Ruesse ( gulp ) well done!

The surface view is that Joel Maturi deserves to get most of the heat for the latest financial fiasco involving the University of Minnesota athletic department.



Maturi, as the athletic director, refused to OK the hiring of Jimmy Williams as a men's basketball assistant because of NCAA violations that occurred when he was at Minnesota from 1971 through 1986 working for Bill Musselman and then Jim Dutcher.

Tubby Smith was given a hero's welcome by the central administration, by Maturi and by the public when he made the surprising move from Kentucky to the Gophers in April 2007.

Smith went quickly to work on assembling a staff. The plan included hiring Williams from Oklahoma State. Jimmy accepted Tubby's word, quit his job, and then was told that Maturi would not approve the hiring because of violations long in Williams' past.

One of the charges against Maturi - repeated by Jim Souhan in his column in Thursday's Star Tribune - was that the athletic director was worried about a media bashing should he allow Williams to return.

This paranoia was not restricted to Maturi. There are important people in President Robert Bruinink's administration with a view of the U of M's basketball past that goes beyond embarrassment - beyond paranoia.

There is a loathing for Clem Haskins and the fact he was able to take university money with him home to Kentucky after the academic fraud scandal.

In these vengeful minds, Clem's sins are linked to the less-important violations of the Dutcher regime in the ‘80s, and to the wild, mercurial four-year run with Musselman in the early ‘70s.

From the fight with Ohio State in 1972, to the rape accusation (followed by acquittal) against three players in Madison, Wis. in 1986, to the revelation of the Gangelhoff Papers in 1999 - these administrators know the history, and they will turn red in anger at an attempt at rehbailitation for anyone with a connection to U of M basketball in those three decades.


Williams was long since NCAA-approved as a coach and recruiter. There was no reason to hold those long-ago petty crimes (such as treating recruits too well at Rudolph's BBQ) against him -- not until Maturi got the word to throw up the roadblock. Just like that, Williams was out of a job, at Oklahoma State, at Minnesota and for three long years since.

On Wednesday, a jury awarded Williams $1.25 million in his lawsuit against Tubby Smith, and congratulations to those reasonable citizens for the decision.

Anyone doubting how crazed a university administrator can be when it comes to men's basketball should know this:

Smith invited the 1990 team for an informal reunion this winter. The banishment of the 1997 team from the record book left Minnesota without an official trip to the Final Four.

Which meant, the 1990 trip to Elite Eight made that the most-successful tournament team in Gophers' history, and thus a reason to makr its 20th anniversary.

The players and the coaches were told the reunion would include an introduction to the Williams Arena crowd.

Maturi was absent due to another obligation. A minion in the athletic department pulled an Alexander Haig and made a decision:

Clem would not be allowed on the floor, and the assistants would not be allowed to be part of the ceremony in any way.

I was talking with the 1990 Gophers in the back of arena's tunnel entrance. A security guard was beeped a message, then came over and said he had been told to have me leave that area.

"Who told you?'' I asked.

"Can't tell you that,'' he said.

The men's basketball haters - administrators and an empowered Maturi minion - were out in force. But they lost the night to the fans.

Smith came onto the floor and introduced Clem from his aisle seat in the crowd. The greeting for Haskins was so enthused that the players and Smith encouraged him to join them on the court. There were hugs and long cheers. The U's basketball haters were 0-1 that night.

On Wednesday, they fell to 0-2 when a civil jury did its duty in the Jimmy Williams case.

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Roy Christensen said:

Why did Tubby stick up for the administration during the trial and say no job was offered to Williams and thus appear as a liar. Why didn't he just say that he hired Williams but was over ruled by higher ups. If it was their decision why wouldn't he let them take the heat instead of muddying his own reputation.

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