Tubby Smith

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Orlando "Tubby" Smith
Tubby Smith introduced as the Golden Gophers head basketball coach
Title	Head coach
College	Minnesota
Sport	Basketball
Team record	20-14
Born	June 30, 1951 (1951-06-30) (age 56) [1]
Place of birth	Scotland, Maryland, U.S. [1]
Career highlights
Overall	407-159 (.719) [2]
Championships
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship (1998) SEC Tournament (1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004)
Awards
Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year (1994, 1995) [3] SEC Coach of the Year (1998, 2003, 2005) [4] Jim Phelan Coach of the Year (2005) [5] Henry Iba Award (2003) Naismith College Coach of the Year (2003) [6]
Playing career
1969–1973	High Point
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1979–1986 1986–1989 1989–1991 1991–1995 1995–1997 1997–2007 2007–present	Va. Commonwealth South Carolina (asst.) Kentucky (asst.) Tulsa Georgia Kentucky Minnesota

Orlando "Tubby" Smith (born June 30, 1951 in Scotland, Saint Mary's County, Maryland) is the men's basketball head coach at the University of Minnesota. He previously served in the same role at the University of Tulsa, the University of Georgia, and most recently, University of Kentucky.

Over his 17 seasons as a head coach, Smith has had 15 twenty-win seasons, making the NCAA Tournament each of those years.^[7] In 2005, he joined Roy Williams, Nolan Richardson, Denny Crum and Jim Boeheim as the only head coaches to win 365 games in 15 seasons or less. Entering the 2007 season, Smith's career record was 387-145 and his .733 winning percentage was eighth among active coaches.^[8]

Two of Smith's three sons are following in their father's coaching footsteps. "G. G." Smith, who played for his father at the University of Georgia, is currently an assistant coach at Loyola Collge in Maryland.^[9] Middle son Saul, who played for his father at the University of Kentucky, has joined his father as an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota.^[10] Brian, the youngest son, is a senior point guard at Ole Miss.^[11]

Contents 1 Early years 2 Assistant Coaching Jobs 2.1 Virginia Commonwealth University 2.2 University of South Carolina 2.3 University of Kentucky 3 Head Coaching Stops 3.1 University of Tulsa 3.2 University of Georgia 3.3 University of Kentucky 3.4 University of Minnesota 4 Head coaching record 5 U.S. Olympic Basketball 6 Community 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Early years

Smith is the sixth of 17 children born to sharecroppers Guffrie and Parthenia Smith. His large family accounts for his unusual nickname. Of all the Smith children, Tubby was most fond of staying in the galvanized washtub where the children were bathed. Smith says he tried to shake the moniker several times, but it stuck incessantly. He recalls that a 10^th grade teacher who didn't tolerate nicknames was the last person to call him by his proper name, Orlando.^[12]

After having a scholarship offer from the University of Maryland rescinded, Smith enrolled at High Point College (now High Point University), graduating in 1973. He played under three different head coaches at High Point, including future boss J. D. Barnett. He lettered four times and was an all-conference performer as a senior. Smith earned a Bachelor of Science degree in health and physical education while at High Point, and also met his future wife, Donna, who was the homecoming queen.^[13]

After a brief stint in the Air Force^[14], Smith began his coaching career with a four-year stint at his high school alma mater - Great Mills High School in Great Mills, Maryland, compiling a 46-36 record. His next stop was Hoke County High School in Raeford, North Carolina, where he recorded a 28-18 mark in two seasons.^[1]

[edit] Assistant Coaching Jobs

[edit] Virginia Commonwealth University

At the college level, Smith began as assistant coach at Virginia Commonwealth University under his former High Point coach J. D. Barnett. From 1979 to 1986, VCU amassed a 144-64 record, winning three Sun Belt Conference Championships.^[1]

Smith took two important things away from his experience as an assistant coach for the Rams. First, under Barnett, Smith learned the principles of the ball-line defense, a hallmark of Smith's teams throughout his head coaching career.^[1] Second was a relationship with fellow assistant David Hobbs, an assistant and associate head coach under Smith during his tenure at University of Kentucky.^[15]

[edit] University of South Carolina

Smith left Virginia Commonwealth in 1986 to join George Felton's staff at the University of South Carolina. Felton remembered Smith from having recruited one of his players while Smith was at Hoke High School.^[16] During Smith's three years, the Gamecocks were 53-35.^[1] Later, roles would be reversed, with Smith bringing Felton in as an assistant coach at Kentucky.^[17]

[edit] University of Kentucky

Smith joined the University of Kentucky under then head coach Rick Pitino, who had the dubious honor of rebuilding a UK program that had been rocked by NCAA probation and player defections.

With only eight scholarship student-athletes, none taller than 6-7, the staff molded the Cats into winners once again, exceeding expectations to record a 14-14 mark. The following year, with Smith promoted to associate coach and UK still on probation, the Wildcats earned a 22-6 record, a final ranking of ninth in the AP poll, and an SEC-best 14-4 record.

Smith wasn't the only soon-to-be high profile name on Pitino's coaching staff at Kentucky. Future head coaches Ralph Willard, Herb Sendek, Billy Donovan, and Bernadette Locke-Mattox were all Smith's colleagues.^[18]

[edit] Head Coaching Stops

[edit] University of Tulsa

From 1991 to 1995, Smith led the Golden Hurricane to a 79-43 record. Rebuilding the basketball program his first two years, he then led the team to two consecutive Missouri Valley Conference regular season titles and two appearances in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament in 1994 and 1995. Smith's 1994 Tulsa team upset UCLA in the tourney's first round before knocking off Oklahoma State. In '95, the Hurricane blew away Big Ten team Illinois to open March Madness.

[edit] University of Georgia

On March 29, 1995, Smith accepted the head coaching job at the University of Georgia, becoming the school's first African-American head coach.^[19] In two seasons, he led the Bulldogs to a 45-19 record, including the first back-to-back seasons of 20 wins or more in school history.^[20] His teams achieved a Sweet 16 finish in the 1996 NCAA Tournament and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament in the 1997 NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs defeated Clemson to open the '96 tournament before upsetting the top-seeded Purdue Boilermakers.

[edit] University of Kentucky

Tubby Smith was introduced as the Wildcats' 20^th head coach on May 12, 1997, charged with the unenviable task of replacing popular coach Rick Pitino, who had left to become the head coach of the NBA's Boston Celtics. The Wildcats were at the top of the basketball world at the time, having won a national title in 1996 and, according to many, missing a second straight title in 1997 by the torn ACL of shooting guard Derek Anderson.^[21] (Anderson tore his ACL in January against SEC foe Auburn; Kentucky lost the 1997 title game in overtime to the Arizona Wildcats.) The team Smith inherited sported seven players from the Arizona loss, and five from the 1996 championship team. However, since most of the players who had left after the 1996 and 1997 seasons were high NBA draft picks, his team had the lowest pre-season ranking since Kentucky came off probation in 1991. ^[22]

In his first season at UK, he coached the Wildcats to their seventh NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, including a come-from-behind victory against Duke in the Elite Eight. His 1998 National Championship is unique in modern times, as being the only team in over twenty years to win without a First Team All American or future NBA Lottery Pick. (see 1998 NCAA Tournament).

Smith's teams, known primarily for a defense-oriented slower style of play coined "Tubbyball", received mixed reviews among Kentucky fans who have historically enjoyed a faster, higher-scoring style of play under previous coaches.

Smith led Kentucky to one National Championship in 1998, a perfect 16-0 regular season conference record in 2003, five SEC regular season championships (1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005) and five SEC Tournament titles (1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004), with six Sweet Sixteen finishes and four Elite Eight finishes (1998, 1999, 2003, 2005) in his nine seasons. He totaled 100 wins quicker than any other Wildcat coach except Hall of Famer Adolph Rupp, reaching the plateau in 130 games.

Although Smith compiled an impressive resume during his UK career, he came under considerable pressure from many UK fans, who believed that his failure to achieve a Final Four appearance in his last nine seasons was inadequate by UK standards. He did come just a double overtime loss short of a Final Four appearance in 2005, however. This drought is the longest of any coach in UK history.^[23] That along with his double digit losing seasons (which led to Tubby's critics nicknaming him "Ten-Loss Tubby") led to the pressure.^[24] On March 22, 2007, Smith resigned his position of UK Head Coach to accept the head coach position at the University of Minnesota.^[25]

Smith led the Wildcats to an overall record of 263-83 record for a winning percentage of .760. In his 10 seasons with Kentucky, he averaged over 26 wins per season.^[26]

[edit] University of Minnesota

Smith was hired as the new men's head coach of the University of Minnesota on March 22, 2007. ^[27] He replaces Dan Monson who resigned from Minnesota on November 30, 2006 and Jim Molinari who had been serving as the interim coach since Monson's resignation. Coach Smith joins Minnesota after several disappointing seasons for the Gophers. Since Monson was brought in from Gonzaga on July 4, 1999 to rebuild a Minnesota program scandalized by academic fraud during Clem Haskins' regime, the Gophers made the NCAA Tournament just one time, and in 2007 endured the first twenty loss season in their history.

Smith's coaching has had an immediate impact on the previously inept Gophers squad. The team went from 8-22 in 2007 to 20-13 in 2008. Smith also lead his Golden Gophers to the Big Ten Tournament semi-finals after defeating 2nd seeded Indiana. Coach Smith also harvested a top 25 recruiting class, the best in years for the program.

[edit] Head coaching record

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Tulsa Golden Hurricane (Missouri Valley Conference) (1991 — 1995)
1991–1992	Tulsa	17-13	12-6	T-4th
1992–1993	Tulsa	15-14	10-8	4th
1993–1994	Tulsa	23-8	15-3	1st	NCAA Sweet 16
1994–1995	Tulsa	24-8	15-3	1st	NCAA Sweet 16
Tulsa:		79-43	52-20
Georgia Bulldogs (Southeastern Conference) (1995 — 1997)
1995-1996	Georgia	21-10	9-7	T-3rd	NCAA Sweet 16
1996-1997	Georgia	24-9	10-6	4th	NCAA Round 1
Georgia:		45-19
Kentucky Wildcats (Southeastern Conference) (1997 — 2007)
1997-1998	Kentucky	35-4	14-2	1st	NCAA Champions
1998-1999	Kentucky	28-9	11-5	3rd	NCAA Elite 8
1999-2000	Kentucky	23-10	12-4	T-1st	NCAA Round 2
2000–2001	Kentucky	24-10	12-4	T-1st	NCAA Sweet 16
2001–2002	Kentucky	22-10	10-6	T-2nd	NCAA Sweet 16
2002–2003	Kentucky	32-4	16-0	1st	NCAA Elite 8
2003–2004	Kentucky	27-5	13-3	2nd	NCAA Round 2
2004–2005	Kentucky	28-6	14-2	1st	NCAA Elite 8
2005–2006	Kentucky	22-13	9-7	6th	NCAA Round 2
2006–2007	Kentucky	22-12	9-7	4th	NCAA Round 2
Kentucky:		263-83	120-40
Minnesota Golden Gophers (Big Ten Conference) (2007 — present)
2007–2008	Minnesota	20-14	8-10	6th	NIT Round 1
Minnesota:		20-14	8-10
Total:		407-159
National Champion         Conference Champion         Conference Tournament Champion

[edit] U.S. Olympic Basketball

Smith was selected to help coach the 2000 U.S. Olympic Men's Basketball Team in Sydney. He served as an assistant to then-Houston Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich as the Americans met the high expectations set for them, capturing the gold medal.

Currently, he serves on the NCAA Committee to study basketball issues, joining Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Oregon's Ernie Kent. He serves on the National Association of Basketball Coaches Board of Directors and in June 2000, spoke at a Congressional hearing on the issue of gambling in college sports.

[edit] Community

Smith has been very active in the Lexington community. The Tubby Smith Foundation, which he established to assist underprivileged children, has raised over $1.5 million in the past 5 years. Also, several community centers in the greater Lexington area bear the moniker "Tubby's Clubhouse" due to his work within the centers.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• 2003 Henry Iba Award Winner

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v • d • e Kentucky Wildcats Basketball 1997-1998 NCAA Champions 3 Allen Edwards | 5 Wayne Turner | 11 Saul Smith | 13 Nazr Mohammed | 14 Heshimu Evans | 15 Jeff Sheppard | 21 Cameron Mills | 34 Scott Padgett | 42 Jamaal Magloire Coach Tubby Smith

v • d • e Current Big Ten Conference men's basketball Head coaches Bruce Weber (Illinois Fighting Illini) • Tom Crean (Indiana Hoosiers) • Todd Lickliter (Iowa Hawkeyes) • John Beilein (Michigan Wolverines) • Tom Izzo (Michigan State Spartans) • Tubby Smith (Minnesota Golden Gophers) • Bill Carmody (Northwestern Wildcats) • Thad Matta (Ohio State Buckeyes) • Ed DeChellis (Penn State Nittany Lions) • Matt Painter (Purdue Boilermakers) • Bo Ryan (Wisconsin Badgers)