Fire Tubby?

Many Thanks to FireRich.com’s own Hefty Lefty for the screencap.

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.

I’m probably more interested in this stuff than most people, but I find the Lexington media fascinating. More specifically, the sports coverage. That’s why you are likely to come to this site and see me discussing the latest media personality running from the cops or when one of them is arrested for drunk driving and allegedly kicking a cop in the junk.

Last weekend I posted the video of Alan Cutler’s reaction to the Vanderbilt loss. In the video he was well, being Alan Cutler. Over-enunciating every third word and in general just sounding a little condescending. Cutler isn’t known for being the biggest supporter of Tubby Smith fan (more on this in a second) so it probably wasn’t much of a surprise that he was fired from his radio show on WLAP. He is being replaced by another well known sports personality in Lexington, Dick Gabriel. His show will be called Sports Nightly with Dick Gabriel. You can read all about it on the HL’s site. Host Communications and Clear Channel are trying to push this show statewide via UK’s Big Blue Sports Network. Cutler had this to say about the situation.

“Host Communications can’t have someone like me saying whatever I feel about the University of Kentucky.”

So that may be the reason he was being especially Alan Cutlerish in his report. It’s also worth noting that Cutler is apparently a member of the anti-Tubby site Dynasty Defenders. The guy that runs the site katman2000 also posts videos on YouTube and one of his videos is about whether Cutler was fired because the UKAA sent the word from on high. Who knows. And just because, here is a picture of WLEX sportscaster Ryan Lemond.

Or so says FoxSports.com columnist Yoni Cohen. Ok, so he gets a few key points wrong but THIS is sticking your neck out there.

He says that “years ago” Randolph Morris tried to leave for the NBA. Uhhmm actually that was last season. He also says we had a 10 game winning streak before being pantsed by Vandy. A ticky tack point I know but as a UK fan in regard to such things it’s my obligation to correct him. Sir it was an ELEVEN game win streak. And you thought Chris Cross was optimistic. Woah.

Jared Carter re-injured his shoulder and will be out for the remainder of the season.

via WKYT

At the taping of the Tubby Smith Show, the UK coach anounced that Jared Carter will miss the rest of the season after reinjuring his shoulder in practice this morning. Carter had dislocated the shoulder prior to the Maui Invitational. Smith said that UK will apply for a redshirt season for Carter, and that he is expected to make a full recovery.

In money made from licensing that is. From July 1st 2005 to June 30th 2006 the University of Kentucky is still one of the top brands in college sports. Check out the rest of the list here.

Sorry to get you excited with the headline. There won’t be any news to get you excited (or chill you out, depending on how it affects you) in this post. It may give you the munchies though, because it is lunch time (mmmm Joe Bologna’s). Anyway, the Maui Invitational schedule has been released and we play DePaul in the opening round with an impending UCLA match up in the second. You can view the weird inverse bracket here.

But I have no doubt that if we get defeated by Chaminade in the second round the headline on the front page of the Herald-Leader will read “A Wowie in Maui”. Oh, you know it will happen. Am I right Mark Story?

UK has released their 2006-2007 non-conference schedule.

Take a look and let us know what you think.

Karma. Sweet, sweet, karma.

Oh, how I hoped this day would come. Literally hundreds of thousands of people (in Lexington alone) are giggling with excitement upon hearing the news. JJ Redick was arrested last night for driving while intoxicated (DWI). I’ve had conversations with friends about the things I wished he would be arrested for; prostitution, gambling, gambling with a prostitute. Oddly enough, I never once pictured him being a DWI type of guy.

To make this day even more special Colin Cowherd has been railing against the idea of JJ being one of the preeminent NBA players. I’d like to dip this whole day into bronze like they used to do with baby shoes so I could put it on my shelf and walk by and smile occasionally.

Sorry to interrupt the debut of our new contributor, I just couldn’t pass up this news. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

edit: Oh please let there be dash cam, stumbling, Huggins bumbling goodness. Actually, why hasn’t the sobriety test been officially renamed “The Huggins” when sports stars are arrested.

Must email Sports Guy. Check.

To repeat what you probably have already read directly below this post, Shagari is gone. There was hope (for Shagari at UK) in the form of this article from WKYT. In the article Tubby said “I haven’t had a chance to sit down and talk with him.”

Then only a day later the news comes that Shagari has asked for and been granted release from his scholarship.

And now for a little commentary about the changes this off-season:

When the season ended a lot of people were screaming for changes. Changes that some of those people wished would start at the top, with Mr. Orlando Smith. As I said somewhere back at the beginning of this site, that wasn’t going to happen this year. Tubby stated that there would be changes made, and with the exception of different assistant coaches (and that could still happen), the team will look markedly different next year. What is yet to be seen is if there will be enough talent on the floor to win games. Next year should be Tubby’s most difficult coaching job yet.