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.
March 8th, 2007 by webmaster
Since there has been some recent speculation regarding Tubby’s contract, I dug around on the internets for a little while and decided to post what his current deal is. If you want to see the actual duplicate copies of the contract, the Herald-Leader has a pdf of it here. If you are lazy (like me) and don’t want to read all 14 pages I’ve provided the abbreviated version below. It is worth checking out the real contract if for no other reason than to check out “Tubby’s” signature. I don’t think I’ve ever seen quotes in a signature before, but I don’t really get out much.
For the sake of attribution, this information comes from SI.com around 2003.
Old contract: Tubby Smith
Contract length: 6-year extension thru 2007
Base salary: $180,000
TV, shoe, apparel income: $1.32 million
Country Club membership: No
Cars: 2
Buyout by coach if he leaves for another job: None
Payout by school if coach is fired: $750,000 per year left on the contract
Tidbits: $1 million retention bonus
New: Tubby Smith
Contract length: 8 years thru 2011
Base salary: $200,000
TV, shoe, apparel income: 2003-04: $1.55 million; 2004-05: $1.625 million; 2005-06: $1.7 million; 2006-07: $1.775 million; 2007-08: $1.85 million; 2008-09: $1.925 million; 2009-10: $2.05 million; 2010-11: $2.175 million
Country Club membership:
Cars: 2
Buyout by coach if he leaves for another job: None
Payout by school if coach is fired: $1 million
Tidbits: If the coach is disabled or dies, all salary and benefits are still provided; $1.5 million retention bonus for fulfilling contract thru April 3, 2007; additional $2.5 million bonus for fulfilling contract thru April 3, 2011; $50,000 bonus for NCAA Final Four appearance; $50,000 bonus if team GPA is 3.0 or better and 90% of players meet NCAA satisfactory progress requirements; $15,000 bonus for winning the SEC championship or qualifying for the NCAA tournament; 20 prime, lower level basketball tickets and 8 football tickets; 4 weeks paid vacation; Use of facilities to conduct basketball camps; Earned $50,000 from his basketball camp last year; $15,000 to appear at Michael Jordan’s basketball camp;$5,000 for a speaking appearance by the U.S. Navy and Department of Defense
We can dance, we can dance, everybody look at your hands.
Kentucky’s Computer Numbers are too good. The official RPI rating for Kentucky, as of Sunday, March 4th, is 11th. Two other “unofficial” RPI services has Kentucky’s Strength of Sechedule as 1st. One could guess that the official SOS is somewhere in the top as well.
Also, there was no good team from the SEC West. If Alabama or LSU went 9-7 or 10-6 in the SEC West, Kentucky would be fighting harder to stay alive. But the distance between those teams and Kentucky is quite wide.This February 27th Bubble Watch column at ESPN explains that it would take three straight losses (to Georgia, at Florida and first round of the SEC Tourney) to hurt us enough that our RPI and SOS could not protect us from an SEC West contender. And then, the SEC West contenders decided to keep losing.
For those of you who have worked yourself up in a lather about Kentucky possibly missing the NCAAs, go take a cold shower and rinse off. Even if Alabama beats us Thursday, the current Bubble Watch has us in the dance. Our RPI and SOS are too strong.
Besides, you know CBS is practically begging the Tournament Committee to let Kentucky in. This whole “3-Time National Coach of the Year Attacked By Disloyal Fanbase” storyline makes for good TV!
This scout.com article caught my eye today so I thought it was worth posting to see what everyone thinks. Two first names guy pretty much says that Kentucky must beat Alabama on Thursday “To even reach the bubble…” So not only is UK not already in the tournament they aren’t even a bubble team at this point.
Did I miss something? I know there has been some major suckage going on this year but is that really the prevailing opinion on the message boards right now? Seriously, I don’t really read them that often, someone fill us in. Do you think as of right now, Kentucky is OUT of the tournament?
Couple of clips for your listening pleasure today. They are both from The Herd with Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio. The first clip is an interview with Jay Bilas who in my opinion is one of the few college basketball analysts who tends to be able to give his honest opinion without much bias getting in the way. It pains me to say that since he is a former Dookie but he is really on my short list of talking heads who doesn’t annoy the hell out of me. This is where Cowherd compares Tubby to Michigan’s Lloyd Carr. Here’s the first clip.
The second clip is with Andy Katz (who seems to be known as “a jerk“: see #7). A couple of interesting things out of this interview, Katz says that Tubby’s buyout is “only” 4 million instead of the 9 million that was floating around last week. Also, they both seem to believe that most players don’t even recognize that Pitino even coached here in the mid-nineties and in general have no clue about the history of Kentucky basketball. That’s probably true.
I find some really odd/cool things when I’m putting together a post for this site. I think I’m going to start putting some of these links up when I find them. Someone surely has to find this interesting besides me. Again, I could be way off. Just tell me to stop if you don’t like it. First up, there is apparently a band called Digger Phelps. I listened to one of their mp3’s on the site and the lead singer sounds oddly like Mick Jagger.
Out of everything that’s happened this season — and last season as well — I am most saddened by the disappearance of the Second Half Adjustment™.
Remember when the Wildcats came out of the locker room after halftime, and would rattle off an 8 or 10 point run while playing stifling defense? It was almost guaranteed that the opposing coach would have to burn a timeout 4 minutes into the second half. It would always put control of the game back into the Wildcats’ hands.
I think the key of the Second Half Adjustment™ was the defense. Defensive assignments were either reemphasized or reassigned. The players’ mindset was set on making plays on D, and going all out to make those plays. Our scoring runs were always sparked by shutting down the team on the other end. The opposing team would always need to adjust their offensive sets around Kentucky’s efforts.
In his Florida post-game comments on the UK Radio Network, Tubby explicitly said he reminded his players that the first 5 minutes after halftime was crucial. However (I’m paraphrasing Tubby’s comments here), the foul situation prevented some players from being aggressive on D (*cough cough RANDOLPH AND WOO cough*), and through the whole game, the defensive effort overall was lackluster.
Is this because our personnel is unable to play Tubby’s D, or unwilling? Whatever the reason, the defensive effort coming out of the half has been uneven. Of course, you can say that the Cats’ play all season long has been uneven at best.
It seems as though our post “Breakin it down Seth Davis style,” has elicited a response from another FireTubby.com fan. This time instead of a ten page thesis, it’s more of a Nick Bakay, “Tale of The Tape” type offering. You may remember some of those columns over on ESPN’s Page 2. I would link to a couple of those articles but they are now being guarded by a sentry bot called ESPN Insider. Bakay was also the voice of the cat on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, but that’s a topic for a whole nother blog. That was uncomfortable wasn’t it. I just revealed to much about myself. By the way, the internets scares me sometimes. Moving on.
It is titled FIRE THE FANS, DON’T FIRE TUBBY!! The all-caps and exclamation points are the emphasis of the documents author. Again, pretty much the same disclaimer as with the Seth Davis-esh document: This was unsolicited by the FireTubby.com crew and none of the stats have been fact checked by us. I won’t use their name but feel free to call them BN. Only one last warning, the document is in PDF format. Just so you know.
Mad props to The Intern from Kentucky Sports Radio for finding this:
Its our very own Bobby Perry playing Dance Dance Revolution. Also known as “DDR” or “that game in the movie theater where teenage nerds go to exercise.” This is obviously a home version, and it appears Bobby is putting his strengths as an athlete and a music lover to work.
Not Pictured: Woo and Jared Carter playing Bungie Buddies from WarioWare: Smooth Moves.
I think it’s safe to say that Tubby threw just about everything out on the court tonight. There were combinations of lineups that I don’t think I’ve seen before as well as some lesser used players getting minutes in crucial stages of the game; Michael Porter being one of those. I can’t say as I blame Tubby though, seeing how well it’s worked having the usual crew in the game down the stretch lately. I’ll be the first to admit that I said at a couple of different time near the end of the game, “they’re choking again.” It all turned out fine in the end, the seniors got the start as is customary and were able to contribute to a much needed senior night win.
Really though, it’s a shame we didn’t get to see ______ _____ tonight. He was the only suited up member of the team that didn’t get on the court. You know I could never figure out who all those Unnamed Player characters were in those old Super Nintendo basketball games. I wonder if his name will be in next years release of NCAA 07. That would be some really nice attention to detail if they left it out. Someone that has one of the new consoles will have to check this out for us and write back.
It’s also worth noting that there is an update to a previous “Stats I Didn’t Know®”. Tubby is now in second place behind “shaky hands Lute” on the active list with 14 consecutive seasons with at least 20 wins. I know this means nothing to most some UK fans but that is nothing but hall-of-fame worthy in my book. Although he will get there, Lute is right now sitting at 18 wins for the season.
Also, Duke lost again. Sweet.
Take a bow fellas, it’s your last time to take it all in at the house that Rupp built. Don’t want to bump tfGimels post to much, just wanted to say thanks to the seniors. Don’t forget Shagari, he would have been here as well.