Fire Tubby?

Wellt, that was interesting.

Of course, a considerable number of our “Concerned” fanbase is going to blame Sheray. For most of this season, some have considered Sheray not a “Kentucky-caliber” player. Others use Sheray as the shining example why Tubby cannot be trusted with the Wildcats. So as the heat builds on Tubby, those fans overanalyze Sheray’s play, looking for each busted defensive assignment, poor shot selection, and turnover. There are also the Perry Stephenson fans, who blame Tubby for favoring Sheray over the freshman. After the Big Blue Boo, Thomas’ play analysis was brought up almost as much as our stars.

And right before his lane violation, Sheray was the hero! With an amazing tap-in to put UK up by 2 with 31 seconds left, Thomas had righted all his Big Blue wrongs! How quickly the fates of this star-crossed player changed!

But was the lane violation Sheray’s fault? After the game, Tubby took the blame for the lane violation. John Clay reported:

Both Sheray Thomas and Tubby Smith said that Smith told Sheray to “get back,” which caused the lane violation before Jodie Meeks’ second free throw with 5.1 seconds left in regulation. Smith said he did not realize that the official was already passing the ball back to Meeks for the second free throw.

Whether that was true or not, its the consistent classy move we’d expect from our coach. “Put the blame on me, Concerned fans,” Tubby metaphorically says, “and leave the kid alone.” And for this incident — the most terrible incident that will probably forever link Sheray’s Wildcat History with the word “choke” — I do believe the Coach; its Tubby fault.

But losing this game was not just Tubby and Sheray’s fault, and it wasn’t centered on just a lane violation. Let’s spread out the blame fairly.

Just so that I don’t post anything belligerent:

Out of everything that’s happened this season — and last season as well — I am most saddened by the disappearance of the Second Half Adjustment™.

Remember when the Wildcats came out of the locker room after halftime, and would rattle off an 8 or 10 point run while playing stifling defense? It was almost guaranteed that the opposing coach would have to burn a timeout 4 minutes into the second half. It would always put control of the game back into the Wildcats’ hands.

I think the key of the Second Half Adjustment™ was the defense. Defensive assignments were either reemphasized or reassigned. The players’ mindset was set on making plays on D, and going all out to make those plays. Our scoring runs were always sparked by shutting down the team on the other end. The opposing team would always need to adjust their offensive sets around Kentucky’s efforts.

In his Florida post-game comments on the UK Radio Network, Tubby explicitly said he reminded his players that the first 5 minutes after halftime was crucial. However (I’m paraphrasing Tubby’s comments here), the foul situation prevented some players from being aggressive on D (*cough cough RANDOLPH AND WOO cough*), and through the whole game, the defensive effort overall was lackluster.

Is this because our personnel is unable to play Tubby’s D, or unwilling? Whatever the reason, the defensive effort coming out of the half has been uneven. Of course, you can say that the Cats’ play all season long has been uneven at best.

I think it’s safe to say that Tubby threw just about everything out on the court tonight. There were combinations of lineups that I don’t think I’ve seen before as well as some lesser used players getting minutes in crucial stages of the game; Michael Porter being one of those. I can’t say as I blame Tubby though, seeing how well it’s worked having the usual crew in the game down the stretch lately. I’ll be the first to admit that I said at a couple of different time near the end of the game, “they’re choking again.” It all turned out fine in the end, the seniors got the start as is customary and were able to contribute to a much needed senior night win.

Really though, it’s a shame we didn’t get to see ______ _____ tonight. He was the only suited up member of the team that didn’t get on the court. You know I could never figure out who all those Unnamed Player characters were in those old Super Nintendo basketball games. I wonder if his name will be in next years release of NCAA 07. That would be some really nice attention to detail if they left it out. Someone that has one of the new consoles will have to check this out for us and write back.

It’s also worth noting that there is an update to a previous “Stats I Didn’t Know®”. Tubby is now in second place behind “shaky hands Lute” on the active list with 14 consecutive seasons with at least 20 wins. I know this means nothing to most some UK fans but that is nothing but hall-of-fame worthy in my book. Although he will get there, Lute is right now sitting at 18 wins for the season.

Also, Duke lost again. Sweet.

Have you noticed a pattern lately?

• Start slow and fall behind by 12-16 points.
• I declare the game over and mumble something about “I can’t believe this is happening again.”
• UK then starts playing catch-up until halftime so that they are only down by two to four points.
• They open the second half with a little better defense but still no offense.
• Fall down by 12-16 points once again.
• I declare the game over and threaten to change the channel.
• UK starts the comeback.
• Randolph/Ramel/Joe hit some shots and bring it back to four to six points.
• Right on schedule when UK starts closing the gap, the other team catches fire.
• Kentucky’s defense turns it up a notch just enough to make you feel like there’s a chance to pull out the W.
• Jodie/Ramel/Joe start turning over the ball.

Tubby actually looks like he’s done. He really doesn’t look like he was into this game. Maybe John Clay or someone who was actually at the game could have a little more insight into this point. That’s just the way it felt watching it on tv.

This is the closest I have come to changing the Nahhh to an Eeeeh. It was also the most aggravated I have been since I watched the UK v Ohio football game a couple of years ago. Even down by four with 2 minutes to go I didn’t have much hope for pulling out a win. That is a very unusual feeling for me regarding the basketball team. As a matter of fact, it’s one of the only times I have felt like there was no chance. Tack another L up on the board simply because they couldn’t manage to play consistently for any extended period of time. Couple of notes in bullet form and in no particular order.

- Jodie Meeks (still!) can not pass the ball.
- Backdoor cut for layup #1. Damn, can’t let that happen.
- Joe Crawford is a frickin’ basketball chameleon, alternating between scrub and stud.
- Please stop trying to pass the ball to Woo in the lane.
- Alan Cutler is in Knoxville can’t wait to see how he wraps this up (I admit I’m obsessed).
- Backdoor cut for layup #214. Shoot me in the face.

My feeling pretty much from here on out is that if you don’t like Tubby, and you have every right to have that feeling, that you have to root AGAINST Kentucky in the remaining games. Tubby will not be fired for simply going .500 the rest of the way. If you really want change in the captain’s chair (and in your mind) have the best interest of the program at heart, you should be hoping to finish off this season 0-7 and then crash and burn in the SEC tourney.

At that point you are looking at an 18-13 team with only a marginal shot at making the big tournament. So what do you say? Are you willing to admit that you hope that’s what happens?

Whew. Just to show you what a two game losing streak can do to a usually optimistic UK fan (myself), I was nervous with around two minutes to go and a hefty lead that Tubby was taking the “starters” out to soon. Even though the win will be discounted by the “Lofton didn’t play” crowd it was nice to end the game with a sizeable margin in front of a semi-national TV audience. Since Kentucky has performed so poorly in the other nationwide games this one could help with seeding down the road.

As someone that doesn’t go to a lot of the games, I have a couple of questions to those of you that either have better hearing or got to see it in person. Plus, I’m sure some other people are curious as well. What does the triangle, or pyramid that Ramel shows after he makes a shot mean? I know that Woo has his W. Also what was the eRUPPtion Zone chanting at the end of the game. Sounded something like “we want Dwight”.

update: A quick thegoogle search reveals what Ramel’s triangle means via a Jerry Tipton article.

Damn, no midweek game this week. Sucks.

For those of you that read Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy on Page 2 over at ESPN this may be familiar. What you just witnessed comes in at number four on his 13 levels of losing chart. That’s right, the fourth most painful way for your team to lose a game. It is appropriately named The Broken Axle, because the wheels just came flying off in that game.

While watching the first half I had the feeling (as I’m sure most people did) that the players only meeting that Ramel and Bobby called earlier this week, and the long practices actually did some good. That the extra measures taken this week had been effective at stopping the losing streak at one. It felt as if it had finally “clicked” for everyone and that Tubby had an excellent game plan for the Dawgs. Mark Coury looked like he belonged on the court, Joe Crawford was scorching hot with 17 points, and all the substitutions were playing defense. On a side note, Perry Stevenson has a new nickname on this site: Ricochet.

In the second half UK made Takais Brown look All-World and for the second game in a row Randolph Morris did his best “Tyler Hansbrough vs Kentucky” impersonation. Did the team come out flat after halftime? Yes. Was Tubby out coached after halftime. Most definitely. Just to recap for a second, UK goes into the locker room with a 43-30 lead. What do you tell the team at this point if you are the coach? Keep up the energy, keep up the defensive pressure and stick with the game plan?

Tubby has always been (and I don’t think there is to much contention on this point) excellent at making adjustments during halftime. In my opinion one of Tubby’s weaknesses is that he isn’t very good at making strategy changes during the game. Dennis Felton “pulled a Tubby” and changed his defensive scheme and the Kentucky could just never adjust. That was truly one of the worst losses in recent memory.

Streak be damned, but the Cats couldn’t find a way to win this one.

Why wasn’t Jasper handling the ball down the stretch? As I was watching it, I couldn’t remember him committing that many turnovers or fouls during the game, but I thought maybe I had missed something. After having a chance to look at the box score you can see he didn’t have very many of either. I don’t know, maybe there was a reason.

There also goes the streak that the commentators like to bring up about “Kentucky leading at halftime” and going on to win the game. You can tack “and 1” to the end of that streak. It was really good to see both Sheray and Bobby have a decent game. Does it bother anyone else an inordinate amount when Randolph turns the ball over off the tips of his fingers? Yeah, me neither.

Now that we have that pesky winning streak out of the way let’s see how the tide of the TB turns next week.

Our long winter slumber at firetubby.com is over. I know all of you are relieved. More on this later. Since it’s been a while, I wanted to come back with a headline that would grab some attention. Fun game tonight. 87-49 Cats. The picture is a cropped version of a wallpaper from the South Carolina Athletics website. I know it’s now on my desktop how about your’s?