LBSU looking good

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Tater

Tater

f.k.a. "Tubtastic"
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Monson's LBSU team looks better than most of his Gopher teams.
 

Unlike all of our UK troll friends, I am rooting for Monson and hope he does well.
 

Same here buddy. I still can't help but think how weird it will be if Monson makes the tourney and Tubby doesn't.
 





Danny

Danny has guards that can shoot, Conference POY and Defensive POY in Ware and nine juniors on the roster. I wish him well and it is nice to see him have success out there.

Danny was also named Coach of the year in the Big West.

Damn shame he could not get that done here.

In any case I will be one Gopher fan pulling for Long Beach in the tourney.
 

Dan is a great coach for a mid major type school. He just wasn't the right guy to lead the team with major restrictions in a major conference. Best of luck to him and his team.
 

Anyone know when they play today?
 




Thanks. Go Beach, I guess.
 


Section201 said:
Danny has guards that can shoot, Conference POY and Defensive POY in Ware and nine juniors on the roster. I wish him well and it is nice to see him have success out there.

Danny was also named Coach of the year in the Big West.

Damn shame he could not get that done here.

In any case I will be one Gopher fan pulling for Long Beach in the tourney.
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All this does make a reasonable person wonder whether our problem here at Minnesota is institutional. Throw out the Kentucky experience and compare:

Tubby at Tulsa and Georgia: two conference titles and six NCAA Tournament wins in 6 years
Tubby at Minnesota: 8 games below .500 in conference and zero Tournament wins in 4 years

Tubby is a good and accomplished coach, and this is hard to explain on its face.

Monson elsewhere: three conference titles and three Tourney wins (and he's not finished yet this year)
Monson here: 22 games under .500 in conference in 8 years; no Tournament wins

And I don't buy the whole "Monson's a good mid-major coach" or "anyone can win at Kentucky" arguments. They don't hold water. If you follow those lines of thinking and others, you have to conclude that you can win at the mid-major level; you can win at the Kentucky level; you can win at places like Tulsa and Georgia; you can obviously win at Wisconsin; you can win just about everywhere except...I guess...HERE.

I was particularly struck by the interview I read with Monson, where he talked about how happy and enthused he is at LBSU. He was miserable here from day one. Tubby is so obviously miserable right now. What is it about this place!?!

You look purely analytically at all this, and an unbiased person has to conclude that it's not the coaches. There's something about the institution or the environment. And it's not a stretch to wonder whether those environmental factors have to do with player defections, too. Don't get me wrong - I'm not sure I believe it myself, but that's what I'd conclude as an unbiased observer and analyst.
 



Why would we wish bad things on Monson? I want him to do well. I hope they get in. It doesn't mean it was wrong to let him go. He cleaned up the program and deserves credit for that.
 

Bad Gopher said:
All this does make a reasonable person wonder whether our problem here at Minnesota is institutional. Throw out the Kentucky experience and compare:

Tubby at Tulsa and Georgia: two conference titles and six NCAA Tournament wins in 6 years
Tubby at Minnesota: 8 games below .500 in conference and zero Tournament wins in 4 years

Tubby is a good and accomplished coach, and this is hard to explain on its face.

Monson elsewhere: three conference titles and three Tourney wins (and he's not finished yet this year)
Monson here: 22 games under .500 in conference in 8 years; no Tournament wins

And I don't buy the whole "Monson's a good mid-major coach" or "anyone can win at Kentucky" arguments. They don't hold water. If you follow those lines of thinking and others, you have to conclude that you can win at the mid-major level; you can win at the Kentucky level; you can win at places like Tulsa and Georgia; you can obviously win at Wisconsin; you can win just about everywhere except...I guess...HERE.

I was particularly struck by the interview I read with Monson, where he talked about how happy and enthused he is at LBSU. He was miserable here from day one. Tubby is so obviously miserable right now. What is it about this place!?!

You look purely analytically at all this, and an unbiased person has to conclude that it's not the coaches. There's something about the institution or the environment. And it's not a stretch to wonder whether those environmental factors have to do with player defections, too. Don't get me wrong - I'm not sure I believe it myself, but that's what I'd conclude as an unbiased observer and analyst.
Click to expand...

You raise some good points.

Like it or not, there is precious little basketball tradition at Minnesota. The best periods were under Bill Musselman (more infamous for 1972 Ohio St brawl) and Clem Haskins (more infamous for NCAA cheating scandal).

The very best coaches (in their prime) won't consider the Gophers. The days of John Wooden longing for Minnesota over UCLA are long gone.

Tubby may have more success in the next 3-5 years before he retires. But Minnesota is not going to be a basketball powerhouse under him or anyone else. Schools like Ohio St, Purdue, IU, Mich St (et al) have much stronger basketball traditions. Gophers are only ahead of Penn St and NWU in that respect (basketball tradition).
 


Friend Of Tubby said:
You raise some good points.

Like it or not, there is precious little basketball tradition at Minnesota. The best periods were under Bill Musselman (more infamous for 1972 Ohio St brawl) and Clem Haskins (more infamous for NCAA cheating scandal).

The very best coaches (in their prime) won't consider the Gophers. The days of John Wooden longing for Minnesota over UCLA are long gone.

Tubby may have more success in the next 3-5 years before he retires. But Minnesota is not going to be a basketball powerhouse under him or anyone else. Schools like Ohio St, Purdue, IU, Mich St (et al) have much stronger basketball traditions. Gophers are only ahead of Penn St and NWU in that respect (basketball tradition).
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Ya, but...

There wasn't a whole heck of a bb tradition at UW before Bennett came in. Nor do I believe Tulsa's trophy case had any overcrowding issues before OTS. I don't believe the tradition explanation is an explanation.
 

There was simply to much chaos and injuries to overcome this year for the BB team.

As for Monson, his time here was saddled by the restrictions. With what the Gophers were having to deal with, Monson did the best he could, though I suspect he is probably better with the Mid Majors then Big ten.

Given all he had working against him and had to endure, I think he should get a pass on being lenient with Humphries. A guy can only handle so much.
 


Danny not dancing after all. Tough loss.
 


UCSB was the defending Big West tourney champion (played OSU in the tourney last year), and brought back most of their team from last year - they were really the only team resembling a formidable foe for Monson in that conference. I'm sure he's disappointed that he lost the conference tourney to the same team two years in a row, especially since LBSU had a much better conference record this season. That loss broke an 11-game winning streak for Monson's team & it was an "upset" loss for LBSU.
 


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