13 Months Later....Wow!

When Tubby Smith stepped down as Kentucky's basketball coach, I said I was happy. When Billy Gillispie was hired, I said I was thrilled. One year later, I find myself at an absolute loss for words (well, not really).

Tubby Smith is a great man, and he is a good coach, but he was a bad fit for Kentucky Basketball. His should-be great teams always underachieved, and his should-be mediocre teams always overachieved. For that reason alone, Minnesota is a better place for him. But what truly failed Tubby while at Kentucky was his complete inability to recruit top-level players year after year. Great programs cannot just have a good recruiting class every other year. It has to be year in, year out.

Let's take a look at Tubby's last five recruiting classes at Kentucky:

2006: Derrick Jasper, Jodie Meeks, Perry Stevenson, Michael Porter (All in all, a great class)

2005: Jared Carter, Adam Williams, Rekalin Sims (A pitiful class)

2004: Randolph Morris, Ramel Bradley, Rajon Rondo, Joe Crawford (A sensational class)

2003: Shegari Alleyne, Lukasz Obrzut, Bobby Perry, Sheray Thomas (Mediocre, at best)

2002: Brandon Stockton, Bernard Cote, Kelenna Azubuike (Mediocre)

So, in five years, Tubby brought in six NBA-caliber players (Azubuike, Morris, Crawford, Rondo, Meeks, Jasper).

Let's look at 13 months of Billy Gillispie, shall we?

2007: Patrick Patterson, Alex Legion (outstanding, and he had less than six weeks to do it)

2008: Darius Miller, DeAndre Liggins, Kevin Galloway, Josh Harrelson (Two Top 40 guys and two top-level junior college transfers)

2009: John Hood, GJ Vilarino (Two Top 50 guys)

2010: KC Ross-Miller, Dominique Ferguson, Dakotah Euton (Three Top 25 guys)

2011: Vinny Zollo (Top 50)

2012: Michael Avery (Top 10)

Rankings don't always mean everything. I can admit that. But if you are consistently recruiting guys ranked in the Top 50, you're chances of striking gold increase dramatically. Let's say even half of the Top 50 guys Gillispie has landed don't work out. That still leaves 4-5 top-level players in 13 months. Tubby got six in five years. Anyone out there still reading this, do you start to realize at all what UK fans were talking about? If not, give it a couple more years and get back to me. You'll come around.