Tubby Smith

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Tubby Smith bigraphy, stories - American college basketball coach, NCAA Tournament champion

Tubby Smith : biography

June 30, 1951 –

Orlando "Tubby" Smith (born ) is an American college basketball coach. He is currently the men’s basketball head coach at Texas Tech University; his previous position, from 2007-2013, was as the men’s basketball head coach at the University of Minnesota. Smith previously served in the same role at the University of Tulsa, the University of Georgia, and University of Kentucky, where he coached the Wildcats to the 1998 NCAA championship.

Over his 21 seasons as a head coach, Smith has 18 seasons of twenty victories or more. In 2005, he joined Roy Williams, Nolan Richardson, Denny Crum and Jim Boeheim as the only head coaches to win 365 games in 15 seasons or fewer. With Minnesota’s invitation to the 2009 NCAA tournament, Smith became the fifth coach to lead four different teams to the NCAA tournament.

Smith’s three sons are following in their father’s coaching footsteps. G.G. Smith, who played for his father at the University of Georgia, is the new coach at Loyola University Maryland. His middle son Saul Smith played for his father at the University of Kentucky and was an assistant coach for his father at the University of Minnesota. Brian, his youngest son, was a point guard at Ole Miss and is an assistant coach at Windermere Preparatory School.

Other leadership groups

Smith serves on the NCAA Committee to study basketball issues, joining Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and former Oregon head coach Ernie Kent.

He serves on the National Association of Basketball Coaches Board of Directors and in June 2000, spoke at a Congressional hearing on the issue of gambling in college sports.. Allamericanspeakers.com (2007-03-23). Retrieved on 2013-03-23.

Early years

Smith was born in Scotland, Maryland, in Saint Mary’s County, is the sixth of 17 children born to sharecroppers Guffrie and Parthenia Smith. His large family accounts for his unusual nickname. Of all the Smith children, Tubby was most fond of staying in the galvanized washtub where the children were bathed. Smith says he tried to shake the moniker several times, but it stuck incessantly. He recalls that a 10th grade teacher who didn’t tolerate nicknames was the last person to call him by his proper name, Orlando.

After having a scholarship offer from the University of Maryland rescinded, Smith enrolled at High Point College (now High Point University), graduating in 1973. He played under three different head coaches at High Point, including future boss J. D. Barnett. He lettered four times and was an all-conference performer as a senior. Smith earned a Bachelor of Science degree in health and physical education while at High Point, and also met his future wife, Donna, who was the homecoming queen.

After a brief stint in the Air Force, Smith began his coaching career with four years at his high school alma mater – Great Mills High School in Great Mills, Maryland, compiling a 46–36 record. His next stop was Hoke County High School in Raeford, North Carolina, where he recorded a 28–18 mark in two seasons.

Head coaching record

U.S. Olympic Basketball

Smith was selected to help coach the 2000 U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team in Sydney. He served as an assistant to then-Houston Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich as the Americans captured the gold medal.

Head coaching career

University of Tulsa

From 1991 to 1995, Smith led the Tulsa Golden Hurricane men’s basketball to a 79–43 record. Rebuilding the basketball program his first two years, he then led the team to two consecutive Missouri Valley Conference regular season titles and two appearances in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament in 1994 and 1995. Smith’s 1994 Tulsa team upset UCLA in the tourney’s first round before knocking off Oklahoma State. In ’95, the Golden Hurricane defeated Big Ten team Illinois to open March Madness.

University of Georgia

On March 29, 1995, Smith accepted the head coaching job at the University of Georgia, becoming the school’s first African-American head coach. In two seasons, he led the Bulldogs to a 45–19 record, including the first back-to-back seasons of 20 wins or more in school history. His teams achieved a Sweet 16 finish in the 1996 NCAA Tournament and lost in the first round of the 1997 NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs defeated Clemson to open the ’96 tournament before upsetting the top-seeded Purdue Boilermakers.