I don't understand the negativity for Coach Smith

[Ogee Ogilthorpe]

Wise up!

Please show me where I let Tubby off the hook.

You're trying to pretend it was the loss of one player, when it was, for the latter half of this season, the loss of 3 (including Mo Walker), and for the last couple seasons, the loss of many more (Cobbs, White, Carter) for a myriad of reasons.

I'm not saying it's not Tubby's fault. I'm saying that it's time for you to stop pretending it was just one player.

C'mon, dpod... any decent team and coach in the country should be able to lose 3 of it's top 8 players around the start of conference play and not miss a beat.

Or perhaps minngg thinks we should all blame Tubby for foolishly letting Paul Carter just walk away from the team for something is minor as being closer to his sister. What a stupid move that was.

minngg credibility = ZERO

 

[minngg]

5 transfers. Poor Tubby. He is such a victim. You can bet your butt that if this happened to someone like Bo Ryan or Calipari you all would be saying he shouldn't recruit suspect players. It is so easy to say what would have happened if all of the players were still on the team. A lot of you were saying the team was better off when Devoe left. Nice call.

 

[Go Gophs eh?]

teams beat with al nolen, and without devoe joseph: North Carolina, West Virginia, Purdue
teams lost to with devoe joseph playing (nolen did not play vs. virginia):Virginia, Wisconsin, Michigan State

 

[underground629]

You still make it sound like the season was ruined by the loss of 1 player and that's just not true. Simply losing Nolen wasn't what wrecked the season. It was losing our only 2 good pgs.

Part of a coaches job is to keep players he recruits. At least that is what I was told when players from other teams transfer. All I am saying is losing one average player to injury should not derail a GOOD team's season. With Nolen we win 3 or 4 more games. Tops. Even giving those to Tubby, we have a lot of work to do before we are looked at as a competitor in the Big Ten for a championship. My god, if losing a player of Nelen's caliber is going to wreck your season, we are too thin to expect to win down the stretch anyway. At the end of the year we were the 2nd worse team in the Big Ten. With or without Nolen, that is inexcuseable.

 

[underground629]

I've been trying to get that point through as well. I give up.

I'm not saying it's not Tubby's fault. I'm saying that it's time for you to stop pretending it was just one player.

 

[Cayman]

5 transfers. Poor Tubby. He is such a victim. You can bet your butt that if this happened to someone like Bo Ryan or Calipari you all would be saying he shouldn't recruit suspect players. It is so easy to say what would have happened if all of the players were still on the team. A lot of you were saying the team was better off when Devoe left. Nice call.

I do believe Devoe left before Al Nolen got injured. If Al hadn't gotten injured, Devoe's transfer wouldn't have hurt nearly as much, and perhaps could have helped. Something is better than nothing, Devoe would have been better than Hoff.

And I wouldn't call Colton Iverson a suspect player, and calling Paul Carter a suspect player couldn't be further from the truth, he left because he put his family before basketball, I have nothing but respect for such a decision. Royce, as has been pointed out before, was a lose-lose situation. Tubby gets 5 star, top in-state recruit Royce White, who then gets in trouble with the law and "Tubby shouldn't recruit suspect players." Tubby decides not to take the risk and "Tubby can't even land the top in-state talent." Devoe, well maybe you were right about Devoe. Justin Cobbs, I don't believe he was ever in any sort of trouble with anyone, just wasn't happy here, same with Colt from the sound of things.

 

[vagopher]

Would you rather be deep, or talented? I agree that the Gophers will be deep, but I'm not sure they'll have enough top-end talent to compete for a top 6 finish in the league. There is little evidence to suggest that any player will make a significant leap in overall performance with Smith at the helm. We'll see though. Mo Walker could be a nice player and Andre Hollins looks pretty decent. Let's break it down a little more:

Rodney Williams, has been a pretty harsh disappointment thus far but will most certainly play a larger role next season. Maybe that will give him the confidence to actually assert himself.

Ralph Sampson III, another disappointment. Sadly, he'll probably be the Gophers top offensive threat.

Andre Hollins, looks like he's got a chance to start right away. I'm excited about this kid for sure.

Austin Hollins, proved he's not as good a shooter as some expected. With an NBA coach for a dad, he could grow his skills.

Mo Walker, questions surround how he will react after missing a season with a significant injury. If he fully recovers, he could be a good player at both ends.

Elliot Elliason, hopefully he added 15-20 pounds.

Oto, might be a good spot-up shooter, but no one really knows what this kid has to offer.

Chip, probably come off the bench and offer what he did this season. Bad shooter, great slasher.

What about Coleman and Welch?

 

[JDGopher]

c
You could give Lamb, Night, and Jones to any coach in the country and get the results that Calamari got this season.

I realized I selected only a small part of what you said, but I strongly disagree with this. Don't get me wrong, those three players would likely turn any team into a tournament team. But making the final four? I don't think so. I know everyone hates Cal but you can't deny that he at least knows how to coach the talent he gets into his schools.

 

[The-Real-Truth]

I realized I selected only a small part of what you said, but I strongly disagree with this. Don't get me wrong, those three players would likely turn any team into a tournament team. But making the final four? I don't think so. I know everyone hates Cal but you can't deny that he at least knows how to coach the talent he gets into his schools.

I respect your opinion. I also mentioned the IU team after coach Knight left that was handed to Mike Davis.

Go Gophers

 

[Ope3]

Devoe

Did you forget that Devoe quit midseason? We would've been fine if he had stayed.

I really don't think the Gophers would have been fine if Devoe had stayed. They way they played in December with Devoe in the lineup and Nolen out was pretty much the same as how they played in Feb-March. They got blown-out in the 2nd half in a loss vs Virginia and struggled to beat the likes of Cornell, Eastern Kentucky, Akron and SDSU, all at home.

 

[Oneoldgopher]

Well, 6th, 7th, 6th and 9th in the Big Ten is not exactly turning the program around especially since many of his recruits have left. Blaming Al Nolen's injury for this season is the easy way out. Not even Tubby would suggest that. Nolen isn't exactly all Big Ten material. The bigger question is why wasn't there a player behind Nolen that was just as good? Wouldn't take much.

This guy gets it.

 

[underground629]

Devoe started playing late. Don't you think the chemistry would've improved some? We lost a lot of close games after Nolen went out because we went through late stretches of being unable to score. You don't think we would've won some of those games with Devoe playing pg and Hoffarber playing sg? I find that a little hard to believe.

I really don't think the Gophers would have been fine if Devoe had stayed. They way they played in December with Devoe in the lineup and Nolen out was pretty much the same as how they played in Feb-March. They got blown-out in the 2nd half in a loss vs Virginia and struggled to beat the likes of Cornell, Eastern Kentucky, Akron and SDSU, all at home.

 

[Indiana Gopher]

If one wonders why there is so much negativity regarding Tubby, one only has to look at the players returning next year that played significant minutes this year. After four recruiting classes, 2 NCAA appearances, and a trip to the Big Ten Championship game, one would think we would have been able to stock the roster. Instead we have:

Austin Hollins;
Ralph Sampson, Trevor Mbakwe (chances that both return are not great; we likely end up with one or the other but not both);
Rodney Williams (although there are rumblings he, too, may pursue an NBA career early); and
Chip Armellin (if he decides to stay and not pursue a football career)

...and we get Mo Walker back from injury

Then we have newcomers Oto Osienieks, Andre Hollins, Joe Coleman, Julian Welch, and Elliott Eliason

Really? Four likely returnees on the roster? That's what we have to show for four years? And we wonder why the negativity...

This should be Devoe's senior year, Colt's senior year, Justin Cobbs' junior year, and Royce White's junior year (or whoever we decided to recruit with that scholarship since Royce was obviously a bad seed)

We have seemingly started over again...and again...and again...during Tubby's tenure. And we've never been sure he was going to be here long enough to see it through. We've heard about NC State, and GA Tech, and UVA, and Georgia, and Arkansas, and Maryland, and Missouri, and...(I'm sure there are others I am missing but quite honestly I tuned out the "coaching carousel noise" last year)

I just can't see how a team that is continuously starting over and has multiple scholarships to fill can go into the recruiting season with a coach in limbo and be successful. I think Tubby is reaping what he sows and I don't see it getting any better until he is gone.

Negativity? You bethca?

 

[Ope3]

Devoe

Devoe started playing late. Don't you think the chemistry would've improved some? We lost a lot of close games after Nolen went out because we went through late stretches of being unable to score. You don't think we would've won some of those games with Devoe playing pg and Hoffarber playing sg? I find that a little hard to believe.

They possibly would have won a game or 2 with Devoe, but I really don't think he would have made much of a measurable difference (barring a serious attitude transformation) for the Gophers to do any damage in March. Just my opinion.