Tubby Smith has a lot of stories to share in memoir | Laker Country 104.9 FM WJRS
By LARRY VAUGHT If Tubby Smith needed any convincing that he should publish his memoir, he quickly got it after the University Press of Kentucky announced the former Kentucky basketball coach planned to do so. “I started getting calls from all over the world after the release went out. I didn’t...
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“I never took a player with me. I reminded him that I told him in his home when I was recruiting him that I could drop dead tomorrow and to pick Kentucky not because of me but because someday that might be where you want to live and raise a family,” the former UK coach said. “Don’t pick Kentucky for me. I told every player that.
“The two best players in the history of Tulsa basketball wanted to follow me to Georgia. One was our leading scorer, the other was the leading rebounder but I left them there. At Georgia kids wanted to follow me to Kentucky but I told them to stay.
“I’ve got a lot of stories and memories like that and now I just have to figure out how to get them in some kind of order to make it fun for fans to read.”
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I'm trying to figure out what Tubby is talking about here. Obviously, "our leading scorer" was Shea Seals, who averaged 18.8 points to lead the team in Tubby's final TU season (1994-95). However, Shea was also the leading rebounder at 6.9 per game. The next two leading rebounders on that team were Kwanza Johnson and JR Rollo -- two good players, but not best in TU history.
The only thing that makes sense is that he is talking about Michael Ruffin, who was a freshman in 1995-96 under Steve Robinson. Tubby must be implying that Ruffin wanted to get out of his LOI at Tulsa and go to Georgia. I'm having a hard time remembering if Ruffin had already signed before Tubby left.
