I do understand the dissatisfaction with what started out as a promising campaign that turned into a disaster but when you lose your starting PG and your only other option decides he's unhappy with the coaching staff and his role there isn't much you can do other than pray it works itself out. Obviously that didn't happen.
You didn't really hire a young, super hungry coach with a reputation as an elite recruiter. You hired a defensive minded coach with a solid reputation as a teacher of the game who had success early in his HC career as a guy who turned around struggling programs but had become burned out and complacent at an elite job. What Tubby has done for Gopher Ball is exactly what you hired him to do and what he's good at: He's made Minnesota Basketball respectable again and moving forward it's on much more solid footing than it was at the end of the Haskins scandal plauged era and the Monson debacle.
Yeah, things don't always work out and mistakes are made. Tubby's made them this season and he'll probably make some more. But I think he's done a good job thus far in making Minnesota competitve, returning to the post season, raising the profile of the program with some big wins and I think, before it's over, he'll have one more great run in him.
I do think as a person who observes the program from afar but also has some insight on the coaching staff that there definitly needs to be some changes made to maximaze the footing already in place. Recruiting has to improve, facilities need to get better and at least one young recruiter with solid ties with the high school and AAU coaches in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois etc needs to be added. Jirsa is dead weight. Saul is solid and enthusastic but still young in terms of experience in recruiting at a Big 10 program. Tubby really needs to go outside his comfort zone and hire someone that maybe he hasn't worked with before or doesn't have a presonal relationship with. Or Minnesota can open a checkbook and try to lure George Felton out of retirment. There's a man who is still probably more plugged in with the AAU scene than guys half his age despite being out of the college game for 10 years.
These are some of the steps that need to be taken to take Gopher Basketball to the next level. Whining and crying about what Tubby isn't or looking for answers when the only one was when Nolen went down to injury for a crucial stretch won't cut it.
You didn't really hire a young, super hungry coach with a reputation as an elite recruiter. You hired a defensive minded coach with a solid reputation as a teacher of the game who had success early in his HC career as a guy who turned around struggling programs but had become burned out and complacent at an elite job. What Tubby has done for Gopher Ball is exactly what you hired him to do and what he's good at: He's made Minnesota Basketball respectable again and moving forward it's on much more solid footing than it was at the end of the Haskins scandal plauged era and the Monson debacle.
Yeah, things don't always work out and mistakes are made. Tubby's made them this season and he'll probably make some more. But I think he's done a good job thus far in making Minnesota competitve, returning to the post season, raising the profile of the program with some big wins and I think, before it's over, he'll have one more great run in him.
I do think as a person who observes the program from afar but also has some insight on the coaching staff that there definitly needs to be some changes made to maximaze the footing already in place. Recruiting has to improve, facilities need to get better and at least one young recruiter with solid ties with the high school and AAU coaches in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois etc needs to be added. Jirsa is dead weight. Saul is solid and enthusastic but still young in terms of experience in recruiting at a Big 10 program. Tubby really needs to go outside his comfort zone and hire someone that maybe he hasn't worked with before or doesn't have a presonal relationship with. Or Minnesota can open a checkbook and try to lure George Felton out of retirment. There's a man who is still probably more plugged in with the AAU scene than guys half his age despite being out of the college game for 10 years.
These are some of the steps that need to be taken to take Gopher Basketball to the next level. Whining and crying about what Tubby isn't or looking for answers when the only one was when Nolen went down to injury for a crucial stretch won't cut it.
). No matter how good you think Nolen was, at the very least he didn't suck, and he was an actual PG. He was a better PG than Hoffarber was anyway, and then of course it didn't help that we had to have our starting shooting guard play out of his natural position.
