Tubby Smith to receive Dean Smith Award

Former Kentucky coach Tubby Smith is about to receive a well-deserved honor. Yesterday, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) announced it will present Tubby and former Davidson coach Bob McKillop with the Dean Smith Award at a ceremony on Tuesday, April 11 in Greensboro. McKillop won the award in 2019, Tubby in 2021.

The Dean Smith Award was created by the USBWA in 2015 to honor the late Hall of Fame coach at North Carolina. Coaches are recognized for their principles of honesty and integrity, for treating all people with courtesy and respect, for accomplishments off the court, and for the impact they have made on their community and the lives of their players. Other Dean Smith Award winners include John Thompson (Georgetown) in 2015, Tom Izzo (Michigan State) in 2016, Don Donoher (Dayton) in 2017, Fran Dunphy (Penn/Temple/La Salle) in 2018, and George Raveling (Washington State/Iowa/USC) in 2020.

“It is so appropriate to honor these two great coaches and better men in the heart of North Carolina basketball country, which has always been home for Tubby Smith and where Bob McKillop was a constant for so many years at Davidson,” said USBWA president Luke DeCock, a sports columnist at the (Raleigh) News & Observer.

McKillop retired last year after a 33-year career at Davidson, which included 23 conference championships. When he retired in 2022, his 634 wins ranked 54th in NCAA men’s basketball history. His most decorated team reached the Elite Eight in 2008, one of 17 McKillop teams to win 20 games and seven to win 25.

Tubby’s career spanned 31 years with stops at Tulsa, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, Texas Tech, Memphis, and High Point. He won 642 games and a national championship, becoming only the second coach to take five different schools to the NCAA Tournament. He was the first Black coach at Kentucky and the third to win a national title.

The winner of the USBWA’s Henry Iba Award as national coach of the year in 2003, Smith was also committed to High Point, his alma mater, donating $1 million toward the construction of a new arena, the Quibein Center, and for the five seasons he coached there before retiring in February 2022, his teams played on the Tubby and Donna Smith Court. A few months before retiring, Smith brought High Point to Rupp Arena and Kentucky retired his jersey:

In January, Tubby returned to Rupp for the reunion of the 1996, 1997, and 1998 teams and received a standing ovation from the crowd:

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Tubby attended Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament games in Greensboro last weekend and held court, graciously taking pictures with every fan and media member that asked. When I think of Dean Smith, I think of my father complaining about the four corners, but if the award truly does recognize people with honesty and integrity that treat all people with courtesy and respect, I can’t think of a more deserving man.