Kentucky coach Tubby Smith is feeling the heat

	Though he's won a national championship and five SEC titles in 10 years at Kentucky, Tubby Smith's job is on the line. Al Tielemans/SI
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Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart released a statement on Monday which was supposed to provide answers about Tubby Smith's job security. The only thing the statement did, however, was raise more questions.

"I know that the fans, coaches and players are disappointed with the results of the season up to this point, but it's important to wait until the most critical part of the season is complete before reviewing the program," Barnhart said in the release. "If the close games we've lost in February become victories during the tournaments, then this team has a chance to play up to its potential, which is what all of us as Wildcat fans want."

It's not hard to read between those lines. Tubby Smith has been put on notice.

If Barnhart really wanted to quell a brewing storm, he could have simply said Tubby was his guy. Or, he could have done what most AD's in his situation do: ignore the media. He chose -- deliberately, I'm sure -- to do neither. That has made a perennially tense situation all the more awkward as the season heads into its final weeks.

How awkward? When Kentucky held its standard day-before-the-game news conference on Tuesday, some of the players didn't even know about the statement. They had to learn about it from reporters, who naturally pressed them to comment. Smith said he knew beforehand Barnhart was going to release his statement and tried to spin the gesture as an indication of "support." Nobody believed him.

"We're sitting here 19-9, and with what we've done I'm not going to defend my record or anything else," Smith said. "[The players] don't have to worry about my job being on the line. They need to be concerned about playing to the best of their ability."

The tension between Smith and Barnhart dates to the end of last season. After Kentucky ended a 22-13 campaign with a loss in the second round of the NCAA tournament, Barnhart asked Smith to present him with some sort of specific plan for the future. Barnhart thought the plan should include a shakeup in the coaching staff, but Smith, ever the loyalist, refused. His answer was, essentially, Trust me. I know what I'm doing. Things will get better.

Such assurances will not be enough if Kentucky, which had lost four of its previous five games before beating Georgia at Rupp Arena on Wednesday night, does not finish the season strong. On the one hand, the idea Smith should be fired is ludicrous when you look at his 10-year record in Lexington. Besides coaching the team to the 1998 national championship in his first season, Tubby has taken the Cats to five SEC titles and three additional Elite Eights (including just two years ago, when they came within an overtime loss to Michigan State of making the Final Four). In 2003, he swept the national coach of the year awards. Not only has he never missed the NCAA tournament, he has never even lost in the first round. Put together that kind of record at most schools, and they name the court after you.