Tubby Smith

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Show 019

Tubby Smith, head basketball coach at the University of Minnesota, joins Coach Arritt and Brooks Berry in the 19th edition of The Passing Game with Fletcher Arritt.  Coach Smith is entering his 4th season at Minnesota, where he has helped the Golden Gophers to 3 twenty-win seasons and back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances.

A 1973 graduate of High Point University (NC), Coach Smith spent 18 seasons as an assistant coach prior to earning his first head coaching job at Tulsa in 1991.  In 19 seasons as a head coach (Tulsa, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota), Coach Smith has tallied 450 wins to just 184 losses--an astounding .709 winning percentage.  In 1998, Smith led the Kentucky Wildcats to the school's 4th NCAA National Championship, and is the quickest UK coach to tally 100 wins (with the exception of Adolph Rupp).  He was elected to assist the 2000 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team in Sydney and named the Naismith College Coach of the Year in 2003.

The Gopher basketball program has witnessed a resurgence since Smith's arrival in March of 2007.  In his first season, Coach Smith took a team that went 8-22 the previous year and garnered 20 wins to just 14 losses.  In 2010, the Gophers won 3 games in the conference tournament to put Minnesota in the school's first ever Big Ten championship game (where they lost to Ohio State).  Smith's 2010-2011 Gophers are looking to compete once again for a Big Ten title and make their third straight NCAA tournament appearance.

Coach Smith, whose son Brian played for Coach Arritt in 2004, currently has 17 consecutive 20-win seasons.  We are honored to have him on the show and look forward to discussing his future successes.

Career Timeline

• Assistant Coach
  • 1979–1986, Virginia Commonwealth University.
  • 1986–1989, South Carolina.
  • 1989–1991, Kentucky.
• Head Coach
  • 1991–1995, Tulsa.
    • 79-43.
    • 2 Missouri Valley Conference Championships (1994, 1995).
    • 2 NCAA Sweet Sixteen Appearances (1994, 1995).
  • 1995–1997, University of Georgia.
    • 45-19.
    • 1996 NCAA Sweet Sixteen, 1997 NCAA 1st Round.
  • 1997–2007, University of Kentucky.
    • 263-83 (120-40 in the SEC).
    • 1998 NCAA Champions.
    • 5 SEC regular season championships (1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005).
    • 5 SEC Tournament titles (1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004).
    • 2003 Naismith College Coach of the Year.
    • 10 NCAA Tournament appearances.
    • 4 Elite Eight finishes (1998, 1999, 2003, 2005).
  • 2007–present, Minnesota.
    • 63-39 (26-28 in the Big 10).
    • 2 NCAA Tournament appearances (2009, 2010).

Listen:

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TPG_019_Tubby_Smith.mp3