Tubby Smith

File:Tubby Smith.jpg

Tubby Smith

Orlando "Tubby" Smith (born June 30, 1951 in Scotland, Saint Mary's County, Maryland) has been the head basketball coach at the University of Kentucky since 1997. He previously served as head coach at the University of Tulsa and the University of Georgia.

Coach Smith graduated in 1973 from High Point (N.C.) College, where he was a standout player. He coached at two High Schools before serving as an assistant coach at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Kentucky under then Head Coach Rick Pitino.

From 1991 to 1995, Smith led Tulsa 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. At Georgia, he led the Bulldogs to a 45-19 record in his two years from 1995 to 1997. 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.

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 (see 1998 NCAA Tournament). Coach Smith was picked as a Coach of the Year in 2003, and was the recipient of the Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award for 2005. He has led teams to 11-straight 20-win seasons. His win/loss record at UK is 241-71 (.772), and 365-133 (.733) for his career overall. Despite an early ranking projecting his team comfortably in the nation's top 20, Tubby's 2006 team yielded one of the most disappointing season performances of his entire career at UK.

Smith's teams, known primarily for a defense-oriented slower style of play coined "Tubbyball", have received mixed reviews among Kentucky fans who have historically enjoyed a faster, higher-scoring, and arguably more exciting style of play under previous coaches. Since arriving in Lexington in 1997, Smith has led Kentucky to one National Championship in 1998, five SEC crowns and five SEC Tournament titles, with six Sweet Sixteen finishes and three Elite Eight finishes (1999, 2003, 2005) in his eight seasons. Although this would be a very impressive resume at most college basketball teams, Smith has nevertheless come under much pressure from some UK fans, who believe that nothing short of a Final Four appearance is acceptable for UK.

Over his 15 seasons as a head coach, the 54-year-old has had 13 consecutive 20-win seasons. In 2005, he joined Roy Williams, Nolan Richardson, Denny Crum and Jim Boeheim as the fifth head coach to win 365 games in 15 seasons or less. Smith's career record is now 365-133, and his .733 winning percentage is eighth among active coaches entering the 2006-07 season.

He totaled 100 wins quicker than any other Wildcat coach except Hall of Famer Adolph Rupp, reaching the plateau in 130 games. Since taking over the UK program, he has won 79 percent of his games despite playing a schedule that annually ranks among the nation's toughest.

Even more impressive, Smith has averaged nearly 27 wins per season at Kentucky. In the SEC Tournament, he's 19-4 at UK, and he has won a league championship seven times in his 15 years as a head coach.

Consistent success has become the standard for Tubby Smith. The native of Scotland, Md., was introduced as the Cats' 20th head coach on May 12, 1997.

Kentucky is Smith's third head coaching stop. Previously, he revived two mediocre programs, Tulsa and Georgia, into NCAA title hopefuls. Prior to coming to the Bluegrass, he spent two seasons at Georgia, where he coached the Bulldogs to a 45-19 (70.3%) record and the first back-to-back seasons of 20 wins or more in school history. Prior to Georgia, he coached four seasons at Tulsa, guiding the Golden Hurricane to Final 16 appearances his last two seasons.

Much of his success as a collegiate head coach has been measured by his teams' performances in the NCAA Tournament. 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 power Illinois to open March Madness. His postseason success continued at Georgia where the Bulldogs defeated Clemson to open the '96 tournament before upsetting the top-seeded Boilermakers.

Considered by many as one of the nation's top coaches, Smith was selected to help coach the 2000 U.S. Olympic Basketball Team in Sydney. He served as an assistant to Houston Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich as the Americans withstood high expectations to capture the gold medal. Currently, he serves on the NCAA Committee to study basketball issues, joining Duke's 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.

While he continues to make strides nationally in the sport of basketball, Smith's first impact on the Bluegrass came nine years before his national championship. When Rick Pitino took over the Wildcats' program in '89, he sought an assistant coach who knew the South, and one name continued to surface -- Tubby Smith. Smith left his assistant coaching position at South Carolina and joined Pitino's first staff, which 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.

Before coming to Kentucky in '89, Smith was an assistant coach for George Felton (a former UK assistant - 1998-00) at South Carolina, where the Gamecocks notched a 53-35 record during his three years. Prior to his stop in Columbia, Smith served as assistant coach at Virginia Commonwealth for seven years, including six seasons under J.D. Barnett. In those seven seasons, VCU registered a 144-64 record, won three Sun Belt Conference Championships and made five NCAA Tournament appearances. And under Barnett, Smith learned the principles of his ball-line defense, a defense that in three of his first four years at UK held opponents to their lowest field goal percentages since 1962.

Smith began his coaching career at Great Mills High School in Great Mills, Md., where he was head coach for four years and compiled a 46-36 record. His next stop came at Hoke County High School in Raeford, N.C., where he recorded a 28-18 mark in two seasons.

A 1973 graduate of High Point (N.C.) College, Smith was an all-conference performer as a senior. He played under three different head coaches at High Point, including Barnett, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in health and physical education.

Smith is the sixth of 17 children raised on a rural farm in southern Maryland. He and his wife Donna, have three sons: Orlando (G.G.) and Saul are both pursuing careers in the coaching profession; and Brian is a junior playing at Ole Miss.

Smith is very active in the community. The Tubby Smith Foundation, which he established to assist underprivileged children, has raised over $1.5 million in the past five years.

External links

• Tubby Smith's bio at UK Athletic Site
• University of Kentucky Coaching Record at unofficial Fan Site