Tubby Smith not ready to end his basketball journey

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Tubby Smith has coached 1,000 college games but he's not ready to quit. (Jeff Houchin Photo)

Kentucky fans certainly showed their appreciation to former coach Tubby Smith when he had his jersey retired during a pregame ceremony before High Point lost 92-48 to UK. Smith spent 12 years coaching at Kentucky — two as an assistant to Rick Pitino and 10 as head coach — and won a national championship in 1998. He’s also been head coach at Tulsa, Georgia, Minnesota, Texas Tech, Memphis and now High Point.

The game at Kentucky was his 1,000th game as a head college coach — he has 637 wins in 31 years. Smith recently turned 70 and after the UK game I asked him how much longer he intended to keep coaching.

“My wife won’t let me quit, man. I have been trying to. She likes this lifestyle,” Smith joked. “No, it’s getting — you know, at certain times — I go back to my pops, raised 17 kids with mom and dad.

“He said, ‘Boy, there is going to come a time you’re not going to be able to fight like you used to.’ Stamina. It’s not so much drive. Every coach loves coaching. I mean, Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, all the guys, the legendary coaches planning on retiring, they would still be coaching, but you can only go so long.

“It’s like a boxer or a basketball player. There is a window of longevity. I’m having a lot of fun here at High Point. We just built a new arena, facility, so I’m excited about that.  I’d hoped we had won some of those close games and have a better record right now, but it’s a process.

“We want to finish this journey and then we’ll make a decision about retiring.”

2 Responses

  1. I’m soon to be 84 yrs old & started to listen to the Kentucky BB games at 8 yrs old in Northern Ohio.I believe this could end up being one of Cal’s better teams he has had since being at Kentucky. Lot of interesting parts & this team to me looks like they are very coachable & a pleasure to watch.

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