Kentucky fans certainly showed their appreciation to former coach Tubby Smith last week 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.”