BOZICH: Familiar Refrain -- Tubby Hears Cheers and Grumbling

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per the article:

Remember: This is not basketball Valhalla. At best, it's the seventh best job in the 12-team Big Ten. Williams Arena is old, cramped and a half-century past its prime. Today's recruits don't care that Dave Winfield, Mychal Thompson and Kris Humphries played there.

The practice facility that Smith thought he would have by now has not been built. The contrast between the uninspired basketball commitment, and the Gophers' splendid on-campus football stadium and hockey arena are difficult to overlook. There's not much evidence that says winning absolutely matters at Minnesota.

Plus, there is legitimate competition for attention from the Vikings, Twins, Timberwolves and Wild.

Smith has not provided much juice for change. He's yet to win an NCAA Tournament game since leaving Lexington. He's 0-2.

Guess what? That is part of the Minnesota basketball culture. Dan Monson made the tournament at Gonzaga before he came to town -- and Monson made it back to the tournament after he left for Long Beach. But Monson whiffed going against Tom Izzo, Bo Ryan and the rest of the Big Ten.

The Gophers last won an NCAA Tournament game in 1997 under Clem Haskins, but that led to the program's visit to NCAA probation. Winning and NCAA trouble also happened before at Minnesota.

Minnesota is a daunting job for any coach -- and today the coach hearing the noise is Tubby Smith.

http://www.wdrb.com/story/21416997/bozich-familiar-refrain-tubby-hears-cheers-and-grumbling

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
per the article:

Remember: This is not basketball Valhalla. At best, it's the seventh best job in the 12-team Big Ten. Williams Arena is old, cramped and a half-century past its prime. Today's recruits don't care that Dave Winfield, Mychal Thompson and Kris Humphries played there.

The practice facility that Smith thought he would have by now has not been built. The contrast between the uninspired basketball commitment, and the Gophers' splendid on-campus football stadium and hockey arena are difficult to overlook. There's not much evidence that says winning absolutely matters at Minnesota.

Plus, there is legitimate competition for attention from the Vikings, Twins, Timberwolves and Wild.

Smith has not provided much juice for change. He's yet to win an NCAA Tournament game since leaving Lexington. He's 0-2.

Guess what? That is part of the Minnesota basketball culture. Dan Monson made the tournament at Gonzaga before he came to town -- and Monson made it back to the tournament after he left for Long Beach. But Monson whiffed going against Tom Izzo, Bo Ryan and the rest of the Big Ten.

The Gophers last won an NCAA Tournament game in 1997 under Clem Haskins, but that led to the program's visit to NCAA probation. Winning and NCAA trouble also happened before at Minnesota.

Minnesota is a daunting job for any coach -- and today the coach hearing the noise is Tubby Smith.

http://www.wdrb.com/story/21416997/bozich-familiar-refrain-tubby-hears-cheers-and-grumbling

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Does this person not realize Monson also made the tournament at Minnesota as well?
 


I'm not sure if Dan Monson has won a game, at his present job, in the NCAA tournament or not? If he has, than I am guessing that was what he meant to point out, that Monson won in the NCAA tourney before coming to UMn, and has as well since leaving?! But other than that issue, I tend to agree with most of the rest of what this article says.


It took us FOREVER to finally commit some money to fb, but despite building the new stadium, we STILL pay our coach less, A LOT LESS than the 10th best paid coach in the Big Ten.

We commit lots of money to our hockey program, and guess what, they are winning.


But we do not, despite promising we would, support our basketball program with much in the way of financial support for new facilities. So other than paying Tubby an ok amount of money, how else do we support cbb here in Minnesota?!
 

#1nHkyCfbBsbDncSolarDebat said:
I'm not sure if Dan Monson has won a game, at his present job, in the NCAA tournament or not? If he has, than I am guessing that was what he meant to point out, that Monson won in the NCAA tourney before coming to UMn, and has as well since leaving?! But other than that issue, I tend to agree with most of the rest of what this article says.


It took us FOREVER to finally commit some money to fb, but despite building the new stadium, we STILL pay our coach less, A LOT LESS than the 10th best paid coach in the Big Ten.

We commit lots of money to our hockey program, and guess what, they are winning.


But we do not, despite promising we would, support our basketball program with much in the way of financial support for new facilities. So other than paying Tubby an ok amount of money, how else do we support cbb here in Minnesota?!
Click to expand...

The MN hockey program wins traditionally because they have the pick of the litter when it comes to recruits and the fact that hockey is such a niche sport with only 50 or so Division I teams. The #1 team in the country right now is Quinnipiac. That sounds like a lake up in northern MN.

15 players on the current MN roster are NHL draftees. That is why MN wins more often than not.
 


I hate to say it but with Nebraska new arena and over the top practice facility, Minnesota may be the 10th best basketball job in the conference, however it will move past Iowa, Nebraska and maybe Wisconsin once shovels are in the ground for a practice facility and some touch ups are done to the barn. Also at the point there won't be much difference between jobs 3-10 it will comedown too how well the coach sells their program.
 

It's a bit of a chicken and egg but if a coach were able to sign the big three it would become the second or third best job in the conference pretty quickly.
 

How does the U spend more money on the hockey program? That is beyond laughable. They have a newer arena, that is still 20 years old. Williams gets upgrades well before Mariucci. The basketball coaching staff makes 10 times what the hockey coaching staff does. The only thing we dont spend on for basketball is a new practice facility.
 

DLguy --

I did not say, or mean to indicate that we spend more, straight up on hockey than we do basketball, but the difference in what we spend towards bb vs hockey, compared to Michigan is not as great. But I don't have the stats to back that up, that's just my guess.

I am sure the bb coaching staff makes 10 times what the hockey coaching staff makes, since you say it is so, it must be, right?! So that must mean that all the other WCHA programs and the Big Ten CCHA programs all spend more on hockey than we do?! And that the difference in what they pay their bb coaches and coaching staffs is nowhere near 10 times more than what they pay their hockey coach and coaching staffs?!
 



Sorry, I thought you were saying the school spends more money on hockey than basketball. My mistake. The U does spend more than other WCHA programs, and basketball is probably middle of the pack in the Big Ten.
 

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