The Kentucky legacy of new Hall of Famer Tubby Smith is holding up well
Monday’s announcement that Tubby Smith will be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2026 extends the commonwealth of Kentucky’s expansive presence in the Kansas City-based venue.
The former Kentucky head man will be the eighth person who either worked in our state or who is from the commonwealth to be enshrined in the College Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach.
Smith, 75, will join Adolph Rupp (UK), Clarence “Big House” Gaines (Paducah native), E.A. Diddle (Western Kentucky), Denny Crum (Louisville), Eddie Sutton (UK), Joe B. Hall (UK) and Gene Keady (WKU) in the college hoops Hall of Fame.
(Unlike the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, the College Basketball Hall of Fame does not generally induct active coaches. So the inevitable enshrinements of Rick Pitino and John Calipari will presumably await their retirements).
With the benefit of hindsight, Smith’s 10-year tenure (1997 through 2007) as Kentucky Wildcats head coach holds up well.
Smith led Kentucky to five Southeastern Conference regular-season titles and five SEC Tournament crowns.
UK qualified for the NCAA Tournament in all 10 of Smith’s seasons without ever losing in the round of 64. In Smith’s 10 NCAA tourneys, Kentucky reached the round of eight four times and claimed the 1998 NCAA Tournament championship.
It is also true that Smith did not consistently recruit at the level Kentucky expects; that his tenure went stale in its last two seasons (combined 44-25 in 2005-06 and 2006-07); and that at least a second trip to the Final Four would have really helped.
Still, Smith’s run at UK compares well with the Cats’ other celebrated coaches:
• SEC regular-season championships: Adolph Rupp 27, Joe B. Hall eight, John Calipari six, Smith five, Rick Pitino two, Eddie Sutton one.
• SEC tournament titles: Rupp 13, Calipari six, Pitino five, Smith five, Hall one, Sutton one.
• NCAA Tournament Final Fours: Rupp six, Calipari four, Hall three, Pitino three, Smith one.
• NCAA Tournament championships: Rupp four, Hall one, Pitino one, Smith one, Calipari one.
An interesting question is whether Smith would be worthy of enshrinement in the overall Basketball Hall of Fame.
In 31-plus years as a college head coach, Smith won 642 games versus 371 losses.
He is one of only five NCAA Division I head men to coach five different schools — Tulsa, Georgia, UK, Minnesota and Texas Tech, in Smith’s case — to the NCAA tourney. Smith led three of those schools, Tulsa, Georgia and UK, to the NCAA tourney Sweet 16.
The arguments against Smith as a Naismith Hall of Famer start with his overall career winning percentage, 63.4, which is light for Hall of Fame inclusion.
Of 23 modern men’s college coaches already in the Basketball Hall of Fame, only six had winning percentages below 70 and only one — former Ohio State and Maryland head man Gary Williams (63.7) — had an overall winning percentage in range with Tubby’s.
One career Final Four berth is also below the norm for a Hall of Fame college coach.
Of those 23 college hoops coaches I consider modern who already have secured their places in Springfield, Massachusetts, 21 went/have gone to multiple Final Fours.
The exceptions are ex-Temple head coach John Chaney, who never made the Division I NCAA Tournament national semifinals (but did win an NCAA Division II national championship at Cheyney State) and former WKU and Purdue coach Keady, who never made the Final Four.
Another knock against Smith is that the back end of his head coaching career was not nearly as successful as the front end.
After leaving Kentucky for Minnesota, Smith was fired by the Golden Gophers after six seasons yielded only one NCAA tourney victory.
Combining the eight-and-a-half seasons Smith spent at his last three coaching stops, he had a 131-145 record at Texas Tech (46-50 in three seasons); Memphis (40-26 in two years) and High Point (45-69 in three-and-a-half seasons).
That pales next to the 387-145 mark Smith compiled at his first three coaching stops: Tulsa (79-43 in five seasons); Georgia (45-19 in two); and Kentucky (263-83 in 10).
All nine of Smith’s trips to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament came in his first 14 seasons as a head coach — two at Tulsa; one at Georgia; six at UK.
Supplying some context, however, makes Smith’s work at some of his later coaching stops look better.
His winning percentage at Minnesota (60.5) is far better than the Golden Gophers have produced (50%) in the 13 years since giving Tubby the ax.
At Texas Tech, Smith inherited a program that had gone 32-62 under three different head coaches in the prior three seasons. By year three in Lubbock, Tubby had the Red Raiders in the NCAA Tournament.
It’s a close call. But it says here that the College Basketball Hall of Fame should not be the final hoops hall into which Tubby Smith is inducted.
