Some guy over on ESPN.com really tears into Tubby and the Cats in this article. Yesterday people were declaring “Kentucky could win the national championship“, and today you have this guy saying things like:
“Even after winning the school’s seventh national championship, Smith largely shied away from signing high-caliber players the Wildcats could have had. He focused more on lesser talented players that he could mold into a team and low-maintenance players that would fit his methodical, inside-outside offense.”
He mentions Tayshahn and Bogans as two exceptions to the type of crummy players Tubby likes to recruit. Then he picks on the (admittedly) weakest class Tubby has recruited by mentioning:
“Nondescript players like Lukasz Obrzut, Sheray Thomas and Bobby Perry became the norm.”
That is hardly the truth. I know, I know, this point has been beaten to death but he did have the number one class soon thereafter. You can’t have it both ways. If you rank recruiting classes before their first game you have to stick by this and can’t dismiss it at a later date because they didn’t pan out. I plan to write a column on this one day. No matter if every player from that class leaves the team it was still a number one class.
He then has this little comment:
“The Wildcats (15-5, 4-2 SEC) haven’t beaten any team of consequence since defeating Indiana 59-54 at Rupp Arena on Dec. 9 (unless you count Louisville), or really any formidable opponent before then (unless you count DePaul) for that matter.”
Ok, this guy is starting to piss me off. Who the hell is he to be discounting our wins versus Louisville. It’s fine if one of the Tubby Basher’s want to talk crap about who UK has played, because they usually are still pulling for the team to win (usually). But I’ve never even heard of this guy.
Google search: Mark Schlabach
Ahhh, I see what’s going on here. The first link from google shows what the problem is here:
“Mark Schlabach joined ESPN.com in July 2006 as a college football and basketball columnist. A graduate of the University of Georgia…”
A lot of the people from the other SEC schools are taking their shots while UK is in a down period right now since they have all been doormats to the SEC Championship for years. Problem solved.
January 26th, 2007 at 12:06 am
they might as well ask florida for permission to negotiate with billy donovan before the season ends tubbys sorry ass is gone after this season
January 26th, 2007 at 10:56 am
They won’t fire tubby. If they were going to they would have done it a long time ago and even if they do I don’t want Donovan, he’s dirty. We need a coach who wants to run and score instead of holding his players back in some 1930s hold the ball till five seconds are on the shot offense. They have great talent on that team excluding Perry, Orbpolack and did I say Perry, they just have a coach who I really think has no clue. He never gets his teams ready to play. espn and every other magazine should be ripping us. If we were Duke, they’d be ripping us I don’t know why they haven’t gotten on Smith’s case more. Sometimes I believe it’s a race issue. But for our tradition’s sake, Smith must go and then Barnhardt hopefully.
January 26th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Ok, I understand how everyone feels about the basketball team and all the no final fours in however many years it’s been. I get that. But how can you say that Mitch Barnhardt should go. Do you only care about the basketball team? Even if that’s the case don’t you want to see some of the other programs do well?
Was hiring Rich Brooks for the football job a good idea? At the time I didn’t think so. “There is no way this old guy can get the job done in the SEC”, were my thoughts. But now that I think back on it (especially after last season) do you think any other AD in the country would have stuck with Brooks long enough for him to get the job done? Not many of them would have. It’s nice to see the other sports have a chance to legitimately compete against any and all comers. Mitch Brooks is responsible for all of that.
January 26th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
they should of taken huggy bear while they could of…Next years class would include mayo, walker, and beasley but instead we got aj stewart! But since he already has a secure job, ford seams to be the next best canidate…the next guy has to be an alumni…i was kinda thinking about saul smith
January 26th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
shooter what would you have to say about this topic since you are all knowing…actually you are usually right, some how
January 26th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
I still think Brooks is a mistake. They left at least two wins on the table last year, one mediocre bowl win against a team who quit playing in November doesn’t make up for the past three years of raised ticket prices and below average play from seemingly every program outside of women’s basketball. Our recruiting and play is a joke in our main sport, men’s basketball. What do you think players from North Carolina think when they line up against us and see Bobby Perry, a guy who played in duke’s backyard and didn’t receive one single scholarship offer from the big North Carolina schools, is in our starting lineup. It’s a joke. A 6 foot 10 Morriss can only get two rebounds against Georgia!! They ran the same play on offense three straight times down the court on us, we never changed anything. Furthermore, Bradley has already shown he can’t handle the point, so why during the last two minutes of the last two games is Jasper sitting on the bench while we constantly turn the ball over. Junior Pro play, junior pro coaching.
January 26th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
When need Travis Ford
January 29th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
The ESPN guy is mad because we beat them in football !!!!