Weird: Tubby In Minny

Tubby Bolts from Lexington and No one Questions How Weird It Was


{Photo: Gophersports}


And just like that, I promise this will be the last TS mention for awhile, Tubby Smith jets for Minnesota in matter of days after losing to Kansas. Faster than you can snap your finger. Just like that. He's gone. Left. Packed his junked - FedEx'd. He UPS'd his way towards the Canadian border. Just. Like. That.

And just like that, it was equally weird watching Tubby Smith joyfully receive a warm welcome in front of Minnesota fans and school officials.

I mean, it just struck me as the most oddest thing I've experienced following UK Basketball. Even weirder than Rick Pitino moving to Louisville because at least then I saw it coming, but Tubby Smith jetting for the Northern plains just days after his season concluded with a loss to Kansas and watching him, just like that, change alliances, change his loyalties, watching him changing his priorities to a different school in a different conference is just the most freakin' oddest thing to witness.

I mean how can a coach, just like that, make a decision to sever ties with a program without already planning a move like that to Minnesota and moving on to a “fresh start”? I mean the only thing I can compare the weirdness I feel about it is to compare it like if you were just engaged after a ten-year relationship and then the next day you wake up and announce to your lover that you're leaving her/him for someone else. Just. Like. That.

It's just odd man to see a coach talking the same B.S. to another school saying things like how you're going to build a winning team and that it's going to take time and that we need to have the right people in the right places and so on and so forth. I'm sitting there watching that vid of Tubby Smith in front of Minnesota fans, just a day after leaving Lexington, just like that, and I'm just thinking what the heck has gone through his mind that he can disown a program he's owned for 10 years and without a warning shot pack his bags to somewhere else without at least giving his fans some sort of hint of needing to feel wanted elsewhere and then talk the same general B.S. speech that he probably gave the University of Kentucky and its fans to the University of Minnesota and its fans. There's no doubt Tubby Smith is a good coach, and I respect what he has done for Kentucky, and I can accept now that maybe his accomplishments just aren't up to Kentucky's standards. I mean, heck, the history of the most-winningest program in the nation has a right to be a bit spoiled and highly maintained, but I'm just saying that it was down-right odd and weird to see Tubby Smith accept and vow to love a different program as quickly as he did.

I've already seen the press conference vid online at Minnesota's website, but here's a floor view of the announcement of Tubby Smith at Minnesota which I guess adds a little more weirdness to it with a different angle … like how the weirdness would be if I were there floor side.



P.S. No wonder Minnesota welcomed Tubby Smith like he was Coach K, part of their problem is that Micky D's their sponsor.