Now that the season is over for the Gophers, what grade do you give Tubby

What grade would you give Tubby for this year's coaching?

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Rick Mons

Rick Mons

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We've done this every year at the end of the season. What grade would you give Tubby after his third year here?

Note: As of 2:30PM Sunday, Tubby's averaging a 3.3 ... fairly solid B.
 

B+/B

He has gotten this team from 9-22 to 3 straight years of at least 20 wins. He's gone to the tournament 2 years in a row and even though the team had its ups and downs this year, they never quit on him.
 

C

I give him a C. This team (even without Royce, Trevor, and Nolen) had 25 W capabilities.

And making the NCAA is the reason I bumped it to C.
 

Truly, a "B"

Certainly not perfect,
but 2 NCAA appearances,
3 20-win seasons,
a core of players that will be competitive over the next couple of years,
a national reputation for good defense,
this season salvaged after off-court distractions and losing our starting PG and defensive co-leader,
this year's BTT,
a respectable loss to Xavier even though we shot the ball terribly.

With the additions of
Eliason
Hollins
Mbakwe(hopefully)
Nolen(hopefully)
White (maybe, or a talented JUCO player)
C.Joseph(I can dream, can't I?)

we look even better next year.

I'm glad he's our coach. He's classy, disciplined, and gives us national cred.
 

I'd go C for this year. Disappointing year based on my expections, yet still got the team to the tourney with all the distractions.
Overall after three years, I'd say a B. He's given the program a national presence again, but we still haven't gotten over the hump of being a middle of the road Big Ten team and a one-and-done NCAA tourney team.
 


It's a solid "B" in my mind

It's about this time -- the end of a third year -- that the "honeymoon" is pretty much over and more criticism is heard about a coach.

But I'm still extremely happy with the fact that Tubby Smith is our coach. I think some of the expectations about this year were unrealistic and became even more so after Royce White's shenanigans and the criminal charges against Trevor Mbakwe. The one thing that I'd assign responsibility for would be the discovery (or at least the public announcement of the discovery) of Nolen's academic problems. I'd have thought that someone in the academic counseling side of the shop would have alerted Tubby of the potential problem and that it would have been resolved before Nolen was declared ineligible. That's one "back-story" I'd have liked to read more about.

In terms of season results, I think Tubby did a fairly decent job of coaching. He received a lot of criticism for the "2-line" substitution strategy but I felt it paid off in the end of the season.

Absent another set of personnel problems next year, I think it's reasonable to have the expectation that we get back to the NCAAs and that we get beyond the first round.

When Tubby was hired, many of us thought this should be the year that we went to The Dance. He got us there a year earlier than expected, and against stiff odds, got us there again. If we'd gone deeper, then an "A" might have been justified. As it is, the "B" seems right.
 

Overall after 3 years Tubby deserves an A+. Do you all remember Minnesota basketball before Tubby was here? The fact that people's expectations for the team were to get past the first round of the NCAA Tournament shows how far along this program has come the past 3 years.
 

I would give him a C+/B- for the year. Even netting out the off the court issues I think the team slightly underachieved. The offense was stagnant and there were fairly frequent lapses in the perimeter defense. The schedule, which is on Tubby, created a no margin for error situation because we didn't play anybody. The little run in the B10 tourney was against two teams that weren't playing for anything. Not a terrible year by any means and not Monsonesque, but nothing memorable either.
 

I give him a triple F. I thought sure when he played the badgers we would give him a terrible beat down, but nooooo, instead our guys choked like dogs and Tubby turns it around and their is joy in Minny. Crap, Crap, and Crap. Damn you Tubby you magnificent bastard.
 



Mother Vandelay said:
I give him a triple F. I thought sure when he played the badgers we would give him a terrible beat down, but nooooo, instead our guys choked like dogs and Tubby turns it around and their is joy in Minny. Crap, Crap, and Crap. Damn you Tubby you magnificent bastard.
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I gave Tubby a B and here is why...if you take Kentucky or Kansas and eliminate their two top recruits for the entire season and their starting point guard for their conference seasons....what do you got? Both those teams are hugely talented but with the lose of the same three players...neither is a top 10 team. We were a top 20 team with those guys at best this year...without we are toast...but Tubby got 20 plus wins and an NCAA birth...good job.
 

B+. If certain off-court issues had not interfered, this would have been a team contending for the Big 10 regular season championship. Everything considered, Tubby did a great job with things under his control.
 

I voted C, but would have gone c+ if that was on option. I thought he did a good job getting through the B10 tourney, but aside from that I thought it was average to below average. I cant get the blowout at Michigan and the losses to NW and Ind out of the mind. Overall decent, IMO...
 



I would give Tubby a C+ this season. A lot of ups and downs, a few winnable games were lost, but a very good run at the end of the season. It was frustrating at times to watch the long scoreless periods during games, RS3 and Colt had their head scratching moments, but I feel there will be a huge payoff down the road with these two. We need to get better in the half court offense, with a little more movement. Despite all this complaining by me there were some big wins this season.

I hope we leave the off court foibles behind next season, Tubby probably deserved a B basketball wise, but Tubby has to take some responsiblity for the off court troubles, he is the man in charge. So I dropped him to a C+. This grade is probably laughable, I remember how discouraging it was 3 years ago, and I would have probably gave an A+ for this season in 2007.
 

Solid B+ he turned around what could have been a throwaway season after losing so many big players and got us into the Dance. Any other coach couldnt have gotten our players motivated enough or coached well enough to get us to this point. Id give him an A, but like some others have said we definitely , despite bad calls, couldve gone farther in the NCAA, and also those close game timeouts that always sunk us during the season
 

I prematurely posted this

early, so I moved it here.

I gave Tubby a solid B for coaching this year.

Positives:

- found some chemistry at the end of the season with Joseph at the point.

- did a good job continuing the development of Sampson and Iverson (big guys just take time)

- continued to play very tough defense - with a willingness to mix it up (trap/zone/man to man) to hide our weaknesses and keep the opponent guessing.

- kept the team very positive and focused on basketball even with all the distractions.

Negatives

- Until the end of the season, never found a usable role for Bostick which I felt hurt the team (Bostick being one of our few players able to create offense)

- Williams/Cobb seemed to plateau very early in the season with little late season improvement.

- Never found an offensive set that would generate a few good looks at crunch time (loved the high/low with Sampson/Iverson during the tournament) forcing us to rely on Joseph and Westbrook's dribble drive.

But the biggest negative - there were several times where the team came out emotionally/mentally unprepared to play. I have always felt that the emotional/mental preparation of the team was the biggest part of a coach's job. Down the stretch in the BT season, the team came out flat as pancakes with sub par effort in a couple of key games. (2nd Michigan for 1)

All said, I am thrilled he is our coach and look forward to even better teams in the future.
 

Friend Of Tubby said:
I give him a C. This team (even without Royce, Trevor, and Nplen) had 25 W capabilities.

And making the NCAA is the reason I bumped it to C.
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This grade suprises me more than any other. I give Tubby a B. I think it was a difficult season, with so many distractions. I'm in agreement with recruiting Trevor and Royce, so I can't blame him for what happened with those guys. As far as Al losing eligibility, on a radio show during the season Tubby stated that they knew exactly where Al stood with his grades. It's hard for me to believe this, but it sounded as if he (Tubby) was letting him have enough rope to hang himself or redeem himself by upping his grades. Tough love, I guess. In other words, not just being concerned about the basketball, but also about becoming a responsible person. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Tubby collects and extra $100,000 for making the Dance. I just can't see where he WOULDN'T be on top of Al's grades. With all that happened the team could have easily packed it in. To me, that was a superb job by Tubby to avert this. Also I would like to add this, upgrade the preseason games.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
This grade suprises me more than any other. I give Tubby a B. I think it was a difficult season, with so many distractions. I'm in agreement with recruiting Trevor and Royce, so I can't blame him for what happened with those guys. As far as Al losing eligibility, on a radio show during the season Tubby stated that they knew exactly where Al stood with his grades. It's hard for me to believe this, but it sounded as if he (Tubby) was letting him have enough rope to hang himself or redeem himself by upping his grades. Tough love, I guess. In other words, not just being concerned about the basketball, but also about becoming a responsible person. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Tubby collects and extra $100,000 for making the Dance. I just can't see where he WOULDN'T be on top of Al's grades. With all that happened the team could have easily packed it in. To me, that was a superb job by Tubby to avert this. Also I would like to add this, upgrade the preseason games.
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The team (without those 3) was capable of 25 W. Instead Gophers finished 9-9 in B10 (runner-up in B10T) and lost 1st round NCAA game.

It's a C on Tubby's scale.
 

Tubby gets a B.

Joel Maturi gets a D.
Brewster gets a D.
Lucia gets a D-.
Borton gets an F.

Bad times at old Gopher U.
 

Friend Of Tubby said:
The team (without those 3) was capable of 25 W. Instead Gophers finished 9-9 in B10 (runner-up in B10T) and lost 1st round NCAA game.

It's a C on Tubby's scale.
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Capable of 25 W yes, missing the 5-6 games or however many by 5 points or less hurt, and thats due in part to the drama surrounding those three being gone.

next year will be fresh and new with a core of the team back so im looking forward to next year when we can really pound it on the inside then pop it out to hoffarber
 

gopherphan said:
Capable of 25 W yes, missing the 5-6 games or however many by 5 points or less hurt, and thats due in part to the drama surrounding those three being gone.

next year will be fresh and new with a core of the team back so im looking forward to next year when we can really pound it on the inside then pop it out to hoffarber
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Tubby averages 24 W over 19 year career.

21 W is a C barely.

Tubby averages 2 W per NCAA appearance.

0 W is not even a C.

By his standards.
 

I voted a Superior rating. Granted, I looked at his entire time here, which may not have been the point. For this year alone I'd still go at least a strong B. Some of you who can't get certain defeats out of your minds need to let it go. Sports isn't perfection and hopefully never will be. It's all about the effort and what goes into it, not that you won every game by 20 points while playing without a flaw. As long as humans are the ones competing, there will be inexplicably horrible outings and those that tip the scale the other way. Put it like this when grading Tubby: Do you want him here or somewhere else? I'll take him here any day and that's worth an A.
 


Friend Of Tubby said:
I give him a C. This team (even without Royce, Trevor, and Nolen) had 25 W capabilities.

While I DO NOT believe this team had 25 win capabilities without those players, I did not give Tubby an A but I did give him a B. I felt our players suffered emotionally from losing Royce,Trevor,and Nolen. We have to take into consideration that these players practiced with the team and built relationships, so picture the players on the team running to there laptops like we did to see if they were going to get their brothers back.Thats alot to go through AND play a season. Im assuming Tubby put alot of work into the suspended players before the season started so that time went wasted. If North Carolina who has 7 highschool AA's struggled because of turnover from last season and couldn't muster 18 wins, and we had turnover during the year, I feel we broke even. As far as Al's grades tubby said he warned him numerous times and eventually let him do himself in, as a father I rather he let my son shame himeslf after repeated warning, than babysit him, because no one is going to be there to babysit him when he leaves the U. Good job Tubby, way to be a coach and father figure. GO GOPHERS!
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camken78 said:
Friend Of Tubby said:
I give him a C. This team (even without Royce, Trevor, and Nolen) had 25 W capabilities.

While I DO NOT believe this team had 25 win capabilities without those players, I did not give Tubby an A but I did give him a B. I felt our players suffered emotionally from losing Royce,Trevor,and Nolen. We have to take into consideration that these players practiced with the team and built relationships, so picture the players on the team running to there laptops like we did to see if they were going to get their brothers back.Thats alot to go through AND play a season. Im assuming Tubby put alot of work into the suspended players before the season started so that time went wasted. If North Carolina who has 7 highschool AA's struggled because of turnover from last season and couldn't muster 18 wins, and we had turnover during the year, I feel we broke even. As far as Al's grades tubby said he warned him numerous times and eventually let him do himself in, as a father I rather he let my son shame himeslf after repeated warning, than babysit him, because no one is going to be there to babysit him when he leaves the U. Good job Tubby, way to be a coach and father figure. GO GOPHERS!
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1 pt L to TAMU, Purdue, Mich St and L in OT to IU and NWU all could have easily been W.

The Gophers L 4 or 5 games that "should" have been W even without the 3 missing players.

With all 3 players, Minnesota could have been 27 or 28 W team and Sweet 16 possibility.
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Friend Of Tubby said:
camken78 said:
1 pt L to TAMU, Purdue, Mich St and L in OT to IU and NWU all could have easily been W.

The Gophers L 4 or 5 games that "should" have been W even without the 3 missing players.

With all 3 players, Minnesota could have been 27 or 28 W team and Sweet 16 possibility.
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To expect to get all of the breaks to win every close game would be asking a bit much in my book, I think we were an above average to a good team, but not a great team. This team ended up with the record they deserved.
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Gopher in Qatar said:
Friend Of Tubby said:
To expect to get all of the breaks to win every close game would be asking a bit much in my book, I think we were an above average to a good team, but not a great team. This team ended up with the record they deserved.
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Had I given the Gophers the "breaks" in EVERY close game, they would have 7 or 8 more W.

Miami FL, Texas A&M, Purdue, Mich St, IU, NWU - of those 6, Gophers "should" have 4 more W.
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I gave him a C.

I didn't think he did that great of a job keeping the ship steady after Al was lost. I didn't think the team should have floundered that much.

But he deserves some credit for the strong final week of the regular season and getting a team that I thought was dead into the NCAA tournament.
 

tubby did very well in spite of all the challenges........the mabwake "guilty until proven "innocent debacle, the White distractions, and the Al Nolen grade issues........he didnt have a true point guard.......the big guys are developing, and team chemistry with LW 's leadership is questionable.
I give him a solid b
 

We have much too low standards. B? If someone would have told you we would be an eleven seed in the tourney and be no better in conference play than we were last year would you be happy with that? I sure as heck would not. I give him a C, and that is only because we made the tourney. Tubby got outcoached by Tom Crean for crying out loud
 

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