I've been watching sports for decades, and one thing I've noticed is that healthy teams do well, and teams dealing with injuries, struggle.
It is that simple.
I don't care if someone calls it making excuses or not. That person is more often than not, and UNaccomplished person criticizing others from the safety of their comfy home.
Prove to me that you are an accomplished person, and maybe I'll consider your opinion, otherwise I'm going to go with the facts I can verify, and those facts are that you are an unknown nobody, and Tubby Smith is a Natl Title winning coach.
Some Minnesota fans are DELUDED in thinking that recruiting people to come and play for Minnesota should be an easy task.
It IS NOT.
We are successful at hockey and Wrestling, because we keep MINNESOTA kids home and hockey also because it is a cold weather sport, or at least historically was.
We had our most successful season in women's bb, with a team made up almost entirely of Minnesota girls. Our Women's VB team built itself up with Minnesota girls, until it got good enough it could recruit outside of Mn. Same with Wr and Hk, we can now, AFTER success, recruit outside of Mn, but even in Hk we are limited in who we can get to come here. East coach talent won't come to play in Minnesota.
As for wrestling, ALL the best wrestling goes on in the north or in a state not know for much at all, other than cfb and wr, Oklahoma. If the SEC took Wrestling seriously, Minnesota's ability to be in the Top Ten all the time, would be tough to maintain.
We simply can not recruit anyone to come here to play Baseball or Golf or Track and we only do well in those sports when our Minnesota athletes have great seasons. There are some exceptions to that. The Golf team got some decent foreigners to help them out, but I'm speaking IN GENERAL.
I was in the Army for several years, stationed in Europe, and it was during cutbacks, so we didn't do much. We sat around arguing about sports and other trivial things, ALOT, and NO ONE, from any other part of the country, at that time, had ANY respect for Minnesota. Much of the country considers Minnesota to be the Frozen Tundra, the land of Ice Fishing and hockey. I also lived in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Maryland, and Washington. East Coast, SEC country, Big 12 country and the West Coast. People from around the country, DO NOT want to move to Minnesota. They don't have wonderful impressions of Minnesota, some of them don't think of Minnesota at all, its like we don't even exist. They know of us, because their NFL or MLB team plays a team called the Minnesota Vikings or the Minnesota Twins, but playing those teams, only informs those people that a place called Minnesota exists.
And now, with SEC domination of football, its even worse, because we are apart of an ancient conference that used to be good, back when there were only 15 teams playing, or 40 teams, or only 3. THAT is the impression people have of Minnesota. It's NOT A GOOD ONE.
Honestly, Basketball is our best hope. And Tubby was our only and best hope when we hired him. And injuries have hampered his ability to do much in a very good and strong, from top to bottom Big Ten.
Our football chances will improve, if Tubby and the basketball team can deliver.
But seriously Minnesota Coach haters, and Presidents of the Lets Fire all our coaches that can't win Titles within 3 years club, GO OUT INTO THE WORLD and ask West Coast people, East Coast people, southerners, and you will find out what people think of Minnesota. I've lived in every section of the US and I've found out first hand what people think of Minnesota.
The two sports that would change the nations perception of us, football and basketball, we've SUCKED ROYALLY at, for 45 years, far more often than not.
Companies based in Minnesota have a VERY HARD time getting people to come to Minnesota. But we Minnesotans know what the ones who did come here now know, its a great place to live. We have the HARDEST time getting people here, but we also are one of the BEST in keeping them here once they get here. But thats the rub, its SO HARD to get them here.
We started to change that in the 90s, but then we got found to have cheated. Haskins said it was the constant pressure he felt to win and how hard it was to recruit players to come here, that led him to resort to cheating. Sure he was just trying to make an excuse. But the point is, no matter what his reasons were and all that, the fact remains our reputation was tarnished, and it took Tubby coming here for that reputation to start to change. The Natl Press believes in Tubby, and now that we're finally healthy, we are doing well. Go figure.
Minnesota football fans are simply unrealistic. With no evidence whatsoever, EVER in history, that we can get players to come here, they expect every coach that comes here to be able to instantly change things. The good athletes we got from out of state in the 60s, were because the SEC schools wouldn't take them. Now that the SEC is welcoming black athletes with open arms, well, now the only way we can get them here is if they are not that great, or we get in a coach that can bring in top athletes. Tubby has that potential. Not sure if Jerry Kill does or not, but he can coach and he's a program builder, like Mason was. If he is given time, he'll slowly move us up and up and up, and the better we do, the better he'll recruit. The same is true with Tubby. This good season should translate in better recruiting. IF it doesn't, then maybe we move on and replace Tubby.
