Orlando "Tubby" Smith

From NCAA Wiki

Tubby Smith
Sport	Basketball
College	Minnesota
Title(s)	Head Coach
Record
Years
Awards
Championships
History

On March 23, 2007 Tubby Smith was announced as the 16th head basketball coach of the Minnesota Golden Gophers Men’s Basketball program. One of the most respected coaches in the country and a national champion was coming to Gold Country to lead the Gopher program.

Smith came to Minnesota with a reputation for winning at the highest level not matched by many coaches in the country. In his 17-year career, he has claimed a National Title (Kentucky in 1997-98), made four “Elite Eight appearances”, nine “Sweet Sixteen” appearances, posted 15 straight 20-win seasons and has the 12th-best active winning percentage of any coach at the Division I level with a 407-159 record (.719). His 407 wins entering this season is also the sixth-best record of any head coach in their first 17 years in NCAA Division I basketball, joining such names as Roy Williams, Denny Crum, Jim Boeheim, Nolan Richardson and Jerry Tarkanian.

Smith also owns the sixth-best NCAA Tournament record among active coaches. He is currently 29-13 for a .690 winning percentage in the tournament. Smith made 14 straight appearances to the NCAA Tournament spanning through his 10 years at Kentucky, two seasons at Georgia and his final two seasons at Tulsa (1994-2007).

On five different occasions, Smith has been named a conference coach of the year (1994 & 95 in the Missouri Valley Conference and 1998, 2003 & 2005 in the SEC). He has also collected national coach of the year honors on three different occasions (1998, 2003 & 2005).

Prior to arriving in Big Ten Country, Smith spent 10 seasons (1997-2007) in the Southeastern Conference as the head coach at the University of Kentucky. During his tenure with the Wildcats, Smith led Kentucky to the 1998 National championship, four “Elite Eight” appearances, five SEC titles, five SEC Tournament titles and six “Sweet Sixteen” finishes.

Smith also led the Wildcats to an overall record of 263-83 record for a winning percentage of .760. In his 10 seasons with Kentucky, he averaged over 26 wins per season.

During that time, Smith was 120-40 in SEC play for a winning percentage of .750. His 120 wins were 14 more then any other program in the SEC had during Smith’s decade of dominance at Kentucky. He also finished in sole possession or tied for first in the SEC East in seven of the 10 years he coached the Wildcats. Smith was 24-7 in SEC Tournament games for a winning percentage of .774.

He made history in the 2002-03 season when he led his Kentucky squad to a 16-0 record in SEC regular-season play and guided them to the SEC Tournament Championship. It marked the first time since 1952 that an SEC squad had completed both the conference regular season and tournament without a loss.

After Kentucky had won a National title in 1996 and finished runner up in 1997, Smith took over a squad that had lost six players over two seasons to the NBA and other key players to graduation. That season, he guided Kentucky to a 35-4 record and a National Title becoming the first coach since Cincinnati’s Ed Jucker in 1961 to win a national title in the first year at a school. Smith also stamped the trademark toughness that his teams have been known for that season, guiding Kentucky to double-digit comebacks against Duke in the “Elite Eight” and Utah in the National Championship on the way to claiming the National title.

Smith’s first year at Georgia was not as publicized, but no less remarkable than his first at Kentucky. In the 1995-96 season, his first at Georgia, Smith guided the Bulldogs to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in five years. Georgia defeated Clemson and No. 1 seeded Purdue, before falling to eventual National Runner-Up Syracuse on a last-second shot in the “Sweet Sixteen”. It was the furthest Georgia had advanced in the NCAA Tournament since 1983. Smith also guided the Bulldogs to a 21-10 overall record and second place in the SEC East at 9-7.

In his first season at Tulsa, Smith led the Golden Hurricanes to a 17-13 overall record and brought them within three points of making their first NCAA Tournament since 1987, as Tulsa fell to SW Missouri State in the MVC Championship game 71-68.

At Kentucky Smith also totaled 100 wins quicker than any other Kentucky coach except Hall of Famer Adolph Rupp, reaching the plateau in 130 games. 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.

Prior to Kentucky, 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.

Before achieving that success at Georgia, he coached four seasons at Tulsa, guiding the Golden Hurricane to Sweet 16 appearances his last two seasons. The 1996-97 season at Georgia was one his best coaching efforts. After losing eight seniors and all five starters from the previous year’s “Sweet Sixteen” team, Smith led the youthful Bulldogs to a 24-9 record, equaling the school record for most wins in a season. Georgia finished third in the SEC with a 10-6 record, and brought the Bulldogs to the SEC Tournament Championship game for the first time since 1988. Georgia finished the year ranked 17th in the final AP poll and earned a No. 3 seed in the Southeast Regional.

Smith’s first impact on the Kentucky program came nine years before his national championship. When Rick Pitino took over the Wildcats’ program in ‘89, he sought an assistant coach to recruit 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 Wildcats into winners, exceeding expectations to record a 14-14 mark. The following year, with Smith promoted to associate coach and Kentucky 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 1989, 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. Under Barnett, Smith learned the principles of his ball-line defense, a defense that in three of his first four years at Kentucky held opponents to their lowest field goal percentages since 1962.