Let's Talk About Kentucky

So, the news of the day in college basketball yesterday was not Ohio State's 20-point comeback against Tennessee, or the clock issues in San Antonio that could very well have cost Texas A&M a victory over Memphis. The news of the day involved the glaringly empty seat that now sits at the end of the Kentucky Wildcats' bench. For the past ten years, that seat has been occupied by Tubby Smith. For the past ten years, the Cats had 20-win seasons, and had gone to the NCAA Tournament, advancing past the first round every time. Unfortunately, they only reached the Final Four once, in Tubby's first season.

While consistently making the second weekend of the tournament is fine at many schools, the Kentucky job carries a whole new level of expectation. The majority of Big Blue Nation will not be satisfied unless their team gets to at least the Final Four. Cats fans have been spoiled, with 49 tournament appearances, a 100-44 record, and seven championships since the tournament's inception in 1939. In the nineties alone, the Cats made the Final Four four times, including an amazing three straight championship games from '96-'98. The man responsible for three of those Final Fours, Rick Pitino, brought the Cats out of the difficult times created by Eddie Sutton's NCAA infractions and became a hero in Lexington (until, of course, he took over at rival Louisville). When Pitino left, Tubby Smith became "the guy who replaced (blank)," much like Matt Doherty of UNC or Mike Davis of Indiana. No matter how many games he won, or how many recruits he got, he was forever compared to Pitino and UK legend Adolph Rupp.

The major problem for formerly-dominant programs in this era of college basketball is that there is so much more parity than there used to be. Even as recently as the nineties, there were only a few clear-cut "power" schools. That decade was dominated by UNC, Duke, and Kentucky, with Arizona, Michigan and Connecticut also making noise. This decade, however, has been dominated by no specific team. Between 2000 and 2006, there have been seven different national champions. Teams from "mid-major" conferences have started to find their way into the limelight, most notably George Mason last year and Butler and Southern Illinois this year. Even in Kentucky's own conference, which they dominated for the longest time, Florida has assumed the reins with teams like Tennessee, LSU, Arkansas, and Mississippi State turning some heads.

Kentucky fans, not seeming to realize this fairly plain-to-see fact, managed to pressure Tubby to the point that he decided he just had to get out. He went to a Minnesota program where he will be praised as a savior and to a Big Ten Conference whose play better suits his coaching style.

Now, unless the UK Athletic Department finds a way to exhume and reanimate the remains of Adolph Rupp, a similar fate is going to befall the next guy. Given some of the names that have been mentioned by the media, the next guy may already be a legend in his own right at another school. The problem is that a lot of these guys aren't going to want to step out of a place where they're a hero (see: Billy Donovan, Florida; John Calipari, Memphis; Billy Gillispie, Texas A&M) into a place where they will just be "the next guy".

Here's my best candidate for the Kentucky job: Butler's Todd Lickliter. The key to this one is that Lickliter is the coach at a mid-major school. Even the most stellar of mid-major schools are still considered second-class citizens by the general public. Lickliter has many connections in the state of Indiana, which is still a hotbed of high school basketball, and the results that he posted this season will make him an attractive coaching prospect. I'm fairly certain that the directors at Kentucky will be watching Lickliter's game against UK's SEC rival Florida tonight in the Sweet Sixteen. If Butler keeps it close, or even wins, there should be a contract offer sitting on Lickliter's desk when he gets back from St. Louis.