Tubby is 10-0 at Minnesota

[HogMavFan]

I wonder if Kentucky is second guessing their decision to run him off?

[donewithdale]

Why would they?  He Cokered at UK and needed to go before he did. 

[javajockey]

How long does BG have to get the program to the point where he will be safe?

Second question:  Where is that point?

[HogMavFan]

Why would they?  He Cokered at UK and needed to go before he did. 

Because he coached there 10 years and never won less than 22 games in a season or failed to make it to at least the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney. And he never lost to Gardner-Webb, San Diego, UAB, or VMI.

[donewithdale]

Because he coached there 10 years and never won less than 22 games in a season or failed to make it to at least the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney. And he never lost to Gardner-Webb, San Diego, UAB, or VMI.

Tubby inherited one of the two best programs at the time (outside of Duke) and left BG players that couldn't beat Gardner Webb, San Diego, UAB(which I believe Tubby lost to as well) and VMI.  Bottomline with Tubby was HIS RECRUITED teams looked great in January and February but couldn't win when it counted in March.  UK fans and admin had every right to demand more out of their program.  Florida was winning NC's and LSU was going to a Final 4 while Tubby couldn't make it out of the first weekend.  Pathetic at UK.

[Niels Boar]

Tubby may be the best coach in the nation at taking any roster and making it into a team you don't want to play by February.  He won some SEC championships with talent that was hardly overwhelming.  His recruiting was lousy at UK at the end.  In this environment you have to wonder why since he can obviously coach. Personality?  Not willing to cheat?

[songofthesword]

not willing to recruit.

he is the nutt of basketball. like nutt, his best season was with petino's players.

[idiotghos]

Comparing Tubby with nutt is absurd.  Tubby was at kentucky 10 years because he's one of the best in the game at teaching fundamentals and having his teams play smart.  nutt was here 10 years because he was buddying up with the people in power.

[Niels Boar]

not willing to recruit.

he is the nutt of basketball. like nutt, his best season was with petino's players.

I don't understand why he would even have had to try all that hard to get top recruits at UK.  He's obviously a superior teacher.  He was at one of the traditional, basketball-crazy powers.  Why wouldn't top players gravitate there?  But they will go play for Calipari at Memphis? Yeah, that makes sense.  Calipari just works harder. I don't buy that.

[donewithdale]

Tubby is not an elite head college coach.  He's a great X's and O's coach.  But more goes into it than just on the court coaching namely recruiting, building and maintaining a program and winning in March.  He's not in Choker Roy's or Coach K's class.  For that matter, as an overall builder and maintainer of a program, Tubby isn't in Boeheim's class.  Boeheim has had some horrific chokes but at least he built his own program and went to Final 4's over 3 decadesand won a NC with players he recruited.  Ben Howland at UCLA reminds me of Tubby with his great defenses and sporadic offensive teams.  But Ben can recruit and he wins in March with his recruits.  Tubby isn't in Nolan's class either.

UK deserves an elite coach.  I'm not sure Billy G qualifies for that.  But it doesn't mean they should have kept coattail riding Tubby.

[BrooklynRoss]

Ha, the arguments against Tubby make him look really good.

[blacksuit]

Comparing Tubby with nutt is absurd.  Tubby was at kentucky 10 years because he's one of the best in the game at teaching fundamentals and having his teams play smart.  nutt was here 10 years because he was buddying up with the people in power.

I can see the Nutt comparison. Both had reasonably long tenures, both had become complacent, both were not the "total package" that their respective schools were looking for, both had shown what they could do, both weren't recruiting all that well. Sure, their style and demeanor are totally different (Tubby had some class, Nutt acted like a used car salesman), but the analogy holds up.

All that said, he seems like a decent fellow, and I'm glad he's having success up there in the cold north.

[razorbak]

Plus Tubby won some SECs & a NC.

[Beaverfever]

Tubby is a fantastic coach but I still think it was probably time for him and kentucky to part ways. 

[TNhawgfan]

Tubby handed Heath his lunch every time we played them (even a couple of games where we jumped out to huge leads). He is a great in game coach and strategist, and I don't care who recruited his players on his National Championship team - he was the one making the decisions

[Beaverfever]

Tubby handed Heath his lunch every time we played them (even a couple of games where we jumped out to huge leads). He is a great in game coach and strategist, and I don't care who recruited his players on his National Championship team - he was the one making the decisions

I don't understand why in situations liek that the school can't just pony up the money and force the HC to hire a big time recruiter.  There was never any doubt that Tubby is a great coach, he just wasn't getting good enough players to win big his last few years, much like Nolan in his last few years here.  It's great to have great coaching, but coaching can't win you a NC, you need great talent to do that, along with good coaching

[LamarMundane]

Tubby may be the best coach in the nation at taking any roster and making it into a team you don't want to play by February.  He won some SEC championships with talent that was hardly overwhelming.  His recruiting was lousy at UK at the end.  In this environment you have to wonder why since he can obviously coach. Personality?  Not willing to cheat?

Tubby's and Nolan's problems were exactly the same. Both were at elite hoops programs, UK a little more elite, and both were outstanding coaches. However, both were getting older and both lost desire to play the recruiting game you have to play today. Nolan especially hated dealing with these go-betweens, AAU coaches, hangers-on, etc. So their programs withered away because of it.