by Holly Freeland

Created on: February 27, 2007   Last Updated: May 02, 2007

There is no bigger discussion forum for UK basketball fans right now than the fate of Tubby Smith. For years he has been a polarizing figure backed by thousands of fans and criticized by many others. He followed in the footsteps of one of the game's most successful coaches, Rick Pitino, and will forever be compared to him and his successes while at the school.

Tubby Smith should be given a last chance to right this ship. Marred by two less than stellar recruiting classes, he has a shot of bringing in two of the most highly anticipated players from high school in Patrick Patterson & Jai Lucas. They have both said that if they chose to play college basketball for the University of Kentucky if Tubby Smith is the coach. Is that reason enough to keep him the head coach? That reason alone is not.

Most Tubby bashers will say that he has never recruited a player either at Tulsa, Georgia or UK that has played in a Final Four game. While that statistic is true, he has coached many players who have gone on to play in the NBA- most notably Tayshaun Prince. He has recruited more McDonald's all Americans than his predecessor Rick Pitino, even though some of those players didn't work out at Kentucky. So, while recruiting is certainly an issue to a degree, the fact is that some players work out in a system, and some just do not. The key is to find the right combination of players who are stars and others who are role players.

Another argument Tubby bashers has is that he won his first, UK's 7th, national championship in 1998 with players Rick Pitino recruited. This is a true statement, but it is misleading in several ways. First of all, in 1997 Rick Pitino had an arguably better team in the national championship game and was unable to claim that same title. Secondly, if anyone thinks that it is easy to join and lead a program and win a national championship within one year's time, they are wrong. Not only are you dealing with a short time frame, the large task of getting 12-14 players to believe in your system and your methods of winning is hardly simple. Getting an entire team to buy into what you are teaching/coaching instead of the prior coaches' methodology and turning that into success is a great achievement.

While it has been a long and unappreciated road for Tubby Smith, he has one last chance to right the ship to get his players in his system, get assistant coaches who are young and excited, and re-energize the fan base. He hasn't had much room when it comes to his detractors, but the time is now more than ever to show the nation he deserves the chance to bring home # 8.

Learn more about this author, Holly Freeland.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.