Amelia: Outside Minnesota: thoughts on Tubby Smith and what went wrong with Gophers

BleedGopher

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per the blog:

How much of that do you attribute to the coach? How much have coaching decisions impacted the tailspin?

Yarina: “I think that can definitely impact it. Tubby, by his nature, he always has a deep roster, even if players aren’t worthy of playing, he just likes running out the hockey lines. And it’s worked for him and he’s a very successful coach, but this year, and at Minnesota quite frankly, it hasn’t worked. And I don’t know how much that does play into it. You look at a guy like Julian Welch – I’m not at practice every day, but he was a pretty good player last year and you expect him to do something this year, and then he doesn’t paly in an entire game and there’s just got to be minutes for him if there’s minutes for other guys. I thought Illinois was going to be the most mystery team this year, but it’s Minnesota.”

Brennan: “I think Tubby Smith is well-regarded typically, but I think he probably shares a good deal of the blame for this as well because the refrain from Minnesota fans that I just from the signal and constantly on Twitter that he talks about not having any leadership. But I kind of agree with people when they say, well, that’s why you make the big bucks. You’re standing on the side line. It’s not like you’re coaching them from a distance. You’re not up there in a booth looking down and saying ‘Someone needs to take charge of this team.’ It’s like you’re the coach – do it … I think it would be overly generous to Tubby or any other coach to say that he didn’t have any impact on his team’s chemistry. And a rather big impact. Because I think from the time that you take over a job, that’s among your first priorities is not only finding guys that fit your style of play, but fit your personality and fit the personality you want to have around your program.”

Johnson: “Whenever you’re the head coach, everything is going to fall in your lap. When you win, that falls in your lap. When you lose, that falls in your lap. Tubby is a hall-of-fame caliber coach, but his guys didn’t perform down the stretch, so you’re going to blame the coach, and probably justifiably so. I don’t know what he can do. Because I’m sure that he doesn’t go into the game with the intention of them turning the ball over 19 times. Get into foul trouble early. Hollins had to sit. Mbakwe had to sit. Those are your best players. You’re doing well, your coach is great. You’re doing poorly, your coach is going to hear it. So I guess that comes with the territory.”

http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/198599631.html

Go Gophers!!
 

I think one of the things with Tubby is that this is totally his team, there were no major injuries or defections this year and though they played the non-conf and beginning of the B1G season well, around the Mich game, the bottom fell out. To say they played uninspired is to say they played in the first place.

Personally I did not hold the injuries of defections nec. against Tubby. He held in there longer with White then he really needed to. Along with that, when key players get injured, what do you do?

None of that this year, yet instead of remaining competitive and improving, the team looked poor most of the B1G games.
 

I think one of the things with Tubby is that this is totally his team, there were no major injuries or defections this year and though they played the non-conf and beginning of the B1G season well, around the Mich game, the bottom fell out. To say they played uninspired is to say they played in the first place.

Personally I did not hold the injuries of defections nec. against Tubby. He held in there longer with White then he really needed to. Along with that, when key players get injured, what do you do?

None of that this year, yet instead of remaining competitive and improving, the team looked poor most of the B1G games.

I still want to see how the tournament goes with this team. I am curious if Tubby's style/coaching just doesn't fit well with a lot of teams in the Big10.

And .500 conference record with sweet 16's is fine by me. I agree it doesn't look good, but I'm still hopeful that this tough stretch has made the team stronger for a tournament run.

There are essentially 3 parts to a season. Non conference where tubby and the Gophers do wonderful. The big 10 where I'd give it a meh. And the NCAA tournament. Turn number 3 to a doing wonderful instead of a blah and I think we are okay.
 

Losing is not so bad if the team at least played well, but a number of the games, especially against the "lessor teams" in the B1G they failed to look even moderately decent.
 




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