Tubby Smith transcript from Big 10 Media Day

[GopherLady]

Here is what Coach Smith had to say today:

An Interview With:
MINNESOTA
COACH TUBBY SMITH
THE MODERATOR: Coach, an opening
statement.
COACH SMITH: Good morning. First I
wanted to welcome everybody here also. It's good
to be back here at Media Day. It's always an
important time of the year to share with our fans
and with everyone around the country what our
team looks like and what the Big Ten looks like for
the upcoming season.
So, with that, we're excited about the
upcoming year and look forward to another very
competitive Big Ten Conference.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?
Q. Can you talk about Trevor's
(Mbakwe) experience overseas in the
offseason, what he gained from that?
COACH SMITH: He played for Matt
Painter. I think he did a fantastic job, was leading
rebounder on that World University team.
He came back, and we talked about his
consistency and trying to be a more complete
player, the things he needs to work on, especially
his free-throw shooting. I think that's something
that he is still improving on and trying to -- I just
know it was a good experience for him being out
there, being around someone like Matt, coach
Painter, who understands and could share things
in a perspective that sometimes hearing from
someone else helps.
But he gained a valuable -- he's shown it in
practice so far. He's really trying to be more
consistent in his efforts, playing both ends of the
court.
One of the things I think we had concerns
about was just him staying out of foul trouble,
making sure he's playing defense before his man
gets the basketball, things like that, that they're
going to make him a more complete player.
So he's given that effort. And now that he
has everything behind him, I think he's very
focused on having a good year.
Q. You alluded to the idea of how
competitive things might be this year. What's
your overall viewpoint of how strong the league
is going to be top to bottom?
COACH SMITH: You can just look at the
number of players that are being nominated for
Wooden Awards or All-Americans that are
returning. We have two All-Americans returning.
And we didn't lose a lot of veteran players.
We have a lot of First-, Second-, Third-Team
returning players in the Big Ten. Jared Sullinger,
top player in the nation probably, is back.
So, again, there's that -- I think we have
the lack of changes, the addition of Nebraska, and
there hasn't been much turnover from the coaching
standpoint as well. I think you'll see a lot more
consistency and a lot more continuity to teams.
And that usually breeds better play and more
consistent play.
So I think staff staying together at
programs makes a lot of difference, not to mention
the outstanding coaching and the talented players
that we have in the league year in, year out,
whether returning players and freshmen or
newcomers. There's a lot of freshmen and
newcomers that I think will make a major impact in
the league as well.
Q. You seem to have some instability
with your guards towards the end of last
season. What's the outlook so far from the
back-court standpoint?
COACH SMITH: Well, we did. We lost
two of our best players: One left the team in
Devoe Joseph, and then Al Nolen, who was having
a fantastic season, best season ever. And both of
those guys are probably our two most aggressive
players.
So, again, we had three freshmen that
played a lot, Austin Hollins, Chip Armelin, and
Maverick Ahanmisi, it was just tough for them to
carry, and then Blake Hoffarber had to carry a
much bigger load because we didn't have that
October 27, 2011
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Smith_MINN 2
depth in the back court.
Now, those kids, they were freshmen last
year and now they're sophomores, so they've
learned a lot about Big Ten play, and we kind of
threw them in the fire during Big Ten play and they
just didn't handle it very well. Probably put them in
some situations where they weren't ready for it.
So we went out and recruited some
players I think will help us in Andre Hollins, who is
a freshman, high school Player of the Year in the
state of Tennessee. So he's a kid that I think that
played a lot at the point.
As well as Julian Welch, a junior college
transfer that I think will give us a lot of depth in the
back court. Along with Rodney Williams. Rodney
had to make the adjustment -- he's had the biggest
adjustment of any player we've recruited over the
last few years. He went from being a center and
forward to being a guard and a wing player. So
he's still making that adjustment. So we've added
a lot of depth.
And a kid like Oto Osenieks, who was a
redshirt last year, 6-7, 6-8, is a perimeter player as
well that will give us some outside and some
perimeter scoring, something that we really lacked
last year.
Q. What are your personal
expectations of your team this year?
COACH SMITH: My personal
expectations? We think we have a chance to be a
much improved team after going -- losing 10 of our
11 games last year. We lost in many different
ways.
So I think my expectations are this would
be much more competitive in the Big Ten. That's
something we've struggled with since we've been
here. Haven't kept that momentum from our
non-league play or early season into conference
play.
So we've got to figure out a way to be
more consistent. So my personal goal is just to get
guys to be more consistent. We expect to be in
postseason play this year, something we didn't
make the postseason play last year.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

 

[SelectionSunday]

I always cringe when I hear, "We expect to be in postseason play."

Why not just say, "We expect to be playing in the NCAA Tournament."

There's a big difference between the two. Making the postseason in something other than the NCAA (NIT, CBI, CIT) doesn't carry much water, especially for programs from major conferences. There are occasions for a program like Minnesota when getting to the NIT is palatable -- for example starting a rebuild project (see Tubby's 1st season) -- but this coming season would not be one of them. This team should have designs on the NCAA, not just the "postseason."

 

[MadtownGopher]

Is there a link to the transcript? I don't think I could read all the way through with that awful formatting.

 

[Monty519]

I always cringe when I hear, "We expect to be in postseason play."

Why not just say, "We expect to be playing in the NCAA Tournament."

There's a big difference between the two. Making the postseason in something other than the NCAA (NIT, CBI, CIT) doesn't carry much water, especially for programs from major conferences. There are occasions for a program like Minnesota when getting to the NIT is palatable -- for example starting a rebuild project (see Tubby's 1st season) -- but this coming season would not be one of them. This team should have designs on the NCAA, not just the "postseason."

I don't get any vibes at all that Tubby would be content with the NIT. He seems genuinely excited about the year. Of course, who knows if he's just posturing, but still, as far as those words, I'm not too concerned. I'm sure last year humbled him a little, where maybe he hedges his words more, considering I'm sure he fully expected to easily make the tournament (which they were headed toward doing), but then it all fell apart.

 

[Monty519]

By the way, you can see the video on BTN's website. http://btn.com/schools/minnesota/video/

 

[GopherLady]

Is there a link to the transcript? I don't think I could read all the way through with that awful formatting.

Nope, sorry, it's a PDF. Love the transcript, but hate that they split the page into 2 columns, I can't stand that formatting either.

SS - I'm with you. I don't need any false promises, but it basically sounded like he wanted to better than losing 10 of 11 in the B10, which isn't exactly the bar to set.

 

[howeda7]

I always cringe when I hear, "We expect to be in postseason play."

Why not just say, "We expect to be playing in the NCAA Tournament."

There's a big difference between the two. Making the postseason in something other than the NCAA (NIT, CBI, CIT) doesn't carry much water, especially for programs from major conferences. There are occasions for a program like Minnesota when getting to the NIT is palatable -- for example starting a rebuild project (see Tubby's 1st season) -- but this coming season would not be one of them. This team should have designs on the NCAA, not just the "postseason."

We've gone from Brew Dreaming to Tubby and Kill doing a limbo contest. That said, no one cares what you say on media day. If we end up in the NIT or worse it will be a bad season.

 

[Gold Vision]

Man. Tough crowd. I think some of you hear what you want to hear. All Tubby said was that he wants to be more competitive in the Big Ten and be more consistent.

This board ripped him for being too optimistic about the incoming players and now for setting low expectations.

 

[freshtrout]

Watching Tubby on bt.org this morning, my impression is that he certainly was at a 'media' day. After Tubby, both Bo Ryan and Bruce Webber, had about the same things to say about their teams as Tubby said about his. I didn't hear either of them say that they felt their teams would be in the NCAA Tournament. It was only 'media' day in the BT, and it didn't look like any of those coaches even wanted to be there.

 

[Atl Gopher]

I think you are right about them not wanting to be there. Tubby's interview almost put me to sleep. The media seemed as if they were asleep also. I took a ton of time for anyone to even ask a question. When the moderator said that there is time for one more question, no one even asked one.

The whole thing was pretty meaningless.

 

[freshtrout]

Tubby was up first at 8am .... coffee hadn't kicked in yet for the media folks, let alone for Tubby.

 

[Blackhammer]

So you get out of that his main goal is not to lose ten out of the last eleven?lol Get a little media time and become Mark Rosen or Dan Barrerio.