Fansided

Tubby Smith offers rant on players transferring en masse

By Brad Berreman

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, KY - DECEMBER 31: Head coach Tubby Smith of the Memphis Tigers his seen during the game against the Cincinnati Bearcats at BB
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, KY - DECEMBER 31: Head coach Tubby Smith of the Memphis Tigers his seen during the game against the Cincinnati Bearcats at BB /
facebooktwitterreddit

Tubby Smith is as old school as it gets among college basketball coaches, and his rant about transfers proves it.

Particularly in football and men’s basketball, perhaps because we hear about it more, college athletes are transferring at a level never before seen. Coaching changes drive a lot of transfers, but an equal amount is driven by a perceived lack of playing time as competition is added each recruiting cycle.

Tubby Smith has been a men’s college basketball coach every season since 1991-92. He’s currently in his second season at Memphis, with a 19-12 record heading into the AAC Tournament this week. After the Tigers’ 90-70 win over East Carolina on Sunday, the 66-year old had something to say about transfers.

"Kids have a lot of options nowadays with the new NCAA regulations, guys can transfer whenever they want,” Smith said on Sunday after his team’s win over East Carolina. “I’ve been in this business a long time, never seen anything like it. We had over 800 Division I players transfer last year. We’re teaching them how to quit. That’s what we’re doing. Things not going well, let’s quit."

Smith mentioned how he called his father and wanted to transfer from High Point during his freshman season in 1969, and how he was given the option to stay at the school or join the Army. It comes off as a tangent along the lines of “get off my lawn”, nearly 50 years since Smith was a college freshman in a far different world.

Next: Top 5 March Madness heroes of all-time

The hypocrisy of a rant about players being able to freely transfer is butted up against by coaches not being held to the same standard. Smith himself is now at this sixth school as a head coach, with most of those moves coming on his own motivation rather than being fired. Six players transferred from Memphis after his first season and a similar exodus could come after this season, so mass transfers are clearly a sore subject for Smith. He might be right on some points, but the precise words he used invite worthy criticism.