Imagine a job where you have not just succeeded but, by almost any objective standard, excelled.
Yet, no matter what you do, nothing is ever good enough.
Imagine walking in Tubby Smith's shoes.
Over the first eight years of your tenure, you compile the second-best overall record in the entire country for your field.
Yet all you hear is, "Why aren't we ahead of Duke?"
You coach at a school that -- for all its abundant claim of tradition -- has won a whopping three NCAA titles in the past 47 years.
One of those championships you yourself won.
Yet all you hear is that you didn't win the title with "your recruits."
(A lament that I'm sure torments the eternal soul of poor Roy Williams as well -- please note sarcasm; the no-more-reason-to-cry Roy having won his own elusive first NCAA title with a nucleus heavy on "Matt Doherty's players.")
You've recruited enough talent into your program to compile the best winning percentage in the country over the past three years.
You've just signed an incoming class that one widely tracked Internet recruiting site claims contains three of the best 57 prospects in the country.
Yet in the state where you are employed, the whole populace seems engulfed in a dither over your "inability" to recruit.
In your eight years, you've made Kentucky one of only four schools to play in the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight four times.
Yet all you hear is, "When will the Wildcats get back to the Final Four?"
You've won 51 of your last 57 Southeastern Conference games (regular season and tournament).
You went 19-0 in a season (2002-03) when the SEC was, by consensus, said to be the best college hoop loop in all the land.
Yet all you hear is that the record you've compiled is somehow counterfeit because the league is down.
You are widely regarded as one of the true defensive gurus in your game.
Yet all you hear is your offense isn't fast enough, isn't fun enough and isn't the "Kentucky way."
www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/sports/colleges/university_of_kentucky/13198520.htm
