Fire Tubby?

From Tuesday’s Pardon The Interruption. Just in case you were wondering.

Kornheiser: Villanova

Wilbon: Kentucky

For what it’s worth, Mitch Barnhardt made a statement in support of Tubby:

“Tubby’s our basketball coach,” athletic director Mitch Barnhart told The Associated Press on Monday. “He’s done a great job of representing the platform of Kentucky basketball. We’ll always look to make adjustments to the things we’ve got to do to get better. Tubby and I will do that collectively.”

It’s probably not enough for some UK fans to get off the subject and focus on basketball, but it is for me. I’m very much looking forward to the Villanova game.

My thoughts on the West Bracket:

Nice of the Selection Committee to put Duke as a 6 seed, and made sure if Duke and UK ever met in this region, it would be in the Regional Championship. Does this mean Josh McRoberts will stomp Perry Stevenson’s chest? And then Coach K doesn’t suspend him?

If UK were to get past this weekend — I know, I know, stop gritting your teeth — the sweet-16 matchups are very favorable. Out of all the teams, probably Virginia Tech is the scariest, due to their athleticism and ability to survive in a rough ACC. They were somewhat inconsistent (not UK inconsistant) but had a nice run to the ACC Championship Game Semi-Finals.

Southern Illinois doesn’t look like it was challenged very much this year. They beat one team from the AP Top 25, and that was Butler, who beat a inconsistent ranked Tennessee team and a slumping ranked Gonzaga team this year. The Salukis lost to decent major-conference teams (Arkansas, Indiana) who both made the tourney. They had some fantastic love from the number-crunchers, who awarded them a #6 RPI ranking in the final results. But I can’t complain about good RPI and SOS numbers. Maybe I’m wrong, and I’ll admit that I didn’t follow the Salukis very closely.

But back to the first game. Villanova is 21-10, #18 in the final RPI. They were 4-5 against the AP Top 25 according to ESPN, but it appears they lost the last five games against ranked opponents. According to the AOL Fan House, ‘Nova lives and dies with its fantastic freshman guard and Big East Rookie of the Year Scotty Reynolds. Senior forward Curtis Sumpter leads the team in scoring. ‘Nova’s third-leading scorer, senior guard Mike Nardi, has been dealing with injuries. All three average over 29 minutes a game. I doubt there would be fatigue reasons for the first game of the tournament, but a weak bench could be exploited if any of the three see foul trouble.

So is this the ‘Nova 3 versus the Chastised Kentucky 3 of Morris, Crawford and Bradley? Oooh, sports journalists! There’s your clever angle!

Kentucky pulled an 8 seed this year as expected. They were placed in the West region and will face #9 Villanova. The impending (if they were to find a way to win) second round match up would be #1 Kansas. The game will be in Chicago on Friday. More later.

Discuss?

1st update: Seth Davis said Villanova would beat Kentucky during his bracket analysis. More as I hear it.

2nd update: At least ‘Nova isn’t ranked, so maybe we have a shot right?

3rd update: Louisville plays in Lexington on Thursday. Traffic will be fun.

4th update: Syracuse missed the tournament. firejim.com?

5th update: Bob Huggins and K State: Out (do they sell alcohol on Sunday’s in Manhattan?), Jim Calhoun and UConn: Out.

6th update: 104 teams won 20+ games this year.

Disclaimer: This post is assuming that the talking heads are correct and that Kentucky is a lock to make the tournament. A small side note to this, I have heard that LFUCG authorities have cordoned off an area around downtown Lexington, namely the Fifth Third and Central Bank buildings on the off chance that UK is left out by the selection committee so as to prevent people from jumping off of them.

My question to you kind reader is where will Kentucky land in the NCAA tournament? Let’s go over where some others think Kentucky will fall.

Joe Lunardi: of Bracketology fame stated on Fridays PTI that UK was looking at a possible “double digit” seed. Ouch.

590 WVLK postgame show: Not sure who the person was that actually said it, but they thought it would be and 8 or 9.

1300 WLXG postgame show: Someone there said 6 or 7.

The 6 or 7 is being wildly optimistic and unrealistic in my opinion. I also heard (possibly Lunardi) say half jokingly that it was setting up for a possible Kentucky - Duke first round match-up. Joke or not that’s putting UK at 10 and 11 and Duke at 6 or 7.

Just to throw my guess out there they will end up in the dreaded 8/9 game. What do you think? Even if you have never left a comment before, now is the time to do it. You can just leave your number, it won’t hurt a bit.

In the comments for webby’s pictorial summation of inbounds violation, there was somebody rattling about how we got 20 wins on “cupcakes” in our non-conference schedule. That’s absurd thinking. When I wrote my Safety Dance article, I mentioned that our RPI and strength of schedule was at the top of the rankings, despite our losses. I didn’t mention our non-conference schedule, because, honestly, I thought we Kentuckian “all-knowing basketball fans” understood that the RPI factors a strong non-conference schedule as a benefit.

But since there are evidently Kentucky fans who have lost their grip on the game, let me quote JL Blue from his latest column:

To wit, among the UK non-conference opponents who either made the field, finished atop their conference’s regular season or competed in the conference finals are:

* Miami (OH) - Regular season #2 MAC, NCAA Tourney as Conf. tourney champ
* UMass - Regular season champ (tie), at-large possible
* EKU - NCAA Tourney as OVC champ
* Santa Clara - WCC #2, lost to Gonzaga in conf. finals
* College of Charleston - Lost to Winthrop in conf. finals
* Houston - Lost to Memphis in conf. finals
* Miss. Valley State - Lost to Jackson St. in conf. finals

Take a look. EVERY SINGLE non-major conference, non-conference foe either played for a chance to make the NCAA Tourney or made the NCAA Tourney.

There are no deserts on this tray. So please, when you rattle off reasons about why Ten Loss Tubby should be fired, leave the “20 wins because of cupcakes in 2006-07″ lie out of it. I think you have plenty of other reasons and excuses to use.

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:

I say that because Andy Katz wrote an article about the pressure on coaches to win. There is a notable exclusion that you might notice as a UK fan. The words Kentucky and Tubby are nowhere to be found in that column. How can you have a “hot seat” type conversation at this point, in this season, and not include one of those words in it? Could it be that Wildcat Nation is a little hypersensitive on that topic? Nahhh. Never.