Tubby Smith To Minnesota

[real fan]

Donovan, Petino, Stallings, all 3 are good picks and Kentucky will get a proven winner.

[tornado]

Those three are all presently at instate or in-conference schools, and I cannot imagine their fan base would let UK take them away.

Just curious, except for Tubby, when's the last time a school took a basketball coach away from a school in the same conference?

I know of this happening in football twice, but cannot think of a basketball example other than Tubby, and now they are running him out.
(Tommy Tuberville left Mississippi to be head football coach at Auburn in 1999,
and Tom O'Brien left Boston College in 2006 to coach NC State)

[That Guy]

I live in the Kentuckiana area. The press coverage has been nonstop here ever since the news was broken at about 2pm of Tubby's departure.

If you have been keeping up with Kentucky at all, then you will know it is one of the toughest to have in all of college athletics. Fans have been calling for Tubby to go for the past coupls of years now. They expect to be in the Final Four at minimum every other year. Yes it's absurd, but losing ten games a year is not an option at Kentucky. This is why I feel the UK jobs is one of the worst in college basketball, too much pressure, not nearly enough security.

I have 3-4 coaches that I feel like would possibly be good candidates for the Kentucky job:

Billy Donovan - Would be a fool to leave what he has built at Florida, honestly.

Mark Few - Would be welcomed I feel like. Could take the program where it wants to be.

Tom Crean - Simply a great coach, period.

John Calipari - Probably the best suited to handle the immense pressures of being the coach at UK. Also, would be able to get the recruits that the UK fan base demands.

There is a 0% chance Rick Pitino will be the coach of UK. Not only would he not be welcomed back by the fans, but this would also start a civil war in the state of Kentucky, literally. Rick Barnes is overrated as a coach. Just look at his Texas teams of recent memory: Doesn't knwo how to manage a game; didn't get the ball to Kevin Durant in the final 5 minutes of the Big 12 title game. No way Texas should've gotten housed like they did to USC last weekend. That's all I've got on this subject...for now.

[MacabreMob]

I was told 2nd/3rd hand that a couple big time alumni (R Chapman was one) were calling for Smith's head and getting support... Smith got wind of it and made a move before he got the axe.

[That Guy]

I was told 2nd/3rd hand that a couple big time alumni (R Chapman was one) were calling for Smith's head and getting support... Smith got wind of it and made a move before he got the axe.

There was definitely growing criticism for Tubby to go, but I don't know if they would've fired him, as he would've been owed over $3 million by UK. However, it was pretty apparent that they had lost their faith in Tubby.

Althought I personally wish UK would go winless in every sport every year, I am sad to see Tubby go. He is a class act.

[Fastbreak]

Tubby going to Minnesota tells you how nasty it is to be coach at UK, with people in the University above him constantly riding him, and fans jeering even though he always produces winning teams and has deep runs in the NCAA.
Even fans behind the home bench in Lexington have been known to heckle.
They are going to have a hard time getting and keeping a decent coach.

[tornado]

Tubby Smith has hired his first assistant at Minnesota, his son Saul Smith.

http://www.startribune.com/512/story/1092801.html

I spoke with a family member of Jim Molinari last night, and as of now, Mo is still employed as an assistant at Minnesota, and is working hard already in the offseason.

This article notes that Tubby met individually with each member of the "holdover" coaching staff.
"On Tuesday, Smith spent the day meeting with the holdovers from the previous coaching staff"

http://www.startribune.com/512/story/1089187.html

Tubby is also said to be considering as assistants,
Ron Jirsa (former Smith assistant and most recently the head coach at Marshall), Shawn Finney (another former Smith assistant who was the head coach at Tulane).

[tornado]

Tubby Smith has hired his first assistant at Minnesota, his son Saul Smith....

Tubby is also said to be considering as assistants,
Ron Jirsa .......

Tubby has now hired a second assistant, and it is Ron Jirsa.
Now he is rumored next to hire Oklahoma State assistant Jimmy Williams, known as a good recruiter.