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.
So Cheeks issued a press release stating that the Kernel did not print the ad due to “business reasons”. Check out the press release, and the original ad’s text (which I am going to refer to as the Concerned Manifesto) on Cheeks’ web site. Must had been a slow sports news week, because evidently several news orginizations printed that information.
In response, the Kernel issued their own story on the events (warning: requires registration). So the bigger-time news organziations now smell a story. The Lexington Herald-Leader’s Jerry Tipton interviews Cheeks and Poore about the incident, which includes this gem of Cheeks explaining the nature of his group:
“A very loosely organized group of people who I met through the Internet,” Cheeks said. He couldn’t be sure of the membership: 100? 200? 1,000?
Loosely organized is probably a nice lawyer term for “me and the guys on the newsgroup that agree with me.” I spent some time Googling for his organization, and I only found two relevant areas: Cheeks’ web site and the alt.sports.college.sec.kentucky newsgroup. The newsgroup contains a user with a email address starting with ‘joseph’ and roughly 10 other email accounts, all of whom spend most of their time bemoaning Tubby.
One of the highlights include an emailer compares an opposer to Cheeks’ mantra with the Nazis because he “simply been programmed to support the establishment”.
God bless the Internet.
Anyway, evidently this story caught Dickie V’s eye, who takes Dickie C to the hole for the dunkeroo, baybee! (Short version: Dickie V names Cheeks to the “All-Whacko” team, which is evidently more whacko than Vitale himself.) Of course, Cheeks and his prophet joseph are planning the retaliatory salvo chopped full of relavant comparisons to Pitino and Rupp. Oh, and I bet the phrase “ten-loss seasons” makes it in there too.
Now that you’ve got a nice grip on the Concerned group, be sure to dive into the Concerned Manifesto and Dr. Cheeks’ amazing analysis of “What is Basketball?“. And if you know of an online forum where followers of the Concerned Manifesto gather, let me know, as I want to make sure Cheeks claim of 100 to 1000 members is [in]accurate. (And no, I’m not going or trying to promote Tubby Basher Hunting. UK Fans are UK Fans, even the ones we think fell on their head and aren’t thinking straight.) Enjoy!
Edit 10/16/2006 - I forgot to edit this story to show that several of the Concerned have let me know their online forum: http://dynastydefenders.com
March 12th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
I have been a UK fan since the early 60’s and the last 8 years have been the most frustrating of all the 40+ years I’ve been watching and listening to UK basketball. My brother-in-law put it best when he said during the 99 season: “I’d rather watch paint dry than watch this game”!! Some of the Joe Hall years were frustrating but not 8 in a row. Anyway, here’s what I say about firing Tubby: I think Tubby is a good coach but we need a change. The 20-10 one win and out in the NCAA is getting old and personally I don’t see that changing as long as Tubby hangs around. We need a new perspective, even if it is 20-10, one win and out in the NCAA at least there is hope for the next year with a new coach. My suggestion is Travis Ford, look what he did with EKU and UMass. Let’s get a coach that is not afraid to coach offense. Anyone that has been watching UK basketball and knows some of the history knows the best teams ever have lived on offense, run and gun. We have had 10 years of defense and with the exception of Tubby’s NCAA win with Rick’s recruiting, we’ve done very little. My hope was to see UK overtake UCLA with 13 NCAA titles before I die but with Tubby there it will never happen.
One other comment: Randolph Morris is one of the most talented offensive centers that has ever attended UK. I did not see Spivey but I don’t see how his offensive skills could have been much better than Morris’. He will make it in the NBA because the NBA coaches will not put up with his somewhat lackadaisical attitude toward rebounding and defense (at best he is off and on on rebounding and defense).
I leave you with a question (actually this is for Tubby), who is the leader of this team? If he doesn’t know, we need a change and based on his comments about “nobody stepping up”, he doesn’t know!!!!!
July 15th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Wanting a coaching change is one thing. Broadcasting that opinion is another. The latter is hardly helpful and potentially disasterous.
July 16th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Tubby SUCKS!!!! and is HORRRRRRIBLLEE!!! HE couldn’t coach a freakin T-BALL GAME!! im not afraid to say it like you band geeks are. I’m glad he’s gone and i wish we could write him out of UK’s history books!!!