YES! He’s gone and we didn’t even have to pay him to leave! Thank you, Jesus!

Tubby Smith, former University of Kentucky Wildcats coach, has departed Lexington for the beautiful northern woods and the Minnesota Golden Gophers. I wish him nothing but the best; as a person, he was always an impeccable role model and an upstanding figure in one of the toughest places to coach in America. Unfortunately, he couldn’t quite handle the expectations, nor could he recruit in the SEC.

He’ll earn a good $1.8 million per year over the next four years, and he’ll move to the Big 10, where his slow, boring, half court offense will no doubt come to dominate the slow, boring, half court league. Hell, if anything, Tubby will seem like an up-tempo coach in the glacial Big 10. Good for him, and good for Kentucky to let him go his own way without having to force him out (as would’ve been the case next year when Kentucky loses yet another 10 games).

I know everyone and their mother is going to blame this on the UK fan’s high expectations, but here are the facts:

- He’s the longest tenured coach at UK since Joe B. Hall, so you can’t say he didn’t have time to work his magic.

- He’s lost 10 or more games three years in a row, which is bad.

- Eight years without a Final Four trip (the longest streak in UK history), which includes the black period where Eddie Sutton got the program a post-season ban and missing scholarships.

- No chance in hell of getting good recruits (we were never going to land Patrick Patterson, and Jai Lucas alone does not a good recruiting class make).

So, without further ado…goodbye, sweet Orlando. We hardly knew ye. You did your best, but you just weren’t good enough and you wouldn’t fire your shitty assistant coaches and get some good recruiters. I look forward to watching the Wildcats clobber you in the NCAA tournament next year.