Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Breaking news: Tubby Smith leaving UK for NC State? FBI investigating a former University of Kentucky basketball player for point shaving?

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**UPDATE** Below you will read the original post that Piccu put up about the possible point shaving scandal, but, for those of you who only get the link to this specific post, we have more news. Our minions are out and about everywhere so read on and then click here for the latest intel.

BRATCH
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Breaking news here on IA. Sources have informed me of two big rumors going around Lexington involving the University of Kentucky Wildcats basketball team. One more substantiated than the other. Let me once again make this clear, THESE ARE RUMORS, NOT FACT, at least as of yet.

The less substantiated rumor is the UK head coach Tubby Smith is leaving to take the head coaching job at North Carolina State. All that needs to be worked out is the money. I am not sure which end the money is being worked out, whether it be Tubby and NC State or Tubby and UK.

Kind of makes sense because Tubby is a North Carolina native and would probably be more welcome there than he has been at UK. It does seem to be a step down, but when you are the coach of the University of Kentucky, just about any other coaching job is a step down. I always figured he would head to the NBA and rumors were that the Charlotte Bobcats were going to bring him in when present coach Bernie Bickerstaff stepped down in the next year or two. Keep an eye out for that in the next few days.

As I said there were two rumors with the Tubby rumor being the less substantiated. This rumor coming out of Lexington is the more substantiated. Apparently the FBI and the NCAA are on campus in Lexington investigating the allegations that Rajon Rondo was involved in point shaving. My source says that the FBI is looking at three specific games in which Rondo was reported to have shaved points.

I will say that if you watched games as I have this year, you may remember there were a few games in which Rondo had a sub par game until the last moments in which he would continually drive to the basket and lay it in. He scored 10 to 12 points that way very quickly. I think those were pre SEC Conference games and I will be interested to hear what three games are being looked at.

What does this mean for UK? I’m not sure. I’m sure they will get some kind of punishment, but if this was Rondo free styling and no one knew of this, then I do not believe that the sanctions would be as severe as the Eddie Sutton fiasco. I expect that Rondo could be facing some jail time if the allegations are true and might explain why he is hiring an agent and not just testing the NBA waters.

Whatever the case, it seems like there will be a huge mess in Lexington for somebody to clean up. I also assume that this will cause massive celebration for WKU and U of L fans.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

where did you hear about this? are you a student at UK?

Piccu said...

I am just a regular guy who heard this RUMOR from someone who said that it was making the rounds in Lexington.

I also asked someone else, who always seems to know on what is going on in Lexington, about these two rumors. He said he had not heard the Tubby to NC State rumor. He did however say that he had heard rumblings about the ALLEGED Rondo point shaving rumor after the UConn game.

I haven't heard anything from ESPN or any local newspapers and as far as I am concerned, no news is good news.

Travis said...

I've heard from a guy who works on press row at WKU that the Rondo rumor has legs.
I've heard nothing to confirm the Tubby rumor.

Piccu said...

That doesn't make me feel any better.

As for the Tubby to NC State rumor, I noticed on PTI yesterday one of the topics was should Jim Larranaga take the NC State job. Both LeBatard and Wilbon said he wouldn't do it. LeBatard said because the money wasn't good enough.

Would Tubby go from multi millions to a lower salary at a much lower ranked program? The more I think about the Tubby rumor, the more I think it smells fishy. I wish I could say that about the Rondo rumor.

I heard this morning the Larranaga is being pursued by Seton Hall. Larranaga is from the NY area, so I would not be surprised to see him go there.

Piccu said...

As I reported, I had heard from a guy who heard from a guy, that usually means that a rumor is just that a rumor. But I have talked with some others and Travis has too and it seems that this rumor is not as outlandish as it seems.

I, in fact, just recently found out who my source heard this rumor from, it was someone affiliated with the FBI.

I must once again remind everyone that these are just rumors and it seems like the Tubby to NC State rumor is looking more false everyday.

Even if the Rondo rumor is true, an investigation may not turn up anything and no one will ever hear anything officially in the media. We will just have to wait and see.

Anonymous said...

This could be one of those deals where the rumor was started that Tubby was leaving and someone started the whole deal about Rondo to make it seem more likely that Tubby would leave rather than be faced with a big scandal.
I think it is very possible tha tTubby might leave for NC State. It is right there in his old back yard and there is a lot less pressure. No one is going to pay like UK, but money isn't everything when there are websites dedicated to your demise. I will wait and see

Piccu said...

Rumors were going around that NC State was offering Calipari 2 million a year. I am not sure what Tubby makes, but I didn't think it was that much. I thought Tubby made more around 1.5 to 1.7 a year.

Tubby has never gotten the respect he deserved, even after winning a national championship. If I were him and NC State offered me 2 mil to come there, I would leave in a heart beat because UK fans will never respect him, a) because he isn't Rick Pitino and b) because he is black.

Piccu said...

Check the blog later for a new developments in the ongoing story of Rajon Rondo and point shaving allegations.

Anonymous said...

Smith makes 2.1 million a year. And by the end of his contract could be making above 2.7 million a year.

Anonymous said...

Well, the idiot who started this thread got a couple things wrong.

Tubby is a native of Maryland. His wife is from Virginia. Neither is from North Carolina.

And the point shaving rumor is UTTERLY C-O-M-P-L-E-T-E-L-Y FALSE!