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On the other hand, Kentucky, which just opened a $30 million state-of-the-art practice facility, is not most schools, and Barnhart and the rest of the Big Blue faithful have legitimate reasons to be concerned. Over the past two years, Kentucky is 18-13 in the SEC, the second-worst two-year stretch in school history. If Kentucky does not reach the Final Four, it will be the longest span the program has ever gone between appearances. They have lost four straight to Vanderbilt and five straight to Florida. If the Wildcats lose at Florida this weekend, it will complete the first Kentucky season since 1974 that did not include a win over a ranked team.
And when you're talking about ranked teams these days, you're usually not talking about Kentucky. The Wildcats have spent most of the past two seasons completely out of the polls. You can criticize UK fans all you want for having unreasonable expectations, but it's not unreasonable for them to expect better than that...
Smith is as good a bench coach as there is in the game, and I have never heard a bad word uttered about him by his peers. (Trust me, that's rare.) But he also has a well-earned reputation for being disorganized. It's an open secret he doesn't like recruiting, which is why the program's strategy never seems to have a plan B, C and D. As a result, Smith often has to scramble for mid-level players after his primary targets head elsewhere. As for the way he runs his own team, well, ask Tubby on a Wednesday what time practice begins on Friday, and there's a good chance he won't have an answer.
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