Friday, March 23, 2007

Tubby Smith

What can I say about the Gophers basketball team landing a big name coach to get their program back on track? If you would have asked me 3 months ago after the firing of Dan Monson, if I'd like Tubby Smith to come in and take over, without a doubt I'd have said yes.

You SEC/ACC guys probably won't understand this, but college sports in MN aren't the same as they are in states south of the Mason Dixon line. For instance, when Kentucky hired Smith, the fans expectations were that he would win a few national championships. I'm a Gopher fan, and all I care about Smith doing is beating Wisconsin. If they go .500 in the Big Ten and he gets Williams arena back to the way it was 8 years ago, than he's accomplished the mission.

The only thing that worries me, is that Tubby sucks at recruiting. He seems to go after a few big names a year and maybe gets one, but the depth just hasn't been there. And if its hard for him to recruit at a school with 7 national championships, try doing it at a school where basketball is falls 3rd in terms of fall sports (hockey and wrestling).

Either way, I'm happy to see the Gophers land a couple of good coaches who hopefully can make them competitive in the Big Ten. And most of all BEAT WISCONSIN!!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

John Wooden can come and coach for the Gophers and they still wouldn't beat Bucky next year. Yes the Badgers are losing the best duo on school history, but Bo Ryan knows how to "re-load" and once again next year Wisconsin will be fighting for a Big Ten title.