Before UK traveled to Arkansas to take on the Hogs, Tubby made a point of telling me what his mentor had done.

"Did you see what Nolan did ?" Tubby's voice became strong when he started talking about the head hog, Nolan Richardson. Tubby was impressed that Nolan had the guts to put Pat Bradley and Kareem Reid, his big time backcourt on the bench because they weren't performing up to his expectations. Doing this to seniors isn't easy, but often necessary. As a group, they can be the toughest players to control. The end is near. Agents or friends have often quietly gotten into their heads about how special they are. Seniors can decide that they are smarter than the coach. The end result is the player often times forgets what got him there.

At times, just a minor tune-up is needed. A coaches' greatest power comes from something that has nothing to do with how loud he yells. It's called P.T........Playing Time ! The fastest way to get any player to listen is take that precious commodity away.

Pitino once had a little problem with one of Kentucky's finest, John Pelphrey. G.G. Smith, a terrific young man, just had his starting spot yanked at Georgia. Heshimu Evans had a message delivered during the Arkansas game.  

The truth is that Tubby has been frustrated with Heshmu Evans for quite some time. Tubby's frustration hit the roof when he did something unusual. The day before playing the Hogs, Tubby criticized Evans defense. Most of the time when Tubby takes on a part of the game where Kentucky isn't doing well, he'll talk about how the team needs to do this or that better. I told Evans what Tubby said. He looked shocked and quietly said, "I guess I need to do a better job." When Tubby didn't like what he saw against Arkansas, he flexed his muscles and allowed Evans enough pine time to get splinters. Playing only 16 minutes against Arkansas was embarrassing to Evans.

UK has a problem that is different than any other team in America. They are the defending champs. It isn't something that any of the current Duke players can relate too. At times, UK has been living off the success of last year. It's called being complacent. Every veteran player I spoke to, Padgett, Evans, Magloire, and Turner all agreed with me that at times UK has been complacent.

Evans believes there is plenty of time to turn things around. "It's very hard, especially when you win the national championship and try and come back and win another one. You know we've had some rocky roads along the way. But, we can definitely do it again. We get complacent from time to time."

Jamaal Magloire has improved more than any of Tubby's players since the beginning of the season. Jam cares more about this team than most realize. "I see that we may be a little complacent, but I think its natural. I don't think it's something malicious. Complacency is going to come with success. If we work hard, I don't see anyone stopping this team."Not getting more from Turner and Evans is why UK lost to the Hogs.

If Tubby's message gets through, this can still be a better March than most True Blue Fans anticipate. There is no reason why UK can't play with anyone in America......yes, even Duke.

Great Coaches would be great at chess. Don't you find it interesting that two of the best coaches in America, Nolan Richardson and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski both sat down some of their finest before playing Kentucky ? With their messages delivered, Elton Brand, Pat Bradley, and Kareem Reid all re-discovered their games in time to stick it to Kentucky. All three conveniently had enough time to the reclaim their starting spots when their teams tipped off against UK. When a coach delivers this kind of message to a player, he is also reminding his team who the boss is.

This is a strange Kentucky team. As a group, they do not hustle the way other Kentucky teams have in the past. You get the feeling that there are some players on the team who believe they can just turn it on in March. Maybe that's true, but it is a dangerous way to perform. Baseball's Pete Rose likes to say that it doesn't cost any money to hustle. The lack of hustle has cost UK a shot at something they should have earned, a number one seed in the NCAA tournament, which means UK would have had two easy games.

The way it stands today, UK might have to work a lot harder in the opening two games than they did last year. But, they have only themselves to blame.

Workouts for UK's football team are going as expected. Mumme and Major smile at how much better UK is athletically since they've arrived. Early morning workouts have been moved up to start 15 minutes earlier, at 5:45 am. As always, Defensive Co-ordinator Mike Major has a funny spin on the change. "We're going to have a great year because we're getting up 15 minutes early. We have an edge on everyone. We tell the kids that Tennessee is still laying in bed and the people in Florida are just getting in, so we're ahead."

The relationship between Mumme and his buddy Major is most unusual. During spring football they actually compete with each other. This has been going on for over 20 years. So, when head coach asked Major about some of the changes that are being made on defense, Major would not give away any secrets. "I didn't give any hold cards away," says UK's defensive co-ordinator. "He's not going to tell me what he's going to do." With that comment, Major starts laughing.

Obviously in the fall when UK is preparing to play someone else, Major shares everything with Hal Mumme. There can't be very many coaching relationships like this in America. It's fun to watch.

Alan Cutler is an award winning TV sportscaster, motivational speaker, and sports talk show host in Lexington and Cincinnati. Comments can be e-mailed to sportscut@mis.net . Choose to have a great day !