Feeling Minnesota
By Jason King, Yahoo! Sports Jan 29, 7:25 am EST
Tubby Smith has made his point in Minnesota, leading the Gophers to their best start in 60 years.
Bad old days for Gophers
In the wake of a massive academic fraud scandal under Clem Haskins, Minnesota was forced to forfeit a Final Four appearance in 1997, an NIT title in 1998 and an NCAA bid in 1999. Then came Dan Monson’s tenure. He was dismissed seven games into the 2006-07 season.
| Season | Record | Postseason |
|---|---|---|
| 1999-2000 | 12-16 | None |
| 2000-01 | 18-14 | NIT |
| 2001-02 | 18-13 | NIT |
| 2002-03 | 19-14 | NIT |
| 2003-04 | 12-18 | None |
| 2004-05 | 21-11 | NCAA |
| 2005-06 | 16-15 | NIT |
| 2006-07 | 9-22 | None |
| Overall: | 125-123 |
MINNEAPOLIS – For Tubby Smith, the handshakes always come first.
At each and every Minnesota home game, before he takes his seat on the bench, the Golden Gophers coach hustles toward the student section to greet the folks in the first few rows.
“I’m just trying to get people excited about Minnesota basketball again,” Smith says.
Mission accomplished.
Less than two years after arriving from Kentucky, Smith has turned one of college basketball’s worst programs into one of its best. Last season Smith went 20-14 with the same group of players who finished 9-22 the year before his arrival.
The current season has yielded even better results, as Minnesota opened with 12 straight wins for the first time in 60 years. Now 17-3, the Gophers are expecting a sellout for tonight’s pivotal Big Ten game against Illinois at Williams Arena.
“Everywhere I go, all people want to talk about is Minnesota basketball,” says Dick Jonckowski, the team’s public address announcer for the last 23 years. “Let’s face it: Tubby was a godsend.”
Spend enough time around Smith, and it’s evident he feels the same way about Minnesota. As much as the school needed him, Smith can now admit he needed a place like Minnesota following a 10-year stint at Kentucky that included a national championship, five Southeastern Conference titles and, at the end, a lot of angst.
No matter how many games he won or how many trophies ended up in the display case, Kentucky and its fans didn’t seem happy with anything less than a trip to the Final Four.
“Sometimes familiarity breeds contempt,” Smith says. “A lot of coaches go through that, where it is a ‘What have you done for me lately?’ kind of thing.”
Smith certainly doesn’t feel that in Minneapolis, where his picture is on the wall of nearly ever sports bar in town. Rick Pitino, the former Kentucky coach now with Louisville, opined earlier this season that he sensed Smith “enjoys coaching a lot more now.”
Asked about Pitino’s comment after Wednesday’s practice, Smith leans back in a folding chair and smiles.
“Rick is right,” Smith says. “I am enjoying myself. I’m having fun.”
Something embarrassing nearly happened to the most popular man in Minnesota on Wednesday. As Tubby Smith walked toward Williams Arena, he slipped on a patch of ice and nearly fell.
“Happened twice, actually,” Smith chuckles. “I was a little surprised. It’s warm out there today.”
Smith was joking, of course. Temperatures here dipped below zero, but even Minneapolis’ rugged, icy winters don’t seem to bother Smith, who goes on and on about how much he enjoys his new home.
With previous stops at Tulsa, Georgia and Kentucky, Smith had grown accustomed to living in mid-sized college towns, so he’d forgotten about all the perks that come along with residing in a big city.
Some nights Smith and his wife, Donna, head downtown for a meal at one of the many restaurants that line First Avenue. Last summer they saw Prince and John Legend perform at the Target Center, which is where Smith planned to head after Wednesday’s workout to watch Tayshaun Prince, the former Kentucky player who’s now an NBA standout.
“Elton John, Springsteen, Patti LaBelle … you name the singer or the show, and chances are good they’ve been through here,” Smith says. “We live right by downtown, right off the river. There’s so much history in this area. I’m at the stage now where I can get out and appreciate it.”
It’s certainly a nice change from how things were during Smith’s last few years at Kentucky, when he often chose to eat dinner at home to “avoid the negativity” that, on occasion, seemed to engulf the Wildcats’ fan base.
Smith reached the Elite Eight three times and the Sweet 16 twice after winning the national title in 1998. But his failure to advance to the Final Four remains a sore spot in Lexington.
“We were really struggling those last couple of years,” Smith says with a smirk. “We only won 22 games and went to the NCAA tournament. It was bad.”
Smith celebrates leading Kentucky to the national championship over Utah in 1998.
Asked if the scrutiny wore on him, Smith drops the sarcasm.
“I don’t think it wore on me,” he says. “Whenever you see successful coaches moving to other jobs, there’s usually something going on in the hierarchy (of the athletic department). That’s all I’ve got to say about that.”
Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi began hearing rumors of Smith’s discontent at Kentucky shortly after firing Dan Monson seven games into the 2006-07 season.
“I called about 10 people to get advice on whom to hire,” Maturi said. “Three of them said, ‘I think Tubby Smith is ready to leave Kentucky.’ It caught me off guard.”
In January of 2007, Maturi asked members of the search firm he’d hired to gauge Smith’s interest in the Gophers job. Maturi said the firm contacted Smith’s agent, Ricky Lefft, who indicated that Smith would be willing to listen to Minnesota’s pitch at the end of Kentucky’s season.
“Looking at it from a distance, my belief was that Tubby was always going to be in the shadow of Rick Pitino and Adolph Rupp,” Maturi said. “I thought very strongly that he was at a point in his career where he needed to start having some fun again.”
Apparently, Smith agreed.
Four days after Kentucky lost to Kansas in the NCAA second round, Smith was hired at Minnesota. Frustrated as he was with how things ended in Lexington, Smith stops himself each time he begins to say something that could be construed as negative about Kentucky’s program or its fans.
“The people there are wonderful people,” he says. “Hopefully we left the program in pretty good shape. We recruited some good kids that are performing pretty well for them right now.”
Smith returned to Lexington in November and raised $200,000 for charity. Even now, during his weekly radio show, about 80 percent of the call-ins are from Kentucky fans wishing him well at his new job.
“One of the very first times we huddled last year, he accidentally said ‘Blue and White’ instead of ‘Maroon and Gold,’” Minnesota leading scorer Lawrence Westbrook said. “We all laughed about it. He’s our coach now.”
Shortly after he agreed to become Minnesota’s new head basketball coach, Tubby Smith placed a call to the office of university President Robert H. Bruininks.
“I recruit good kids, I follow the rules and I’m dedicated to my job,” Smith told him. “You’ve got nothing to worry about with me. I’m a very low-maintenance coach.”
Smith’s vows have held true. Still, no one thought his hard work would pay off this quickly.
Minnesota, after all, had reached the NCAA tournament just once under Monson and hadn’t been ranked in the top 25 in six years. Prior to Monson’s tenure, the Gophers and then-coach Clem Haskins were rocked by one of the worst academic fraud scandals in NCAA history.
“I think that’s why Tubby gets the loudest ovation of anyone when I announce his name before the game,” says Jonckowski, the PA announcer. “People have been waiting for something like this for a long time. He’s got such a good reputation. They know he knows what he’s doing.”
And they’re showing their support.
Attendance at Williams Arena has been at or near capacity at each of the Gophers’ home games, and nearly 30 local reporters were on hand Wednesday for Smith’s weekly media session, including four from the state’s biggest paper, the Star-Tribune.
According to the Gophers’ players, the biggest reason for Minnesota’s turnaround is an attitude adjustment.
“His demands for his players are higher than anything I’ve ever seen,” senior Jamal Abu-Shamala says. “He believes that you can be better than even you think you can be.”
Al Nolen, who starred in the Gophers’ win over Louisville, says Smith cares for players away from the court..
An influx of talent certainly helps, and Smith made sure the Gophers received a heavy dose of it during the offseason by landing the nation’s No. 23 recruiting class, according to Rivals.com.
Center Colton Iverson and forward Ralph Sampson III – the son of the former Virginia and NBA star – are freshman starters who are known around campus as “Tubby’s Twin Towers.” Smith had to beat out schools such as Florida, Kentucky and Texas for some of the newcomers on his current roster.
As far as next year, Smith has already signed a pair of top 100 players in Royce White and Rodney Williams – both of whom hail from Minnesota. Smith already had recruiting ties in the state from his days at Kentucky.
“We’d been up here plenty of times to go after kids like Kris Humphries and Adam Boone,” Smith said. “We can’t let these local kids go. We’ve got to close the borders. This is fertile ground up here. More kids play AAU ball in Minnesota than anywhere in the country.”
As much as he’s helped them improve on the court, the Gophers said the concern Smith shows for their well-being off of it has also strengthened the environment around the program. Every week, Smith conducts 30-minute meetings with each of the 13 players on Minnesota’s roster.
“Most of it isn’t even about basketball,” point guard Al Nolen says. “He asks you about your family, your grades, if we need help with anything. It’s made a big difference, because it shows us what kind of person he is.”
Just minutes before tipoff of a recent game, Jonckowski motioned for Smith to come to the scorer’s table.
“My wife just ran away with my best friend, and I sure miss him.” Jonckowski told Smith.
Weeks later, Jonckowski still laughs about the exchange.
“It’s a ritual Tubby and I have before every game,” Jonckowski says. “He likes for me to tell him a quick one-liner because he’s always tense before games. He wants to loosen up.”
Smith’s pregame nervousness hardly rivals the tension that continues to permeate throughout Minneapolis the past few weeks. Gophers fans waited years and years for a quality coach such as Smith, and now some are afraid they might lose him.
Mike Gottfried’s recent departure at Alabama has fueled speculation that the Crimson Tide will target Smith as a replacement. Arizona is also expected to show interest in Smith along with Georgia, where Smith coached for two seasons before taking over at Kentucky.
“I went to the Minnesota Wild hockey game (Tuesday) night with my son,” says Maturi, the athletic director. “People kept coming up to me saying, ‘You’ve got to keep Tubby. You’ve got to keep Tubby.’ ”
Reporters who cover Smith regularly say there is nothing he despises more than being questioned about another job. Perhaps that’s why he opened Wednesday’s media gathering by making a formal statement about the Alabama rumors before anyone could ask a question.
“I’m happy at Minnesota,” Smith said. “I’m not looking for any other jobs. We’ve got a great recruiting class coming in. I’m excited where the Gopher program is and I’m not a candidate for any jobs.”
The statement is similar to one any coach would make, but Maturi gets the feeling that Smith means it. The two live across the street from one another and their wives ride to games together. He’s never asked Smith if he’s happy or if he’s having fun. In some ways, Maturi doesn’t need to. He can just tell.
With a salary of $1.6 million per year, Maturi said Smith is the highest-paid state employee in the history of Minnesota. He notes plans are underway to build a new practice facility and that Smith was given clearance to hire his son, Saul, as an assistant. He talks about how well Smith has been embraced by Minnesota’s fans.
“From our end, all the things we said we’d do, we’ve done,” Maturi says. “I think Tubby is respectful of that. Georgia, Arizona, Alabama … I hear all the rumors. Am I comfortable he’s going to stay? I wouldn’t say that.
“It’d be a mistake on my part to assume he’s going to stay, but I think he will. I truly believe he’s happy. We’re excited about our future with Tubby Smith.”
Maturi laughs.
“And let me tell you,” he says, “we’re excited about our present, too.”
