GopherLady's STrib blog: The Truth About Tubby Smith

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GopherLady said:
Did you even read my blog? I wrote:
That is why it is called a BLOG. It's my opionion and thoughts. If I ever had access to asking about his substitution patterns, that would be in an interview. I may not know as much as you, but I'd say the majority of people would agree with me on this one...if you ever watch and analyze each game.

Who on earth said we should have won a NC by now, I said the 2nd round of the tourney.

I'm attacking Tubby, really? If this is attacking him, I can't wait to see how upset you are when we lose our 1st game and the big boys write about it. I pointed out a few areas of improvement...and guess what, no one is perfect, not even Tubby!
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I just repeated what you said about not being a writer.

All I am asking is please don't be another Myron and get your facts from the message boards. Tubby only had 2 bad years at UK and that was because he was tired of being criticized constantly (you are getting tired too because of all the grammer and spelling Police on this board). He had lost his passion for coaching and frankly anybody would too.

He took his average teams to the dance in March in those two years. Not many coach's have been able to do that. look at Florida, UCLA, Syracuse,... when they didn't have great teams. To me that's what separates Tubby from others. Anybody can coach 5-star players but very few can do wonders like Tubby does with none-5-star players.

Tubby had a great recruiting class coming in before he left UK that included MSU's Green. Yes, we had a bad year but cosidering all the distractions, I think we did well.

Lets keep our coachs and players happy so they perform well on the court. Be patient. We are getting there.

Sorry spelling and Grammer Police for all the Grammer and Spelling mistakes.

Go Gophers
 


royce

I know Royce White was a top 25 rated guy but I'm really not sure he'll be a big time college player. I watched him practice on Saturday with Iowa State. I think he just loves himself way too much to ever be great. He spent his free time shooting 3's from 35 to 40 feet and working on his perimeter between the legs dribble which....if he were quicker and played more outside might be time well spent. And maybe he could also do it by now. He just had this overall presence like he was blessing us all by participating. Made some shots and played with all the intensity of Randy Moss on a real bad day when he's not being thrown to.

Maybe he can play defense but surely didn't on this day.

Not too sure who Iowa State might beat this year. Northeastern certainly played harder last night than Iowa State practices.
 

Well Done

Completely agree with your blog.

However, I am in the 80% (probably along with most casual Gopher fans). I think most people realize Tubby knows more than they do about basketball and the Gopher Team in particular. I don't know enough about Tubby's players to question his substitution strategy. He has earned my trust through his past performance and his last 3 years at Minnesota. He would have to really screw-up for me to question what he is doing. I have no problem with the 15%. I ignore the 5% - it is pretty easy to see their motives.

As has been mentioned, recruiting depends on local Minnesota talent. Tubby has had his pick of Minnesota's best. Wisconsin and Iowa have not poached basketball like they do football (drives me crazy). My impression is that MSU, Ill, OSU get a lot of their top talent from their home states. Many of the top recent commits (Andre, Austin, Mo,...) would not have committed if Tubby was not the coach. First reason they all listed for coming to Minnesota - Tubby.

Tip of the Day: Ignore the people that comment on spelling or grammar. They will quickly realize that they are not getting the attention they crave and will switch to comments that get a response.
 

Recruiting.

I don't think Tubby really cares about recruiting the "elite talent" anymore. I think he had his fill of the egos, the agents, and AAU ass kissing, early NBA departures, etc. at Kentucky. If you look at his recruiting at MN he seems to be focusing on good (not elite) players that are smart and come from stable backgrounds (a la Coach K). Sampson, Iverson, Joseph, Eliason, Hollins (Andre and Austin), Coleman, etc. Sure, if he has a top 25 kid in your home state, and has a pretty good in with a top 10 player....


There are many who will bash Tubby for this, but I think you can say a lot for the value of having a team full of good kids to cheer for. I think he came here, in part, to rid himself of the need to go through the recruiting meat grinder and be free to do it his way. Many will not like this. I do because I think he can recruit his way AND win at a pretty significant level.
 


I thought the "80%" comment in GopherLady's blog was interesting and it certainly has brought about some good discussion. My feeling is that the number is way too high if we're talking hardcore Gopher fans, but might be close to accurate if we include everyone who cheers for the Gophers. There's always a (to me very bizarre) line of thinking among some fans that the head coach can do no wrong and is clearly doing the best job possible. Then there's fans who simply like having a big name coach and will be a fan of Tubby for that reason alone. Finally, there's the group that casually follows the team and will think Tubby can do no wrong unless he has a really bad season. At that point, this large group will likely move from the 80% that love Tubby to the 5% that already hate him, bypassing the 15% group.

Not to compare Tubby to Brad Childress, but the fan response would be similar. Those of us who didn't completely buy in to Childress last year were probably a small group, but a large number of more casual fans who just expected the Vikings to be great again this year, went from loving Childress to hating him somewhere around the Miami game.

I hope this does not happen, but if Tubby fails to get out of round 1 of the tournament again this year, I think we'll see a lot of that 80% (or whatever the real number is) move to the 5% anti-Tubby crowd.
 

corcoran1 said:
I don't think the 80% thinks Tubby is perfect, but we respect his coaching enough to expect things to get better. I don't see how anyone can complain about his coaching last year. He did a great job to get that group of guys in the tournament after all of the issues they had.
Plus, I never worry that he is going to embarrass us, he is a genuine class act. He will win and do it right.
His recruiting process mystifies me, but he doesn't seem to worry about it, so it will remain a mystery to me.
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++++++1
 

Gopher in Texas said:
Tip of the Day: Ignore the people that comment on spelling or grammar. They will quickly realize that they are not getting the attention they crave and will switch to comments that get a response.
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This is the BEST advice that I should have taken a day ago. It's just like when you tell not to do something, they do it 10 times more...that was my note on spelling and grammar. Should have know it would just draw more attention to it! Now I know not to read the comments, which stinks for the people who actually have good questions and discussion. Not worth my time to get upset about it though. Thank you!

balds said:
I don't think Tubby really cares about recruiting the "elite talent" anymore. I think he had his fill of the egos, the agents, and AAU ass kissing, early NBA departures, etc. at Kentucky. If you look at his recruiting at MN he seems to be focusing on good (not elite) players that are smart and come from stable backgrounds (a la Coach K). Sampson, Iverson, Joseph, Eliason, Hollins (Andre and Austin), Coleman, etc. Sure, if he has a top 25 kid in your home state, and has a pretty good in with a top 10 player....
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That depends, is the kid a Harrison Barnes type? If so, that kid is classy, smart, and a player that you want that's elite. If you're taking an academic or behavioral risk, that's a different story. You look at a coach like Tubby that made DJ an all around good player, and he can coach players to the best of their abilities. Where other coaches need that top talent, because they can't make you better.

EG#9 said:
I thought the "80%" comment in GopherLady's blog was interesting and it certainly has brought about some good discussion. My feeling is that the number is way too high if we're talking hardcore Gopher fans, but might be close to accurate if we include everyone who cheers for the Gophers. There's always a (to me very bizarre) line of thinking among some fans that the head coach can do no wrong and is clearly doing the best job possible. Then there's fans who simply like having a big name coach and will be a fan of Tubby for that reason alone. Finally, there's the group that casually follows the team and will think Tubby can do no wrong unless he has a really bad season. At that point, this large group will likely move from the 80% that love Tubby to the 5% that already hate him, bypassing the 15% group.

Not to compare Tubby to Brad Childress, but the fan response would be similar. Those of us who didn't completely buy in to Childress last year were probably a small group, but a large number of more casual fans who just expected the Vikings to be great again this year, went from loving Childress to hating him somewhere around the Miami game.

I hope this does not happen, but if Tubby fails to get out of round 1 of the tournament again this year, I think we'll see a lot of that 80% (or whatever the real number is) move to the 5% anti-Tubby crowd.
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I don't think the fan response would be similar at all, but I see your point.
 

Agreed. He has the tools to be a very good player but I highly doubt he ever puts it all together

60's Guy said:
I know Royce White was a top 25 rated guy but I'm really not sure he'll be a big time college player. I watched him practice on Saturday with Iowa State. I think he just loves himself way too much to ever be great. He spent his free time shooting 3's from 35 to 40 feet and working on his perimeter between the legs dribble which....if he were quicker and played more outside might be time well spent. And maybe he could also do it by now. He just had this overall presence like he was blessing us all by participating. Made some shots and played with all the intensity of Randy Moss on a real bad day when he's not being thrown to.

Maybe he can play defense but surely didn't on this day.

Not too sure who Iowa State might beat this year. Northeastern certainly played harder last night than Iowa State practices.
Click to expand...
 



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