Michael Rand on Gophs: They do not have a fan base that is in love with the coach

[BleedGopher]

http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/116731719.html

Go Gophers!!

 

[MotherNight]

I'm still very happy that Tubby Smith is coaching here. We had a very good team until we lost our point guards. Take the top two PGs off any roster and you'll see similar results. If you need someone to blame, Tubby is used to it. He endured far worse at UK.

 

[jmag21]

I'm still very happy that Tubby Smith is coaching here. We had a very good team until we lost our point guards. Take the top two PGs off any roster and you'll see similar results. If you need someone to blame, Tubby is used to it. He endured far worse at UK.

Agreed.

 

[SelectionSunday]

I'm still with Tubby all the way, but no question the honeymoon period is over with the fanbase. No coach has a honeymoon that lasts forever, not in this day & age. Everyone's frustrated, for sure.

 

[MotherNight]

I'm still with Tubby all the way, but no question the honeymoon period is over with the fanbase. No coach has a honeymoon that lasts forever, not in this day & age. Everyone's frustrated, for sure.

Definitely agree with that. This year has been so tough because we were a good team. We lost our point guards and now we aren't. Andy Katz wrote this in his blog yesterday.

It's also a shame Minnesota was never whole this season. The Gophers missed out on a real shot to be in the Big Ten title chase.

It pretty much sums it up. My only worry is not getting the PG spot straighted out by next year. Hopefully the JUCO kid works out and can play.

 

[boryancheetz]

I have my specific frustrations with Tubby. Like many people I am bewildered by his offensive sets - even when we had our full roster and a true PG - and the lack of improvement (hell, regression, in my opinion) of players like Iverson and Rodney.

That being said, he's a very good coach. He got last year's team to the BTT Championship game and into the NCAAs with some combination of magic, duct tape, and pixie dust. That doesn't happen by accident.

He isn't a saint like the fanbase thought initially, and he certainly isn't the bum that many think he is now. He's a very good coach but he's not infalliable. I hope he stays because I still think this team is poised to make a leap (next year, sigh) and he's the reason why.

 

[gall0249]

Stop using Nolen and Devoe as an excuse. We have a terrible offense, we had a terrible offense last year, we had a terrible offense the year before. I checked to see if 48 points was a low during the Tubby-era, but we've pumped out below-50 games annually. Scoring below 50 points is just garbage. It's Childress-like.

 

[Monty519]

I understand people wanting immediate success, but let's be real here, Tubby's working without a full compliment here. And I honestly cannot blame him for guys wanting to transfer cause they didn't get "individual goals", nor can I blame him for recruiting Royce White, whom we all knew was a risk, but was a risk he had to take. It's unfortunate how this season has turned, but people need to realize you can't just completely ignore the way this season was going before a certain foot screwed everything up.

Think back to January 26th, not even a month ago, the team just got off a decent 81-70 win over Northwestern to bump our record to 16-4 (5-3). Al Nolen's foot took him out, but still, things were great. Now just one bad month of basketball later, some are ready to call for the man's head and ignore all the good that was there prior to this break. Despite everything that had gone wrong with this program, Tubby was duct taping it all together and had us in the top 20 in the nation, and actually looking forward to guessing seeding instead of hoping to make it in the NCAA. But unfortunately, Al Nolen was the final straw that broke the camel's back. That moment in Michigan has changed perceptions of Tubby's ability to coach, and the state of this program in Year 4.

Think about everything that has happened since the beginning of last season. The Royce White debacle, the Trevor issues last year, the Cobbs/Paul Carter transfers (leading to late recruiting scrambling to get numbers back up, which has turned out to be quite huge this year), the Al Nolen eligibility last season. And now this year, the Devoe saga that led to his transfer, Mo Walker's injury, and finally Al Nolen's foot, which stretched from post-Puerto Rico to its finality in Ann Arbor. That's a decade worth of issues for a lot of teams, but Tubby's had to deal with them all in two years. You can blame him for a lot of it if you'd like, but I struggle to find a lot of fault on him for it. Guys wanting to transfer cause they want to play more is not Tubby's fault. Guys getting into legal issues isn't Tubby's fault. Injuries are obviously not his fault. He brought them in, but no one could have predicted as many problems as there ended up being.

This isn't to say everyone should laud Tubby and ignore all of his faults (like his lack of offensive creativity). I'm just saying, despite this last month, I think we need to realize where this program has been and know that it is still in quite good hands at the moment, even as we struggle right now. I still see better days ahead, we have some talent in this program still, and have some good talent coming next season. Hopefully, all the drama creating pieces are gone, and we can move on and focus on basketball in the coming seasons and watch this team blossom.

 

[howeda7]

Monty, all of that is true. On the other hand, $%^& happens. Great coaches find a way to pull it out of the ditch. Tubby did this brilliantly last year. This year, he has failed so far. He still has one last chance.

 

[Section201]

Who?

Who is Micheal Rand and why should I care what he says or writes?

Count me as one who still has a crush on Tubby. This season did not work out but another looms around the corner.

 

[DontHassleTheHoff]

Stop using Nolen and Devoe as an excuse. We have a terrible offense, we had a terrible offense last year, we had a terrible offense the year before. I checked to see if 48 points was a low during the Tubby-era, but we've pumped out below-50 games annually. Scoring below 50 points is just garbage. It's Childress-like.

So the loss of two of our best players somehow doesn't matter?

 

[scools12]

things have happened beyond Tubby's control. the thing I blame him for is not recruiting a capable back up PG. he didn't know D Joseph was going to transfer but it appears he put all his eggs in one basket with C Joseph and when that didn't work out he didn't have a viable back up plan.

 

[Monty519]

things have happened beyond Tubby's control. the thing I blame him for is not recruiting a capable back up PG. he didn't know D Joseph was going to transfer but it appears he put all his eggs in one basket with C Joseph and when that didn't work out he didn't have a viable back up plan.

Thing is, a year ago we had three guys who could play point on the roster in Nolen, Devoe, and Cobbs. With Cory, he may have left his eggs in that basket, but honestly, it didn't look like point guard was gonna be a need. I understand the line of thinking that you need a contingency plan, but when you have 3 PGs on scholarship, it's hard to justify putting a 4th on there unless they are the truth, like Cory was.

 

[GophersInIowa]

Stop using Nolen and Devoe as an excuse. We have a terrible offense, we had a terrible offense last year, we had a terrible offense the year before. I checked to see if 48 points was a low during the Tubby-era, but we've pumped out below-50 games annually. Scoring below 50 points is just garbage. It's Childress-like.

Might want to check the facts first. We finished 2nd in the Big Ten in scoring last year. We're right in the middle of the conference this year at 6th.

 

[kiedro]

Count me in as a Tubby supporter.
PG is the most important position in college basketball and we lost our two best PG's.

 

[anonymous]

Just a random item: Tubby will not finish with a better than .500 regular season Big Ten record in any of his first four seasons.

That is one less than Dan Monson had in his first four years as the Gophers coach.

 

[hendo59]

Monty, all of that is true. On the other hand, $%^& happens. Great coaches find a way to pull it out of the ditch. Tubby did this brilliantly last year. This year, he has failed so far. He still has one last chance.

every great coach also has a bad year now and again. UNC last year, Coach K and Duke a few years before that when they missed the tourney. these no coach, no matter how great, who can overcome this kind of stuff every year. have your logic is so flawed I can't stand it.

 

[WilliamsArenaGuy]

Just a random item: Tubby will not finish with a better than .500 regular season Big Ten record in any of his first four seasons.

That is one less than Dan Monson had in his first four years as the Gophers coach.

While cleaning up after the academic fraud scandal...

 

[howeda7]

every great coach also has a bad year now and again. UNC last year, Coach K and Duke a few years before that when they missed the tourney. these no coach, no matter how great, who can overcome this kind of stuff every year. have your logic is so flawed I can't stand it.

I never said he wasn't a great coach or couldn't have a bad year, did I? I simply said last year proved he is a great coach by the way he pulled us out of the ditch and this year he has failed to do so. But after winning a National Title or 2 (for your current school) like Coach K, you build up a bigger good-will reserve then Tubby has now, so that might not be the best example. Tubby's goodwill is running low in MSP.

 

[howeda7]

While cleaning up after the academic fraud scandal...

IMO, people let 2006-2007 color Monson's tenure too much. He needed to go, but he wasn't the Brewster-esque disaster many make him out to be.

 

[Duthasmon Smith]

IMO, people let 2006-2007 color Monson's tenure too much. He needed to go, but he wasn't the Brewster-esque disaster many make him out to be.

Agree with this sentiment. Monson wasn't a great coach but he followed a very respected and for the most part, successful coach. So the expecations were a bit skewed. Smith came in and everyone expected success because quite frankly, Monson had done a decent job so how difficult could it be to build on that record. Well the same issues that haunted Monson (recruiting top players and not keeping them or in some cases getting them eligible at all) are affecting Smith.

My biggest issue with this program is certainly the PG position. I'm not sure how a Big10 program gets left with no legitimate pg's on their roster. That's not the fault of a practice facility or a the student section or anything that's a HUGE blunder on the part of this staff.

I think Tubby Smith is the coach to take us over the hump so to speak but there have to be improvements. Every year there can not be a bunch of excuses (player ineligibility as the big one). Eight players on scholarship is what you see after an academic scandal or a nightmare in Madison not what you see in the fourth year of a successful coaches tenure.

 

[Silvio]

I have my specific frustrations with Tubby. Like many people I am bewildered by his offensive sets - even when we had our full roster and a true PG - and the lack of improvement (hell, regression, in my opinion) of players like Iverson and Rodney.

That being said, he's a very good coach. He got last year's team to the BTT Championship game and into the NCAAs with some combination of magic, duct tape, and pixie dust. That doesn't happen by accident.

He isn't a saint like the fanbase thought initially, and he certainly isn't the bum that many think he is now. He's a very good coach but he's not infalliable. I hope he stays because I still think this team is poised to make a leap (next year, sigh) and he's the reason why.

The magic and pixie dust portion quit the team mid season this year, also not on accident. I don't know what happened and maybe he should have been kicked out before he left. I think this team could make a leap with an change in strategy on offense.