Post by CatScratch on Mar 13, 2007 13:43:42 GMT -5
An interesting read today on Yahoo....
Kentucky is a decent team. And Tubby Smith is, generally, milking almost everything out of them in the face of a ferocious schedule. But since when did a program with this much support, tradition and history start being satisfied with “decent”?
It is that fan passion that has driven UK to those seven national titles won by a record four different coaches, to 43 SEC championships, to fill 23,000-seat Rupp Arena each night, to build a $30 million practice facility, to pay Tubby Smith $2.1 million per year. It is the fans that the school gladly celebrates when they camp out for weeks to get into "Big Blue Madness" or put their season tickets in their will. It’s like no place else.
“When they talk about the Big Blue Nation, it's true,” Smith said.
And so it is disingenuous to denigrate those same fans for unreasonable expectations, as seems to happen every time Smith’s precarious employment status is raised in the media. The fans’ emotional and financial commitments through the years are what made Kentucky. They have every right to expect a return on investment.
And under Smith, UK just isn’t delivering it in full.
While this is hardly a disaster, UK shouldn’t have back-to-back 13- and 12- (eventually) loss seasons. It shouldn't have 10-loss seasons in five of the last eight years. It shouldn’t go since 2004 without signing a top 25 recruit. It shouldn’t have the mass transfers it has suffered through the past decade. It shouldn’t have two seasons – last year and 2001-02’s “Team Turmoil” – blown by chemistry issues stemming from recruiting mistakes.
It shouldn’t have Smith cobbling together victories with a hodgepodge roster – some years there are no guards but good big men, some years good guards and no big men – an annual tightrope walk of talent.
It shouldn’t have to rely on prodigal son Randolph Morris’ failure to get drafted last June to bail out its frontcourt this year.
It shouldn’t have to watch kids who were dying to play in Lexington become stars at other, now superior SEC teams. Corey Brewer (Florida) and Chris Lofton (Tennessee) both reportedly wanted to attend UK but were not offered scholarships.
UK doesn’t have a single top 125 recruit signed for next season, which means unless Smith can land either (or both) West Virginia big man Patrick Patterson or Houston guard Jai Lucas, next season could be bleak.
Mostly, Kentucky shouldn’t have to be anything less than Kentucky. It should be a dominating program, the one that used to lay waste to the SEC before being a fearsome draw in the NCAAs. It shouldn’t be one reliant on superior coaching to maximize itself to, maybe, one NCAA tournament victory. Things could be far worse. But they could be better, too.
He makes some interesting points. The entire article is on Yahoo's basketball page today.
Kentucky is a decent team. And Tubby Smith is, generally, milking almost everything out of them in the face of a ferocious schedule. But since when did a program with this much support, tradition and history start being satisfied with “decent”?
It is that fan passion that has driven UK to those seven national titles won by a record four different coaches, to 43 SEC championships, to fill 23,000-seat Rupp Arena each night, to build a $30 million practice facility, to pay Tubby Smith $2.1 million per year. It is the fans that the school gladly celebrates when they camp out for weeks to get into "Big Blue Madness" or put their season tickets in their will. It’s like no place else.
“When they talk about the Big Blue Nation, it's true,” Smith said.
And so it is disingenuous to denigrate those same fans for unreasonable expectations, as seems to happen every time Smith’s precarious employment status is raised in the media. The fans’ emotional and financial commitments through the years are what made Kentucky. They have every right to expect a return on investment.
And under Smith, UK just isn’t delivering it in full.
While this is hardly a disaster, UK shouldn’t have back-to-back 13- and 12- (eventually) loss seasons. It shouldn't have 10-loss seasons in five of the last eight years. It shouldn’t go since 2004 without signing a top 25 recruit. It shouldn’t have the mass transfers it has suffered through the past decade. It shouldn’t have two seasons – last year and 2001-02’s “Team Turmoil” – blown by chemistry issues stemming from recruiting mistakes.
It shouldn’t have Smith cobbling together victories with a hodgepodge roster – some years there are no guards but good big men, some years good guards and no big men – an annual tightrope walk of talent.
It shouldn’t have to rely on prodigal son Randolph Morris’ failure to get drafted last June to bail out its frontcourt this year.
It shouldn’t have to watch kids who were dying to play in Lexington become stars at other, now superior SEC teams. Corey Brewer (Florida) and Chris Lofton (Tennessee) both reportedly wanted to attend UK but were not offered scholarships.
UK doesn’t have a single top 125 recruit signed for next season, which means unless Smith can land either (or both) West Virginia big man Patrick Patterson or Houston guard Jai Lucas, next season could be bleak.
Mostly, Kentucky shouldn’t have to be anything less than Kentucky. It should be a dominating program, the one that used to lay waste to the SEC before being a fearsome draw in the NCAAs. It shouldn’t be one reliant on superior coaching to maximize itself to, maybe, one NCAA tournament victory. Things could be far worse. But they could be better, too.
He makes some interesting points. The entire article is on Yahoo's basketball page today.
