Fire Tubby?

I really didn’t want to do this on my first real posting. But I’m afraid I’m going to have to enter the sickening Big Blue Hole that is Richard Cheeks and the “Concerned Fans For UK Basketball.”

His group has gotten some nice publicity due to the Kentucky Kernel (UK’s Student Newspaper) refusing to publish an ad which was an open letter to [UK President] Lee Todd and [UK Athletics Director] Mitch Barnhart calling for Tubby’s dismissal. Here’s a clip of an email Mr. Cheeks posted on the alt.sports.college.sec.kentucky newsgroup where Kernel Editor-In-Chief Chris Poore explains why the Kernel declined the ad:

We didn’t run Cheeks’ ad because it had suspect factual statements in it that, if we ran, could be construed as libel, which is lying about someone in print to defame them. […] If Cheeks’ ad runs, edited by him, in the paper, it will be because it doesn’t contain any information we know to be false that is represented as fact.

(more…)

So I have arrived. And no, I am not the true Gimel. I only pretend to be him, and use his likeness as my avatar (until he sues me proper).

Honestly, who can forget Gimel from back during those up-and-coming Wildcat years. When the Pitino ran his boys into the ground so that they could run everybody else off the floor. Back when Wildcat players could party at Banana’s Tavern and not have to worry about ESPN.com linking to some drunken pictures of them groping co-eds posted on some blog. Back when drop-outs don’t seduce a basketball player in order to claim rape and lawsuit money. Man, those were the days.

But these are great days as well. You’ve got Dukies doing everything they can to smudge the sparking image that their Athletics PR took years to create. You’ve got the Hoosiers firing a decent coach and then hiring… another decent coach, while a vocal minority rumbles about how “Knight wouldn’t put up with that.” You’ve got Pitino in Louisville, since JoAnne decided that she didn’t like Boston since they were about to ride Rick out on a rail. “Those Kentucky people treated us like royality, and I guess I can get over the lack of Prada…”

You’ve got Tennessee fans actually paying attention to basketball game, now that they have a coach that convinced the talent he has to actually try. You’ve got the National Champs in Florida, who’s fans are now going to start setting the bar to Spurrier-like levels — that’s all they know to do, after all. (Just wait; Donovan is going to have a “dissapointing” 7-loss season.)

And you’ve got a state full of basketball fans, most that root for our Big Blue, most of which are quite the educated fans. And, more wonderfully, you’ve got a bunch of good-for-nothing Laz-E-Boy coaches who, thanks to the power of call-in radio talk shows and the Internet, get to voice their overly-passionate opinion about the team and the coach. After all, anything that happens to the team is the coach’s fault.

And me and my boy da ‘master get to make fun of them. Wonderful times indeed.

Karma. Sweet, sweet, karma.

Oh, how I hoped this day would come. Literally hundreds of thousands of people (in Lexington alone) are giggling with excitement upon hearing the news. JJ Redick was arrested last night for driving while intoxicated (DWI). I’ve had conversations with friends about the things I wished he would be arrested for; prostitution, gambling, gambling with a prostitute. Oddly enough, I never once pictured him being a DWI type of guy.

To make this day even more special Colin Cowherd has been railing against the idea of JJ being one of the preeminent NBA players. I’d like to dip this whole day into bronze like they used to do with baby shoes so I could put it on my shelf and walk by and smile occasionally.

Sorry to interrupt the debut of our new contributor, I just couldn’t pass up this news. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

edit: Oh please let there be dash cam, stumbling, Huggins bumbling goodness. Actually, why hasn’t the sobriety test been officially renamed “The Huggins” when sports stars are arrested.

Must email Sports Guy. Check.

I would like to welcome a new contributor to firetubby.com. He has been sending in article ideas and commentary for a while now so it was time to give him his very own account to post as he see’s fit. He shares a lot of the same ideas about this site that I do, which to some people means “Fair and Balanced” so that should be cool. All kidding aside I’m sure he will be writing some funny stuff. You should see him around in the next day or two. Enjoy.

And now for the obligatory press release info

firetubby.com is primarily a University of Kentucky Basketball news and entertainment site. Founded in February 2006 (holy crap, four months; that’s like the equivalent of three people years as far as up kept blogs go) to give a different “spin” on the wacky world of UK basketball.

Well, ce, you were right. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to comment on this article.

My comments would be more appropriate on my new football site firerich.com. BUT DON”T CLICK THE LINK. Damn it. I told you not to click the link. There isn’t anything there yet. You couldn’t help yourself could you? Ok, back to the regularly scheduled comment.

We should do everything in our power to get this guy’s last season at UK. Every sideline needs more Cooter.

ce

James Robert Cooter. Jim Bob Cooter. Why in the wide, wide world of sports would his parents do that. How fitting that a Jim Bob plays for Tennessee though. Talk about a match made in orange. I don’t think I would want him to play his last season at UK though ce. Billy Jack was enough, we really don’t want to tack on a Jim Bob.

To repeat what you probably have already read directly below this post, Shagari is gone. There was hope (for Shagari at UK) in the form of this article from WKYT. In the article Tubby said “I haven’t had a chance to sit down and talk with him.”

Then only a day later the news comes that Shagari has asked for and been granted release from his scholarship.

And now for a little commentary about the changes this off-season:

When the season ended a lot of people were screaming for changes. Changes that some of those people wished would start at the top, with Mr. Orlando Smith. As I said somewhere back at the beginning of this site, that wasn’t going to happen this year. Tubby stated that there would be changes made, and with the exception of different assistant coaches (and that could still happen), the team will look markedly different next year. What is yet to be seen is if there will be enough talent on the floor to win games. Next year should be Tubby’s most difficult coaching job yet.