Reusse: Gophers may be better off if Maturi had hired Majerus

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And we would have been better if Wooden had been hired. Pointless article.
 

again I would urge everyone to avoid clicking on this Reusse link, do not give this man article clicks from this website. It is nothing more than his normal (try to get the crowd worked up) article. Wish we would stop linking these on this website.
 

SDGopherFan said:
again I would urge everyone to avoid clicking on this Reusse link, do not give this man article clicks from this website. It is nothing more than his normal (try to get the crowd worked up) article. Wish we would stop linking these on this website.
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Are you into censorship. Are there any other writers you prefer all of us to avoid.
 

a) Reusse is tough on the Gophers and he goes way too far sometimes.
b) I have written Reusse some nasty emails regarding his negative opinions on the Gophers.
c) I agree with him abouit 10% of the time.
d) I agree with him 100% on this article. What is more impressive? Winning a title at KY with Pitinos players or building a program at Utah that has never even approach the standard he set and losing in the final game by a narrow margin? In retrospect, and that is all this is, we would have been better off with Majerus.
 


Winning a national title is always more impressive than not winning a national title. I don't care what the circumstances are.
 


We could play what if games forever. I bet Patrick will be saying if only I had gone on a diet years ago.

I actually like Reusse more than I used to as, well, he is often right. Not this time though.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Winning a national title is always more impressive than not winning a national title. I don't care what the circumstances are.
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Steve Fisher > John Calipari...
Jim Harrick > Thad Matta....

Winning over a sustained period is more impressive than winning it all in one year
 



Obviously, when Tubby Smith fell into Maturi's lap, there was no way that he would look any further; it would have been foolish on Maturi's part. So this article is purely a hindsight/20-20 situation.

That being said, Reusse glosses over a few things on his good friend Majerus, who is his "go to" quote in the college basketball world.

Health wise: Majerus' health has been a long time concern with the portly coach and his five day stint with USC highlights the risks associated with hiring Majerus. Imagine the program coming off of the Monson era, having had months to track down a suitable candidate and they go to Majerus, who after a week, a month, or a year might pull the same thing he did with USC-it would have been a disastrous hire (if you point to his extended time at St Louis, I will agree with you that he seems to have his health concerns under control, but at the time of the Gophers opening, he was still a huge question mark). Reusse neglects (ignores?) to mention that Majerus resigned from Utah mid-way through the 2003-04 season due to health concerns. Couple in Majerus' frequent flirtations with other jobs, it's understandable why Maturi steered clear.

St. Louis record: Reusse speaks of Majerus having turned around the Billikens. Firstly, it was not a program in dire straits when Majerus arrived, but settled into mediocrity; Brad Soderberg had replaced Lorenzo Romar who had replaced Charlie Spoonhaur and they all were coaches who had fair to middling success at St Louis, with occasional trips to the NCAA tournament. Soderberg was fired after a season where they went 20-13 and finished .500 in conference. This year's Billikens squad is the first under Majerus to be going to the NCAA tourney; here is his records during his time at St. Louis:
2007-08 16-15 (7-9 conf)
2008-09 18-14 (8-8)
2009-10 23-13 (11-5; CBI Finals)
2010-11 12-19 (6-10)
2011-12 24-6 (12-4)

In year five, Majerus is heading to his first NCAA tournament with St. Louis, while Tubby took the Gophers to two NCAA tournaments in the same time span, while it certainly appears taking over a program in worse shape, relative to the situation, than Majerus did in St. Louis.

I hesitate to say that St. Louis is a "program on the rise"; based on one season of success, it's a bit early to do so, and relative to his coaching peers/competition in the A-10 conference, I think it would have been quite reasonable to expect earlier NCAA appearances at St Louis than year five.

This isn't to say that I don't have deep concerns about where the program is headed with Tubby; but anyone trying to advance the notion that the program would be in better shape with Majerus in control just isn't doing their homework. Let's see Majerus string together a couple more good seasons with the Billikens and stay with the program before we begin asking this "what if?" question
 

coolhandgopher said:
Health wise: Majerus' health has been a long time concern with the portly coach and his five day stint with USC highlights the risks associated with hiring Majerus.
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This may have been a plus. Minnesota went for a football coach with huge health concerns.
 

[sarcasm]As is the case whenever you are not having success, any other option CLEARLY would have been better, right? No question about it, there's no way any other coach would have possibly had the issues Tubby's had. I guarantee you we have more success with ANY other coach than Tubby.

Another coach would have already had that practice facility built too.[/sarcasm]
 

Gopher Warrior said:
This may have been a plus. Minnesota went for a football coach with huge health concerns.
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One has health concerns that involve obesity and the conditions that are associated with it (like heart disease, which has actual life-threatening implications down the road). The other has a seizure disorder (which is not life threatening). Not the same thing.
 



Gopher Warrior said:
This may have been a plus. Minnesota went for a football coach with huge health concerns.
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Kill has missed zero games due to health in his entire career. Majerus has missed huge portions of seasons. The two aren't comparable.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Winning a national title is always more impressive than not winning a national title. I don't care what the circumstances are.
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That's ASSININE. Brad Stevens building Butler into a runnerup last year was FAR MORE IMRESSIVE than
Krzyzewski winning it that year. Stevens came from a place of great deficit, K came from overwhelming
strength.
 

Whathavewedone said:
That's ASSININE. Brad Stevens building Butler into a runnerup last year was FAR MORE IMRESSIVE than
Krzyzewski winning it that year. Stevens came from a place of great deficit, K came from overwhelming
strength.
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ASSININE isn't a word. IMRESSIVE is also not a word.

Butler going to two consecutive national championship games is very impressive, no doubt. But Duke had to compete against everyone else to win it, just like Butler did. Duke is a strong historical program, but so are Kentucky, Kansas, UCLA, UConn, etc. Winning a national title is the object of playing the game. It is always more impressive to win a national title than to not win a national title. Period. You can talk until you're blue (see what I did there?) in the face, and I will never be convinced otherwise.

Do you realize that there is no need to ever press the enter key in this forum, other than to start a new paragraph? You seem to not be aware of this simple fact. And, again, why are you still allowed to post here?
 


I would have been better off if I had picked 12, 35, 45, 46, 47 and 12 as the powerball yesterday. I should write an article about it.
 


Whathavewedone said:
That's ASSININE. Brad Stevens building Butler into a runnerup last year was FAR MORE IMRESSIVE than
Krzyzewski winning it that year. Stevens came from a place of great deficit, K came from overwhelming
strength.
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But would you actually take Brad Stevens as coach at Minnesota over Coach K? I personally wouldn't, Coach K's national titles kinda loom quite large, and the fact that he's sustained success for so long.
 


Lost in the protracted debate about Smith's performance at UM is the uplifting story about Jordair Jett and the reminder about Rodney Williams' academic success. By overcoming their classroom difficulties and staying in college, these two young men provide the positive example that high school kids need. Best wishes to them both in school and in basketball.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Could you perhaps elucidate a little more?
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If School A wins the national championship but breaks recruiting rules, pays players, cheats on academics, while School B is runner-up but has run a compliant program, you'd be more impressed with A? You shouldn't be.
 

FanSinceTheFifties said:
If School A wins the national championship but breaks recruiting rules, pays players, cheats on academics, while School B is runner-up but has run a compliant program, you'd be more impressed with A? You shouldn't be.
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When I spoke to "circumstances", I meant the relative historical strength of the school, coach's salary, access to local talent, etc. Winning cleanly was assumed as a constant, and it shouldn't have been.
 

dpodoll68 said:
When I spoke to "circumstances", I meant the relative historical strength of the school, coach's salary, access to local talent, etc. Winning cleanly was assumed as a constant, and it shouldn't have been.
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Understand. Thanks for supporting clean programs. I hope that someday clean programs will be a constant and college sports will be college sports, not a feeder program for and imitator of the pros.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Could you perhaps elucidate a little more?
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I think one could argue that Brad Stevens did more with less than Coach K did at Duke in that particular season. Duke is Duke, one of the top 3 to 5 basketball programs in the country, and while winning a national title is most certainly impressive, that's just kind of the expectation at Duke, being in contention for titles year in and year out. They have a rabid, nationwide fan base, and they can take their pick of any of the top recruits in the country in any given year.

Butler does not have that same level of national relevance and history of greatness, they play in a mid-major conference, they do not have the built-in advantages that Duke has, so the fact that they fell one shot short of accomplishing what Duke did, but without all the advantages that Duke enjoys, could make one think that Brad Stevens' season was more impressive than Coach K's, granted it's hard to exceed expectations at Duke when expectations are that you are consistently the best.

Also, Butler beat Wisconsin the last time they played, and lost to Minnesota the last time we played, and that makes them cool. :cool:
 

You play for victories, not moral victories.
 

People are confusing the difference between relative and absolute success. Relative to their own standards, Butler has had a more impressive last two seasons than anyone in the nation. In an absolute sense, Duke and UConn, respectively, have had the most impressive season each of the last two years. Unless someone knows of a point to playing the games other than to win national championships (cleanly, of course), I don't see how this can be argued against.
 

dpodoll68 said:
People are confusing the difference between relative and absolute success. Relative to their own standards, Butler has had a more impressive last two seasons than anyone in the nation. In an absolute sense, Duke and UConn, respectively, have had the most impressive season each of the last two years. Unless someone knows of a point to playing the games other than to win national championships (cleanly, of course), I don't see how this can be argued against.
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I can go with this. Duke was more absolutely successful, Butler was more relatively successful.
 

Majerus just missed a game. His health concerns are not under control.
 

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