Tubby Goes after the Real Enemy

Today was SEC Summer Basketball Media Day, aka Tubby Smith's least favorite day of the year. Coach Smith's dislike of the part of the UK job that requires dealing with the media is well-known, but it truly shows its colors during events like this, where Smith answers questions with a general "do I really have to do this?" tone. Usually these sessions are amazingly uninformative across the board, no matter who the coach and this one was very similar. However Coach Smith did do a good job of going after the newest enemy for college coaches, message boards. On a question about whether message boards are distractions, Tubby said: "Absolutely. You have people second guessing everything you do and making comments about things that aren't true. I know the freedom of speech and freedom to say what you want, that's all one thing, but it's really asinine to be honest with you. I don't think it helps anyone. As far as recruiting is concerned, we have some of the most loyal and most fanatical fans in the country and they see one thing or they put something on the message board it's the gospel. It's something we all have to monitor; it's another element that's in the process of recruiting and the process of coaching. At first it was the call-in shows and now it's gone to this. Eventually who knows where it will lead. I'm not much on the message boards, you can see how it can get out of control, like the ‘Facebooks' and ‘Myspace' all the stuff that's creating problems for a lot of people." It is clear that Tubby has no use for message boards and when one patrols the worst of some of them (how are you DD?), it is understandable why. There are individuals out there who are born critics and their only desire every day is to disrespect Tubby and attempt to cast doubt on anything he does. However, the power of message boards is undisputed. Kentucky Sports Report, the Cats Pause and the other message boards set the agenda for most viewpoints of the most rabid fans. In addition (and maybe more importantly) they are looked at by the national media as examples of the "typical" Kentucky fan. Thus when those folks are out of control, the entire fan base is perceived as out of control. I am sure however that Tubby is a fan of this blog. We love him here and treat Kentucky basketball as slightly less important than two dorky college kids talking about Kentucky ba-ba-ba basketball. In other news, Tyrone Nash may not be headed to Lexington based upon Tubby's comments: “We like the changes we have made within our program, especially personnel-wise. We only have 11 guys on scholarship and probably will stay at that. If player or players look to come in at this point of time, we just don’t know.” So much for that whole thing.....