , watched every game ,and even had season tickets some of those years but man it was hard to watch. We are blessed with the state of our program right now.

 

[Catfan in Tn.]

Attendance at 48 year low and donations down tells you why Memphis wants to show Tubby the door.

 

[John Henry]

Attendance at 48 year low and donations down tells you why Memphis wants to show Tubby the door.

That is the definition of a man running a program into the ground. To continue down this path would have led to a full blown flame out by the Memphis Tigers. They had to stop the bleeding.

 

[Bkocats]

My mistake.

"Bless your...

heart."

Better? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

With a Cindy twist.. perfect :joy::joy:

 

[Blue Decade]

The moral of the boosters must be really low to move out a coach who just signed his deal the previous August. How the AD keeps his job should be questionable. The Smith family was being applauded for the work he did to get them to the tournament. But Memphis not extending their season tells me Tubby was hired without a lot of booster support.

The situation in Memphis is complicated. Memphis is a college basketball team in an NBA market. That’s always a tough recipe. Memphis had a brief run at the elite NCAA level under Gene Bartow in the 1970s, then another with Calipari before UK hired him away. This left a bitter taste in the mouths of Memphis boosters, but duplicating their prior success in an NBA city would be difficult. Tubby is being fired because attendance at Memphis basketball games is way down, and because their AD either doesn’t have the balls to stick by his coach or else has been overruled. Penny Hardaway has never been a college basketball coach before. If Memphis’s hires him, and if he can recruit, then he can the Memphis boosters happy for a while, until they find out if he can actually coach. This is a trap for top talent in the area. DJ Jeffries has already indicated that he understands this and won’t get involved. The timing of his commitment to UK was not a coincidence. James Wiseman will be next. That doesn’t mean Hardaway can’t recruit. It just means Jeffries and Wiseman are already tight with UK’s staff, and don’t need to play the Memphis game.

 

[Catfan in Tn.]

Only 9 Coaches in the NCAA Tournament are paid more money than Tubby Smith.

 

[Big John Stud]

I don't know you, but I pity you. Act so intelligent, but you are not. I will no longer respond to your bullying on this board. Rafters may not be the best, but the posters here do not deserve to be put down CONSTANTLY by you.

EAD.

-Cindy

I don't act anything, I had an issue with people claiming a team that went 21-13 that hadn't won 20 games in the previous 4 years was ran into the ground. It's more of a basic common sense thing than an "act so intelligent" thing.

Thanks for your grand announcement that you will no longer respond to my bullying, I will seek counseling and try to find a way to go on with life without you. You should seek a PC person to help you feel better about your terrible takes since you can't handle and feel bullied by the truth.

 

[CatsPaws270]

Oh please. Add Memphis to the list of programs he drove into the ground. And he gets $10 million to leave! He doesn't need another job. He needs a banker to count his money

Ran them into the ground huh? I mean a better record in year 2 than Pastner had in his last year. LOL

Pastner had no blame in your mind I guess...

 

[Bobcat94_rivals]

Only 9 Coaches in the NCAA Tournament are paid more money than Tubby Smith.

That statement alone shows how bad Memphis done with hiring Tubby. They was crazy in agreeing to that amount of money for a coach that has been mediocre at best since for the last 15 years.

 

[Bobcat94_rivals]

Ran them into the ground huh? I mean a better record in year 2 than Pastner had in his last year. LOL

Pastner had no blame in your mind I guess...

I will agree that by records alone Tubby has done a respectable job at Memphis and honestly I don't think you could ask for much better with the talent he had this year. The problem is much deeper though as he run off the best players and he won't recruit at a level to be any better than they are right now. So basically Memphis either has to accept that the program will either be what it is with little to no excitement and the boosters and fan support dwindles continually or make a move and hope they get it right this time. It's a hard decision either way with the buyout and unknowns.

 

[Catfan in Tn.]

Tubby has lost the fans at Memphis. Will next season bring them back? Not sure Memphis can afford to wait and see.

 

[CatsPaws270]

I will agree that by records alone Tubby has done a respectable job at Memphis and honestly I don't think you could ask for much better with the talent he had this year. The problem is much deeper though as he run off the best players and he won't recruit at a level to be any better than they are right now. So basically Memphis either has to accept that the program will either be what it is with little to no excitement and the boosters and fan support dwindles continually or make a move and hope they get it right this time. It's a hard decision either way with the buyout and unknowns.

If I'm not mistaken, Memphis had the top recruiting class in the AAC last season and I think he just got a 4-star a few weeks ago for this class.

 

[UKWildcats#8]

You don't seem to be able to read through things well. Stop talking out of your ***.

Tubby did well enough by your standards. But that's the extremely low bar you've invented for him.

Tubby made enemies fast in Memphis. He screwed with the Lawsons because he's not going to give an inch; he's too stubborn. In Memphis you cannot burn the local bridges if you can't recruit nationally, which he can't. Memphis wants to win, they want fans to show up to games. They want to recruit city kids. They don't want record setting losses at home to Tulane. The conference after 2/ teams is trash. 20 wins in that conference is nothing. The vast majority of the year Memphis was just hoping for an NIT birth.

The Memphis fan base is Kentucky-lite, a mid major version. I don't blame them because I understand Memphis recruiting. Bowen just proved that these academic AD's are clueless. Tubby was his call, no one else wanted it.

Tubby was told countless times to stop pushing Saul Smith over the interests of the program. He was asked to pacify the Lawson's and make inroads at home. He agreed to those terms then immediately pulled a Tubby. He's not as classy as most here believe, he's a selfish and egotistical manipulator who gets by because he doesn't cheat. But that's just his vision of himself, a man above others. That's why he can't recruit, he thinks it's about him. And he wants to be seen as some morality pioneer.

We get it - you love Tubby and think you've got it figured out over the rest of the country, but you're clueless. Memphis has a shot to grab a former player who's loved in the city and has connections to top talent tomorrow. AAU boys love him.

The fact is, I'll take Penny Hardaway at Kentucky before I'd hire Tubby. 100% guaranteed. Wouldn't have to think at all.

Would I hire Penny at Memphis? Probably at this point. But only because they've botched their program so badly it's literally worth the shot. They've got nothing to lose now.

Tubby would have won 22-23 games with his whole team back next season and made the American Conference Tourney Finals and the Final Four of the NIT. The man can coach, flat out.

 

[Catfan in Tn.]

Tubby would have won 22-23 games with his whole team back next season and made the American Conference Tourney Finals and the Final Four of the NIT. The man can coach, flat out.

Won’t make any difference about what might happen next year. He has lost the support of the fans and higher ups. Penny changes all that in their minds because he will bring the fans back.

 

[Mojocat_rivals48469]

EXACTLY. Anyone who can't see that has a pretty obvious agenda for slamming him....just isn't man enough to own up to it.

Welcome to 2018, when there's no room for simple disagreement any longer. Nope - if you don't agree with me, then it's obvious you are a _____________ (fill in the blank with your choice of insulting epithet).

Mind you, the conversation is about just how great a coach Tubby is - we're not talking about John Wooden or Coach K or some other all-time great where there really can't be much debate. We're talking about Tubby, who's about to be fired for at least the second time. But no, no room for honest disagreement - if you won't acknowledge what is astoundingly obvious it can only be because you're a closet racist. Good grief.

 

[UKWildcats#8]

Won’t make any difference about what might happen next year. He has lost the support of the fans and higher ups. Penny changes all that in their minds because he will bring the fans back.

Well the fans and higher ups are all racists' man....clearly. Tubby can coach and he had Cincy on the ropes in the tourney. Tubby was on a 10 year plan to make Memphis great again and get them to Dayton and the NCAA Tourney by 2028.

 

[Blue Decade]

If I'm not mistaken, Memphis had the top recruiting class in the AAC last season and I think he just got a 4-star a few weeks ago for this class.

Memphis did have the top recruiting class in the AAC last year, which isn’t saying much since Memphis was a marginal top 50 class. Tubby’s current class consists of Myreon Jones and Connor Vanover, a couple of 3 stars. But it’s indisputable that recruiting is not, and has never been, Tubby’s strong suit.

 

[Blue Decade]

Well the fans and higher ups are all racists' man....clearly.

I hope this is said in gest. If not, then this is troll posting.

Tubby can coach and he had Cincy on the ropes in the tourney. Tubby was on a 10 year plan to make Memphis great again and get them to Dayton and the NCAA Tourney by 2028.

Tubby Smith is a better basketball coach than most people think. But he is also 1 of the most high-maintenance, manipulative people I have met in Lexington. There is a reason why he wears out his welcome everywhere he has been.

 

[55wildcat]

Cindog says E A D......

time to get the popcorn..

 

[irishcat1965]

As long as Tubby isn’t at UK, I don’t care who hires or employs him. But I do want his agent!