PiPress: Tubby wants Gophers to set a timeline on a practice facility

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Getting a timeline is a reasonable demand. They've been talking in generalities forever.
 

Maturi has given Tubby a timeline of sorts. Baseball Stadium first then Basketball Facility (that's assuming the gymnast don't need a new mat first). Unfortunately he is not willing to put any dates to it. Good 'Ol "First Things First" Maturi.

A promise is a promise and he promised John Anderson a baseball stadium about 10 years ago. How could Joel look himself in the mirror if he gave Tubby the basketball facility he promised him only 5 years ago. John Anderson might be mad. And we all know Joel needs every one of his 22 non revenue sport coaches singing his praises so he can tell everyone what a great "OVERALL" athletic program we have here at Minnesota.

Any AD with a spine would give Tubby a timeline. Heck any AD with a spine would give Tubby his basketball facility.
 


Problem is from my perspective, The U doesn't have this passionate athletic alumni base from which to draw limitless resources. We tapped this limited base to build a gorgeous stadium, and the on-field (along with on-court, on-ice, etc) product has not exactly screamed, "Look what happens when you invest in Gopher Sports!"...

When the wheels fell of the wagon on the 10-11 bball season, Tubby should have expected a corresponding downturn in investing interest. I'm tired of hearing about his $2million salary, hearing how great he is, then looking at his record at the U and hearing how its a practice facility that hurts his team. He is the CEO of his team...He oversees staffing, recruitment, development and performance. He is ultimately responsible for the success (and lack thereof) of his team. I hate the "pass" he gets because he is a coaching legend.

Not usually a negative ninny, but I just wanted to express disappointment in this matter.

Go Gophers!
 



Let's face it, he's right, we need these things in place, we need more commitment to our major sports. I know people are bitter cause his team collapsed last year, but that doesn't change the fact these things need to happen at some point. Even Nebraska's building a facility lol
 

Will Tubby give the U/AD...

a timeline for a BT championship or Elite-8 appearance?

No.

Even at Tubby's $2-Million/yr, the U understands the vagaries/uncertainties of college bb W/L performance. No guarantees even with a well-paid coaching legend fully supported by the administration.

Realistically, Minny fans here and throughout the state are disappointed by the progress of the program and the enthusiasm for more facilities needs to be revived by on-court winning performance.

Ideally, Tubby would like better facilities to attract more high level recruits to compete with the VCU/Bradley's of world. But in this difficult economic environment, when the state and feds are dealing with massive deficits, everyone in the process has to be a team player and get on the same page.

Just like Tubby's salary package can't guarantee the U wins and titles, it seems unlikely in this economic reality, the U can guarantee Tubby a fixed and time certain practice facility timeline. This is not Tubby's first rodeo. He knows the fund raising environment is poor and may actually stay poor for some time.

For the U and Tubby, this may be a wish list project that everyone involved might have to accept as a longer-term objective unless a major Sugar Daddy steps up to the plate in the near future.
 

This is sad. Win a NCAA tourney game, and maybe we'll consider it.

Just like a Vikings stadium, now is not the time. Later, possibly.
 



Did Dutcher,Clem, or Musselman have better facilities? All three in my mind were better coaches, recruiters and had better staffs. Yes, they got caught up in NCAA no-no's ( except for Dutcher and the Madison issue which was thrown out) I'm offically off the Tubby kool aid train. He has been a grand old coach with the emphisis on "old".
 

It's not even about winning and losing right now, it's about building up your program to be the best it can be. We can't do that without all hands on deck. We can win some games, yes, without any additions, but if you want to improve your chances of becoming a top program in a top conference, you gotta compete off the court, as well as on it.

You don't invest in programs based on winning and losing. Just cause a team had a bad year doesn't mean you now go, "Oh, never mind, let's not invest in this program anymore cause we had a bad year". That's way too short sighted.
 

College education is not a guarantee of success in terms of intellectual development, career, whatnot. Nonetheless, it certainly improves the probability of achieving the success, which is why people are putting more resources into educating their kids (not because it is a guarantee of success). We can say the same thing about investment in the core or peripheral areas of any business, military, academic research, etc.

Maturi is right that putting more resources into the program does not guarantee greater success. However, the additional investment does improve the probability of achieving it. In other words, the practice facility improves the chance of the program to be more successful "regardless of who is at the helm."

Of course, the questions are the degree of the improvement and how soon the effect of it shows up in the ledger since Maturi is essentially to make a business decision here.

For instance, if the facility helps us to land an additional good player, it may spell the difference between making the Dance and otherwise. It could be the difference between bubble and Sweet 16. Therefore, it could be an impetus for additional profits from the greater success. If the facility helps to make the difference, say, in every four years (one more good player in every four years, that is), the cost of it can be easily recuperated in the long run although it may not show up in the ledger in the short run.

Maturi is a business man; thereby, it would help him immensely to justify the investment and persuade the potential investors if the investment were to bear good short term results. Also, the future of Tubby with the program has gotten murky after the failed season, which may affect Maturi’s confidence in the project if he simply treats it as a way to appease Tubby. I understand his perspective and dilemma.

Nonetheless, Maturi and the U need to think about the possibility that the facility is a good long term investment athletically and financially, and I believe they need to pull this one for the program and the U, not for Tubby.
 

2 year timeline for both sides

Practice facility built or else

both years NCAA qualifiers with one of the two years Sweet 16 or leave
 




"Ideally, Tubby would like better facilities to attract more high level recruits to compete with the VCU/Bradley's of world."

great line
 

Its really unbelievable how people think a practice facility shouldn't be built because the gophers had one underachieving season. In order to compete with the best in any work environment you need resources at your disposal. If I was offered two jobs and one of the jobs gave me a company car and the other did not, I think thats a pretty easy decision to make if everything else was equal. Its no different then a basketball recruit seeing one school with a practice facility and another school without one. There is no reason why schools like Iowa, Iowa State, and Nebraska can get new facilities and the gophers can't. That illustrates to me that our administration isn't valuing our basketball program. I think Tubby has every right to complain because it is going to bite us in the butt sooner or later.
 


ruppertflywheel said:
Did Dutcher,Clem, or Musselman have better facilities? All three in my mind were better coaches, recruiters and had better staffs. Yes, they got caught up in NCAA no-no's ( except for Dutcher and the Madison issue which was thrown out) I'm offically off the Tubby kool aid train. He has been a grand old coach with the emphisis on "old".
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The key point is that Tubby's competition has better facilities than Dutcher's, Clem's, and Messelman's competion. The ever expanding arms race is an unfortunate fact of college athletics. I don't like it any more than you do but it would appear to be here to stay.
 

Let's see...

The Bubble said:
Its really unbelievable how people think a practice facility shouldn't be built because the gophers had one underachieving season. In order to compete with the best in any work environment you need resources at your disposal. If I was offered two jobs and one of the jobs gave me a company car and the other did not, I think thats a pretty easy decision to make if everything else was equal. Its no different then a basketball recruit seeing one school with a practice facility and another school without one. There is no reason why schools like Iowa, Iowa State, and Nebraska can get new facilities and the gophers can't. That illustrates to me that our administration isn't valuing our basketball program. I think Tubby has every right to complain because it is going to bite us in the butt sooner or later.
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Using this theory and a fb analogy, Northwestern should have an absolutely terrible fb program because Ryan Field is a shadow of its BT competition, and under Kill, NIU should never have come close to defeating Minny and other BT schools because he had no indoor training facility at DeKalb to attract better talent.

Regarding Tubby's package, he may not have all the new assets other programs feature, but he also has a very patient fan base and a fraction of the coaching stress he had at a previous post with super-high expecations.

Looking at his $2-Million/yr deal in its entirety and the program's results so far under his watch, most in Minny would say this is a pretty nice gig for a great coach moving into the retirement phase of his career.
 

NewEngland_Gold said:
Using this theory and a fb analogy, Northwestern should have an asolutely terrible fb program because Ryan Field is a shadow of its BT competition, and under Kill, NIU should never have come close to defeating Minny and other BT schools because he had no indoor training facility at DeKalb to attract better talent.

Regarding Tubby's package, he may not have all the new assets other programs feature, but he also has a very patient fan base and a fraction of the coaching stress he had at a previous post with super-high expecations.

Looking at his $2-Million/yr deal in its entirety and the program's results so far under his watch, most in Minny would say this is a pretty nice gig for a great coach moving into the retirement phase of his career.
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Tubby does not have to be at the heart of the issue regarding the legitimacy of a better practice facility. One can treat him as a messenger.

The practice facility would have and will help any coach, past or present or future, of our program. If Tubby uses all he's got and expedites the realization of the facility yet fails to turn us into a winner, the facility will still help the program down the road. We just need to do things to create a situation more conducive to success even if there is no guarantee.

BTW, I would ask for his neck on account of complacency if Tubby sees us simply as "a pretty nice gig for a great coach moving into the retirement phase of his career" and stops trying to do everything he could and should in order to make us more successful. I don't know for sure if he can turn us into a great program, but I am happy to see him fighting to make it happen as evidenced in the bout for the practice facility (though some of us seem to think it is an excuse for whatever).
 

WanderingGopher said:
Getting a timeline is a reasonable demand. They've been talking in generalities forever.
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+1. Joel promised Tubby this when he was hired and to have made this little progress in four years is pathetic. This whole notion that it has to stand in line behind the baseball stadium is ridiculous. The two can be on separate tracks, and if that's not possible, the practice facility is more important at this point. The Dome is being fixed and likely staying around. The Gophers can literally have their pick of the Dome or Target Field, which may be the best of both worlds.
 

There will be a big problem with this because: 1) we sucked last year, and 2) they need the big donor (naming rights kind of donor). What business really cares about naming rights to a practice facility? There are no radio or TV broadcasts "coming to you from the Powder Milk Biscuit Practice Facility".
 

we did not suck last year. we beat UNC, WVU, PURDUE, WOFFORD, AKRON, MICHIGAN, etc... even with 8 scholarship players and no PG, we were in almost every game.
 

Lifetime extension for Tubby, eh Go Gophs?? I, like you, relished the Wofford and Akron wins!!!
 

saw a facebook post today about the Minnesota skydiving team-- are we really funding a sky diving team??????? build a practice facility!!
 


Go Gophs eh? said:
we did not suck last year. we beat UNC, WVU, PURDUE, WOFFORD, AKRON, MICHIGAN, etc... even with 8 scholarship players and no PG, we were in almost every game.
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I agree with most, except we had a point guard. It's on Tubby that he recruited Maverick 'The Assassin' Ahanmisi to be our depth at PG and he couldn't cut it.
 

katze019 said:
I agree with most, except we had a point guard. It's on Tubby that he recruited Maverick 'The Assassin' Ahanmisi to be our depth at PG and he couldn't cut it.
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I think this point has been made numerous times before, but please provide a list of teams that have consistent and reliable third string point guards?
 

fryguy22 said:
I think this point has been made numerous times before, but please provide a list of teams that have consistent and reliable third string point guards?
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He was well below consistent and reliable.
 


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