Our team deserves a lot better than the fans they've been dealt.
Couldn't agree more.
I'm so tired of the "I'm a frustrated Gopher fan, let's blame Tubby for things out of his control" routine. People, please try and tap into a part of your brain that isn't as reactionary as Dim Jim's. This is a column coming from a guy who has admitted in the past that he knows little about collegiate athletics, and 'doesn't really follow them'. Remember this is the same guy who assured us Tubby was fleeing for Auburn, and then Oregon. Then he proceeded to react as if our loss to a #6 seed Xavier was a huge upset on their part, and that we lost to a coach named 'Baldy McWhimperson' (who proceeded to win his way to the Sweet 16). Souhan is a ink-stained wretch and a complete and utter hack.
There's no secret as to why this season has turned for the worse - our PG play is non-existent. Yeah, some of our games has shown us to have down energy (@IU for example), but overall its simply the fact that we have no PG. Now suddenly Tubby 'ran off' Devoe Joseph and Justin Cobbs? Hyperbole at best. Should we blame Tubby for Al Nolen breaking his foot too? Then he cheap shots the Paul Carter transfer? Either Souhan is ill informed or simply mean-spirited. I'll go with the latter.
To criticize Tubby for not recruiting big time talent is assinine too. When he successfully recruited Royce White, a 5-star blue chip guy, and MN kid - he was praised by the press, and then they did a 180 on him (Souhan and Fat Pat) about why would he recruit a 'troubled kid' like that. Now White is at Iowa State, and word is he's a model citizen and a 3.0 GPA. He got Mbakwe to transfer, and guess what Dim Jim? He's a big time talented glass-eater and interior scoring machine. Austin Hollins who has shown flashes of absolute brilliance this year is also
pretty damn talented. And his brother (who by all accounts is even better), Andre Hollins is coming in next season. Oh, but curse you Tubby for not bringing us a Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, or Jared Sullinger.
There are only two valid points that criticize Tubby in this column near as I can tell. One -
his offense. That's definitely a concern this season and directly linked to the lack of a PG. That's legit. Yet Souhan spent exactly 1 sentence on that issue. Why?
Because he has no analysis or actual rationale as to why that is. Nor is he interested in spending the time. The second point? Tubby's whining about the practice facility is getting old - BUT Maturi also promised him one when he signed Tubby here, so in a sense, Tubby's just
trying to generate overt pressure on Maturi to get this thing done. Yes, John Anderson and the baseball team deserve a new stadium first, but these are the hard decisions that have to be made by an AD if you want your revenue generating sports to be your best teams. Build that damn thing, and build it now.
I don't want to come off as a complete and utter Tubby apologist, but let's be realistic about where the program was when Tubby came in, and where its going. If you don't believe its on the upswing, despite all the setbacks this season, then you're not paying attention. Tubby has improved the talent on this program massively, and more good players are coming in. We've beat plenty of ranked teams and made the tourney twice in 3.5 short years. We were in the Big
Ten Tourney Title game as season ago, and could conceivably return probably any given year now with the talent we have. Hell we've beaten Wisconsin and Iowa pretty consistently over the past 2 years. We can make it a 3rd straight NCAA appearance if they wright the ship a bit here and win some more conference games.
No this season hasn't met expectations, but there's no reason yet to believe that Tubby is failing here either.
Clearly Souhan isn't interested in research or analyzing his positions, rather, he just wants to create reaction for better or worse.
