Fire Tubby?

Quote of the game:

“Thomas is so good on the offensive end”

-Dick Enberg

I really hope that he was referring to his offensive rebounding skills and not his scoring ability.

Patrick Sparks was 6 for 6 from three in the second half. Just a monster game. I’m not sure what the magic number is but even if Patrick has missed five three’s in a row the fans still think his next shot will go in.

**firetubby.com game break** Joakim Noah just fouled out of the Arkansas-Florida game with two and change to go in overtime.

Even when Patrick ball-fakes when completely guarded people are disappointed when he passes up a shot. If you need to kill clock Rondo is the man that needs to be in the game. When he brings the ball up and gets over half court, movement comes to a complete stop. I guess he is still pouting about not starting apparently. Look at the reaction of two of the guys who got benched. Randolph comes off the bench and has a dominating performance inside with a lot of dunks and ends up with a double-double. Rondo conversely has had two of the worst games of his career. I guess some people respond differently when challenged. Great win for the Cats

**Florida just lost in overtime 85-81 to Arkansas.**

Kentucky travels to South Carolina to face the hated Balkman. No wait that should have probably been the hated Gamecocks. Well, actually no. I don’t think many cat fans hate South Carolina but it seems that by the end of every South Carolina game the last couple of years we’ve all been booing Balkman. I’m guessing it’s probably his cocky attitude (heh). I swear I didn’t think about that, it just happened. He’s probably number two in the SEC hatred-wise, now distantly trailing Joakim Noah from Florida. Anyway, South Carolina is -3.5 in this game. It is unbelievable that we are a three and a half point dog to a Dave Odom team. Go Cats!

Picture borrowed from http://uscsports.collegesports.com/

This was during the second half around the time of the first substitutions. Woo had just came to the bench.

So does it look like Rondo might have been pouting a little bit during the game? I don’t know. Only he knows. Hopefully he is more mature than that and I just happened to catch a picture at an (in-)opportune moment.

Rondo for THREEE! Ahhh, what is he DOING!!! Rondo at the line for a one and one, CLANG clangclangclang, arrrhh. That seems to be the general sentiment lately while watching Rondo play. Anytime Rondo touched the ball there were restless rumblings in the Rupp crowd. I think the misguided three’s, missed free throws, and his apparent need to hold the ball for three to five seconds every time he touches it lately has people frustrated with him. I took some pictures during the game so I thought I would put some up here. The first one is of Rupp in true blue fashion (not to rip off WLEX or anything). The full size version makes a pretty good desktop wallpaper. The angle isn’t the greatest but hey, until someone wants to give me some center court seats that’s as good as it’s going to get.

Apparently either Rondo got upset over not starting or maybe he just had an off night, but from what some of the callers were saying the day after the game on 1300 WLXG’s The Sport’s Huddle they thought it looked as if Rondo was possibly on a shooting strike. It didn’t feel like that to me at the game but who knows what on his mind. I happened to take a picture of the UK bench in the 2^nd half and it shows Rondo as the only player sitting on the bench when the rest of the team is standing up and involved in the game. (besides Woo who had just came out of the game for a rest). Is that a sign of more Rondo frustration or just coincidence? I’ll post the picture tomorrow and you can let me know what you think.

firetubby.com was mentioned in this Herald-Leader article yesterday by John Clay. Welcome all.

So, Georgia is coming to town tonight and we are -9! Wow really? Georgia must be playing awful. I won’t try to break down the match up, you can get that stuff somewhere else. I know the Cats are pretty well covered from every angle but sometimes I see something a little different. Remember this guy? Well he isn’t on the Bulldog’s team anymore. I’m sure there is a story out there somewhere about that, but no matter, apparently he’s an actor and a former under-talented basketeball player. Too bad he gave up basketball, it was always funny to see him laboring up and down the court. Now we just get to make fun of Shagari and Woo. Wait a minute, that shouldn’t be funn…nevermind.

I’ll actually be at the game tonight so that should be cool. Depending on which team shows up. Team slow-start, team-comeback, or team-asleep. Wouldn’t it be nice to see the team that played Louisville show up and just run Georgia off of Cawood Court for once? Go Cats!

*picture borrowed from scout.com which borrowed from dawgpost.com

No, of course not. Yes it is disappointing that we are having such a bad year. Yes, I know we haven’t won a championship since 1998. It was with Pitino’s players huh? Ok, so wasn’t Roy Williams’ championship at UNC more or less with Matt Doherty’s players? Of course it was. Would Carolina have won the championship with Doherty still at the helm? No one can say for sure. Not to belabor the point but if Pitino get’s the credit for Tubby’s first year success then Buzz Peterson should get credit for everything that Bruce Pearl accomplishes this year.

Now that that’s out of the way, let me say that I by no means agree with everything that Tubby has done, is doing, and will do. His style is slow and monotonous occasionally but I can also admit that it is thrilling basketball when the defensive pressure gets cranked up and the 3’s start to fly.

Tubby isn’t going anywhere right now unless he decides to act on some of the rumors of previous years and leave because of all the pressure/expectations. Other than that, it would be insane for UK, Mitch Barnhart, or most importantly for the fans with some sort of agenda besides winning to try to run him out of town. I think most people understand that this is simply a blip on the radar screen of Kentucky basketball and not a trend. Go Cats!