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, six days after Rick Pitino announced he was resigning to become president and head coach of the NBA's Boston Celtics.
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.
Highly regarded as one of the best teachers of the game, Orlando “Tubby” Smith is in his 10th season at the helm of the nation’s winningest basketball program.
Since arriving in Lexington in 1997, Smith has led Kentucky to one national championship, five SEC crowns and five SEC Tournament titles, with six Sweet 16 finishes in his nine seasons. Over his 15 seasons as a head coach, the 55- 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 best. In NCAA Tournament play, Smith has the sixth-best winning percentage (.700) among active coaches, trailing Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, among others, with a sterling 28-12 record.
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.
That’s a pretty accomplished set of numbers. But for the man who won the 1998 NCAA Championship in his first year in the Commonwealth, success is no stranger. Not even the bluest bloods of Wildcat basketball fandom would have guessed UK could have continued its remarkable success after a national title in ’96 and a runner-up finish in ‘97. After all, the team had lost six players over two seasons to the NBA and other key Cats to graduation. “Tubby Ball,” a system of solid defense and rebounding, combined with his chess-match style of coaching, was on display. As a No. 2 seed in the ‘98 NCAA Tournament’s South Region, UK cruised to the regional final to face top-seeded Duke with a third-consecutive trip to the Final Four hanging in the balance. The Blue Devils grabbed an 18-point lead in the first half and held a 17-point lead midway through the second half. UK’s first opportunity for redemption against Duke since Christian Laettner’s famous shot in ‘92 appeared to be over. But when Smith went to a smaller lineup to counter the quicker Duke players, the Cats stormed back to win, 86-84. UK then rallied from a five-point halftime deficit against Stanford in the national semifinals before winning in overtime, 86-85. Many pegged the contest as one of the most well coached games in the entire tournament.
Then two days later, Utah had not only out rebounded the Wildcats 24-6 in the first half, but also led by 10, 41-31, at halftime. No team had ever come from behind by more than eight points in the championship game, until Kentucky. The game plan wore out the Utes, and the “Comeback Cats” rallied to win, 78-69. Smith accomplished the unexpected. He led the Wildcats to their second title in three years. He had become the first coach since Cincinnati’s Ed Jucker in 1961 to win the national title in his first year at a school. Smith was named National Coach of the Year by Basketball Weekly and Co-SEC Coach of the Year by The Associated Press. The New York Athletic Club presented Smith with the prestigious Winged Foot Award given to the coach of the national champions after each season. In the off-season, he picked up the Parent of the Year Award by Parent Magazine.
In 2003, a year in which Tubby Smith’s coaching ranked among the very best in the 100 years of Kentucky basketball, the accolades arrivedin a landslide. Smith snared all seven of the national honors recognized by the NCAA - AP, USBWA, Naismith, Basketball Times, The Sporting News, NABC, and CBS/Chevrolet. He became the first coach to sweep the list since Indiana’s Bobby Knight captured all five in 1975. For good measure, Smith added honors from ESPN, Foxsports.com, the Black Coaches Association and College Sports Television.
Kentucky established the nation’s longest win streak in seven years, highlighted by a sweep of the SEC regular-season slate and tournament play (19-0), a feat that had not been accomplished in the league since 1952. His Wildcats finished No. 1 in the final Associated Press poll and Smith swept SEC and National Coach of the Year honors. Kentucky ended the season in the Elite Eight with a 32-4 record, becoming just the 11th team in school history to top the 30-win mark.
In 2004, the Wildcats posted a 27-5 record while winning a sixth SEC Eastern Division title, another SEC Tournament championship and the school’s ninth No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, all while spending nearly the entire season ranked among the nation’s top 10. Smith’s 2005 UK squad won the school’s 43rd SEC championship while advancing to the NCAA’s Elite Eight. He guided the club, which finished 28-6 and ranked No. 5 in the final coaches’ poll, to a 14-2 league record despite a roster that consisted primarily of underclassmen, including four freshmen among the top nine.
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.
On March 23, 2007, Tubby Smith resigned as the Head Coach at the University of Kentucky and became the Head Coach for the University of Minnesota, Golden Gophers. This episode of "Head Coach" was produced in September 2006, six months before Tubby Smith's decision to leave Kentucky.
