Tubby & Bobby & Billy & Steve.....

Ok, the title of this post is not a setup line to a bar joke. But it could be. Certainly, a lot of UK basketball and UL football fans feel like a joke has been played on them. And what is interesting is that, the UK Bball and UL Fball fans are sharing being the same brunt of that joke. Now how odd is that?

First, let's rewind the tape a bit to this time last January. UL football was coming off of the greatest single season it had ever had, winning the Orange bowl in football, and just barely missing a shot at the BCS championship, along with a #6 finish in both the AP and ESPN-Coaches poll. Then UL FB was submarined by HC Bobby Petrino who abruptly left UL for the HC job for the NFL Atlanta Falcons. UL AD Jurich immediately went after what was his first choice when John L Smith left UL, and hired Steve Kragthrope, who nearly all UL fandom, on the statements made by Jurich about how good Steve was, believed that Kragthorpe could get UL to that BCS championship game. Not "years" from now, (as we were later told), but in 2007.

Secondly, also at that time Tubby Smith was being pummeled on web sites and call in radio talk shows by UK fans while leading UK basketball to a 22-10 season last year. (I might have the exact record a bit off.) In March/April, Tubby surprising UK fans, abruptly left UK for the basketball wasteland of Minnesota? And after botched efforts by UK AD Barnhardt to land Florida HC Billy Donovan, he plucked HC Billy Gillispie from Tx A&M. Billy fresh off the heels of beating UK's hated rival UL in the NCAA tournament IN Lexington's Rupp Arena. Suddenly, all was goodness and light in UK basketball fandom. Like UL fans, UK fans were led to believe that Billy G would lead them back to national prominence and better showing in the NCAA tournament in 2008. But UK bball fans fared a little better than UL fball fans, because they tempered their expectations knowing that Tubby had not recruited talent enough to lead UK back to the final four.

Fast forward to December. UL fball fans enduring the worst season in 10 years with one of the more talented UL fball teams they have seen, and the first time in 10 years to miss playing in a post-season bowl game. The "savior" HC Steve Kragthorpe was brutalized by UL fans during the season, to the point where the UL media mouthpieces started trying to browbeat and bully UL fans into submission to stop them from voicing their displeasure over the very poor performance on the field, and the lack of information or even acknowledgment of the issues and problems by Kragthorpe. The only solice that UL fball fans had was that they felt justified in vilifying Petrino who did worse to Atlanta Falcons owners and their fans than he ever did to UL by quitting the team with 3 games still remaining the regular NFL season. Still UL fans thought Kragthorpe was too "secretive" and "suspicious" of fans. To the point of being paranoid, and honestly unapproachable by fans who wanted answers to tough questions.

Flip scene to January. UK basketball now begins its SEC conference schedule with a LOSING record under 1st year HC Gillispie. And on the heels of losing to their hated in-state rival, Louisville and the "satan incarnate", (according to UK fans), Rick Pitino. Like UL fball fans, UK fans are beating Billy G up on radio talk shows and the internet, while getting nothing back from Billy G in the way of substantiative answers to questions. Indeed many times Billy acts as if he flat out does not CARE what UK fans think, giving UK fans fodder to call him arrogant and stand-offish. To make matters worse, the former UK HC Tubby, who UK fans horribly blasted, (fairly or unfairly), has the Minnesota Golden Gophers at 11-3 and poised to make the NCAA tournament for first time since 2005. But even beyond that, it was a huge turnaround for a team with a losing record last season. All of that while UK basketball under the "savior" Billy G, is looking more and more like a team that will not even MAKE the NCAA tournament this year, much less have a win in the first round of it.

All of this you already know. So here is my conclusion on this.

It is pretty much consensus knowledge that in the world of college sports, men's basketball and football are games dominated by coaching. A good coach, with the right scheme and that can adapt the scheme to take advantage of the players they have, can build a winning program.

In the case of both 1st year HC's, while one may have had unfairly high expectations heaped on him, and the other a team that was not as talented as believed to be; BOTH of them were handed teams and programs that were and are talented enough to be FAR better than they were and are. UL's fball team may have had unrealistic expectations of getting to the BCS championship game, and I admit, maybe even unrealistic expectation of winning the Big East. But WITHOUT QUESTION, UL's fball team had FAR better talent than a team that just barely reached a .500 record, and not make a post season bowl game. And FAR better talent than to finish 6th place in an 8 team Big East conference.

UK may not have the talent to win two games in the NCAA tournament, but they have FAR and AWAY enough talent to at least get TO the NCAA tournament. Which at this point, and UK sitting @ 6-7 on the season heading into the SEC conference schedule is looking more and more like the ONLY way that UK gets into the NCAA tournament is if they win the SEC conference tournament...and it is NOT a lock that UK makes THAT either!

With both Billy and Steve, it is becoming very obvious that their methods of operation are to try and adapt the players to their scheme. As a result, these two coaches have and are failing miserably given the talent level they were handed. They have completely missed an opportunity that was handed to both of them. And it is now looking like they either were and are completely in over their heads or grossly underestimated how effective they are as leaders, motivators and game-planners.

Add to that is that regardless of their manner and ease with media members, they both are very unapproachable by fans who are less than enthusiastic about their job performance to date. Neither, until recently with Kragthorpe, had shown any type of contrition to accepting responsibility for the results being produced with straight-forward answers and changes to their methodologies.

I will say this in Kragthorpe's defense. The off-season changes he has made in the wholesale clean of the defensive staff, and the resignation of Charlie Stubbs as the Offensive Coordinator, does show that Kragthorpe has gotten the message loud and clear. The changes he has made, and the quality of staff he has brought in, has shown he has the ability to look at his own methods, fairly evaluate them, and make appropriate and decisive changes for the better. While we still do not know how those changes will translate to performance on the field, he has proven that he does have the strength to make tough decisions and make self-evaluations. And with UL football coming off of a very disappointing, if not awful season, the expectations for the 2008 campaign will be drastically less than what they were in 2007, when he was handed a top-6 program with a Heisman candidate QB. The 2008 season was always looked at by UL fans as more of a rebuilding season, so just making a bowl game would show dramatic and positive steps to rebuilding a program that had the foundations kicked out from under it.

The question being asked by UK basketball fans today, and the frustrations they are showing are nearly identical to the ones that UL football fans asked and showed during the middle of their season. The question for Billy G is, can he also make the necessary off-season changes, (in this case upgraded recruiting and buy-in from the players), that Kragthorpe has? That has yet to be determined.

The one thing we can say about both hires is this. Neither of them has lived up to the billing of the hires that the fans were given. Both of them had some major warts that neither AD lessened by trying to damper fan expectations. I can not lay blame for their results solely at their feet. Both the AD's at UL and UK MUST share the blame for the poor performance by not trying harder, or maybe not loudly enough proclaiming, that both coach's will need time to get their programs in place, and that some rough times were ahead for both programs.