Tubby Smith on Minnesota: "It may be the first or second toughest job in the Big Ten."

[Ope3]

Disagree that the sanctions did little to hurt the program. Limits on recruiting, scholarships, and the negative publicity had a very negative impact. IMO they were the beginning of the malaise that has lasted for 20+ years. kids in the 80’s and 90’s got to see great teams and players. The Barn was THE hot ticket and most games were sellouts, especially in the Big Ten. Then the sanctions hit and the not so slow drip to mediocrity began. High schoolers who once saw a fine program and wanted to attend the U now saw a program in decline, with occasional success but no conference titles. A lot of those kids when elsewhere. Think Khalid El Amin going to UCONN for example. And who could blame him? As for Tubby he had some early recruiting success but then he seemed to get lazy and lost more than his share of transfers.

Just not true. El-Amin was already in Storrs, CT leading the Huskies as a Sophomore in 1999 when the Pioneer Press story broke.

Legend is he was decked by Archambault during his recruiting visit. Sanctions were non-existent (yet). I can't blame Khalid for heading to the Big East, perhaps he knew what was on the horizon. I have no inside intel on that aspect.

 

[Go Gophs]

Henley had an offer from SDSU (top 25) and JOJ is gonna be good.

One other offer. SDSU is still a mid major. And I hope you are right about both of them. These are the kinds of things that have to break right for Minnesota to get to a place where they want to be. Less with more...

 

[SelectionSunday]

To me the only one that prohibitively prevents acquiring talent is the first one, Post Season Ban, 1999-00. With what was left from the Haskins era and what Monson was able to get, he had a competent roster good enough to contend for NCAA berths by 2002.

Maybe 1 extra player would have been enough to get them over the top, but that's dependent on identifying such a kid that can help and convince them to commit. Could have just as easily been a benchwarmer.

By Tubby time it was more than 7 plus years since the events in question. The kids he was recruiting were in elementary school when that happened. Probation was over. His success or failure was all on him, in my opinion.

Though I was certainly among those who was ready for Monson to go a year sooner than he did, I would argue he had the Gophers on track for a NCAA appearance in his second season, 2000-01.

I believe they were 11-1 or 11-2 after a Big Ten opening win over Wisconsin (coming off a Final Four season), the Barn was rockin’, then Michael Bauer and JB Bickerstaff were lost for the season (or close to it) due to injury. That team was playing very well, then the crash & burn came.

 

[Spaulding!No!]

Jim Molonari was our one shining moment coach after Clem.

 

[Ope3]

Though I was certainly among those who was ready for Monson to go a year sooner than he did, I would argue he had the Gophers on track for a NCAA appearance in his second season, 2000-01.

I believe they were 11-1 or 11-2 after a Big Ten opening win over Wisconsin (coming off a Final Four season), the Barn was rockin’, then Michael Bauer and JB Bickerstaff were lost for the season (or close to it) due to injury. That team was playing very well, then the crash & burn came.

Indeed. In addition to the upset over Wisconsin there was a Saturday matinee with a furious late game comeback against Indiana in the season. Barn was also rockin' that afternoon.

Ultimately, that squad made the NIT.

 

[disco]

+o4, very good point about us not having a "big booster" culture. it's unfortunate.

It's even more unfortunate in the NIL era, where payola is above board.

But basketball is a little more complicated than football. Roster sizes are much smaller, but you also have a lot more teams with all the mid-majors to compete with.

Heaven forbid that an academic institution have standards for their athletic programs.

Meh. Big time college sports is big business and big time entertainment.

Do we honestly think that a hometown paper would have done some kind of investigation on a team in say, Lawrence, KS like the Pioneer Press did? No, they'd have protected the program.

 

[disco]

Funny, I never heard Jim Dutcher complain about how tough of a job he had here. Back then, Gopher basketball tickets were tough to get and the team was excellent every year. My how things have changed with a gradual progression downward with each hire over the last 40 years.

Gotta give Ben Johnson some time -- ok a LOT of time but I always thought Tubby was lazy when he got here and didn't leave the team any better than when he got it under Monson. If there is one team I would really like to see get good again it would be the Gopher basketball team.

Remember, in Dutcher's era, we had no NBA team and hadn't since 1960. If you wanted to see high level basketball, the U was the only game in town.

 

[Gopher Teeth]

No, they hired Bennet, who was a stud. And when he was done they hired Bo Ryan, who was also a stud. They won with guys with very little talent and when they had 1-2 studs, they took it to the final four.
Madison is a college town. Minneapolis isn't. At all. Put the U in Mankato and there is ZERO way we would have been this bad, this long. Kids don't want to come to the middle of a huge city, especially when all they have seen growing up is that this place can't win.

So Mankato should be in the B1G and U of M should go to which conference?

 

[Gopher Teeth]

Spot on. Not a hotter ticket in town in the 90's. Barn was on fire.

Fun, fun times.

Remember it well. 90-91 Iowa came to town (ranked 22), Gophers, ended up finishing 5-13 in the B1G. The Barn was packed and it was so loud my ears were ringing for ~15 minutes after leaving the building. Gophers upset Iowa, big thing in the papers around that time was people moaning about tearing down the Barn. While I was walking out some Iowa fans said you guys would be crazy to tear that place down. They said they went to all the away games and that the Barn was the toughest arena, definitely better days.