And it begins....Reusse takes on Tubby.


He sure is a big Gopher fan, isn't he? I'm looking forward to reading his article next year after Mbakwe is back, everyone else is improved, and Cory Joseph is leading our offense. I'm sure he'll find something negative to focus on though.
 

At least the Brew backers on the football board can't whine about Tubby 'getting a pass' from the evil media anymore.
 

He must be thrilled he has the chance to say "I told you so" regarding Royce.
 

doesn't matter, if Tubby decided against recruiting RW right about now he'd write an article about how he should have
 


He sure is a big Gopher fan, isn't he? I'm looking forward to reading his article next year after Mbakwe is back, everyone else is improved, and Cory Joseph is leading our offense. I'm sure he'll find something negative to focus on though.

I'll be making out with the tooth fairy and visiting Santa then too.
 

He sure is a big Gopher fan, isn't he? I'm looking forward to reading his article next year after Mbakwe is back, everyone else is improved, and Cory Joseph is leading our offense. I'm sure he'll find something negative to focus on though.

Mostly truth, IMO...A negative spin maybe, but not too off base...
 

Reusse continues to demonstrate that he knows nothing about the Gopher's bball team. I really wonder how often he actually watches them or if he has any understanding of the game. My favorite was... "The other freshmen, Williams and Cobbs, have been younger versions of Carter and Bostick to this point -- a leaper in Williams and a guard better suited to the Horizon League in Cobbs." Wow, he has no idea what he's talking about, and not to mention he's a complete jackass.
 

Mostly truth, IMO...A negative spin maybe, but not too off base...

+1

And I tend to be a hardcore Tubby defender. I still believe in him and think the program will continue to improve. But we are dangerously teetering on the edge of being a perennial bubble team if things don't work out. We brought Tubby in so that we could be a Big Ten contender, not a middle of the pack team.
 



doesn't matter, if Tubby decided against recruiting RW right about now he'd write an article about how he should have

I firmly believe this is correct. You can't win with this guy. If the Gophers won the conference, but bowed out in the Sweet Sixteen, he'd call the season a failure.
 

I thought this article was fair and accurate. Just because criticism is used, that doesn't mean he's "not a gopher fan". Disagreement is the cornerstone of a fully functional democracy.
 

Parts of the column (which is, after all, an opinion piece) are on point. Bostick has been a disappointment. Carter shows flashes of offense and then misses some horrific bunnies. I think Williams will pan out and that Reusee was far too harsh about Cobbs. Sampson and Iverson are still works in progress and I'd hoped for more but it's too early to make any conclusions.

What I think Reusee missed is that Hoffarber has improved. Damian Johnson was transformed. And I thought Nolen looked better until the academics became an issue. (I do have some criticism for Tubby not heading that one off earlier based on only limited information)

Tubby's first year was an unexpected treat and last year also showed progress. We can play "coulda, woulda, shoulda" 'til the proverbial cows come home about this season and obviously some responsibility falls on Tubby.

I still think we're farther than we were under Dan Monson. I'd thought at the season's start that we'd be a shoo-in for an NCAA berth (not birth) and it's disappointing that's pretty unlikely. But over the long haul, I'm not throwing Tubby under the bus. (Gotta come up with a better and less banal metaphor!)
 

This article would not even have been written had Royce and Trevor played.
 



Its hard to argue with what Reusee has written...Nolan and Carter are the biggest dissapointments for me. Carter has so much talent and just looks like he's playing scared in most games. I think Tubby and his staff have to simply turn him loose.
 

Carter has so much talent and just looks like he's playing scared in most games. I think Tubby and his staff have to simply turn him loose.

I would add Bostick's name to that comment also.
 


I would add Bostick's name to that comment also.

There was another thread where a guy came on and attacked Tubby's coach. Another guy came on and defended him, saying he's seen Tubby's practices and defended Tubby's coaching style and ability. However, one thing the second guy (the pro Tubby guy) said stuck with me. He said Tubby's ball line defense is incredibly tough to learn and that Chuck Hayes, a great player said he didn't really understand it until his senior year.

If that's the case- why would you ever recruit a great JUCO offensive player - such as Bostick was with only two years to learn it? Then you put him on a yo-yo string all year and kill his confidence. I just don't get that. You have to find a system you can use with the players you have and be functional on both sides of the court- not just defense.
 

Ruesse: "For close to $2 million annually, Tubby's employers have a right to see a level of improvement in the athletes that offers no reminders of Coach Monson."

Right on. Tubby is fair game and criticism is justified. Comments about Cobbs and Williams at this stage are premature.
 

We could be ranked number one in the country and Reusse would still find fault with Tubby's coaching or our players.

I'm not saying that this year hasn't been disappointing, but does anyone else remember 3 years ago? The last two years were a definite, definite improvement over that. This year, the disappearance of most of our incoming class kind of hurt the team's development. We shouldn't be expecting much more than last year with essentially the same team.

Some players have definitely improved from last year (RSIII, Hoff, Joseph) but the team has had some really bad games when they needed to have good games. The team that almost beat MSU was not the same team that lost to Indiana and got blown out at OSU.
 

This is par for the course with Ruesse. As such, he's a "one-trick pony." He's been this way for about 20 years now and it's never going to change. As such, everything he says is about as predictable as it gets.
 

I'm a Tubby supporter. That said, I think Patrick makes a couple of decent points. Tubby is not perfect. He has made some mistakes. No doubt communication breakdowns created some of this issue.

But, I also think Reusse took a couple of unnecessary cheap shots. How does he know Cobbs is Horizon League? That's just stupid to say and frankly irresponsible. He's an 18-year old and this old, crabby-ass writer is gonna rip him in the major newspaper in the market? Low blow. Uncalled for, but something we should expect from this lazy writer.

On top of which, he totally omits the fact that Johnson, Westbrook, and Hoffarber have all developed under Tubby and developed well. Westbrook as a freshman under Monson/Molinari made Cobbs look like Lebron James. Yet, Tubby has him playing good basketball. Johnson was doing nothing under Monson/Molinari and Tubby has him going. Nolen has definitely gotten better since his freshman year. My gosh, did Pat even look at the stats? Nolen didn't play a great deal as a freshman, he was a backup to McKenzie and filled in some. He played well at times last year, and was playing okay this year, but to say he hasn't gotten better since his freshman year is just stupid (again). Pat - as lazy writers do - just leaves out stuff in order to prove his straw man's argument.

The straw man's argument here is that Tubby is getting a free pass. I don't think that's the case. Sure, he has his defenders (like me), but that doesn't mean there aren't things to criticize and people have done that (including me). But, it also doesn't mean the lazy Ruesse should just be able to write a hatchet job (as he usually does) leaving out some glaringly important facts. And, in this case he brings nothing new to the table. There are no interesting new tidbits in here. No quotes from players, former players, basketball experts, etc. Just drivel from a lazy guy who needed to fill 16-inches of column space by his deadline, so he threw together this masterpiece.

Remember Reusse for what he is. A lazy, well past his prime writer who loves to play the role of contrarian by using half-truths to prove a point that is based on a false straw man's argument to begin with. He's made a career out of is, so I'll give him his due. But, he has no real convictions. He writes to stir the pot and nothing else. There's no "craft" in that. There isn't any writing for what you believe in. It is simply lazy writing to get a response, and that is sad. Its like the older brother picking on the younger brother for no other reason than to elicit a response. It is immature and silly. But, after 30 years, that's what he's come to.

Sure, about once every 90 days, Pat will write that heart-tugging story about the assistant women's soccer coach at Carleton College who's cat was dying from some strange disease and they brought the cat on all the road trips and used that as motivation to beat Gustavus. Heartwarming stuff, no doubt, but the template is getting a little old.

I'd love to see someone do a column like this on Reusse's career. Seriously, here's a guy who has written for 30 years in this market. His writing has become so unimportant and irrelevant that the paper decided he could become a part time employee. After 30 years, they basically told him he didn't really matter. He writes only a handful of columns a month, most of them appear on page 8. In the meantime, after all of these years, he is relegated to having to get up at 3 am every stinking day to host a terrible talk radio show that has about 17 listeners, is absolutely tanking in the ratings and is dying on the vine. What do you suppose goes through his mind every Monday morning when that alarm striked 3?? "How'd it come to this?" Way to parlay that long career into something great! And, this is the guy who is giving out career advice to Tubby Smith?? Ok, Pat, you go dude!
 


If that's the case- why would you ever recruit a great JUCO offensive player - such as Bostick was with only two years to learn it? Then you put him on a yo-yo string all year and kill his confidence. I just don't get that. You have to find a system you can use with the players you have and be functional on both sides of the court- not just defense.

What I don't get is how Bostick was ever considered a great offensive player anywhere? His jump shot is really poor overall. The kid doesn't look like he has any clue out there most of the time. Flashes now and then, but not enough to make me think he ever domintated. We sure could use some key flashes of brilliance soon.
 

In the meantime, after all of these years, he is relegated to having to get up at 3 am every stinking day to host a terrible talk radio show that has about 17 listeners, is absolutely tanking in the ratings and is dying on the vine. What do you suppose goes through his mind every Monday morning when that alarm striked 3?? "How'd it come to this?" Way to parlay that long career into something great! And, this is the guy who is giving out career advice to Tubby Smith?? Ok, Pat, you go dude!

Well done!
 

I'm a third year guy with BB coaches. As of right now what's the diff between Tubby and Monson?

He has been a failure if you look at it without emotion. We suck and it appears Kentucky was right. I don't even like his coaching during the game to be perfectlyu honest.

Ugh
 

I think we have to evaluate the progress of the players. Some have improved and some have not. The team is not doing very well, obviously. If Mbwkee and White had played this year we would not be having this discussion. had the AD department handled these situations differently the way other Universities handle these type of issues Tubby would have had a scorer and rebounder added to his talent pool. I hope we don't lose Tubby to frustration and a lack of leadership in the AD department. SOme of the Sophmores have not improved the way we thought. Maybe a kid like Iverson just does not have the RAW ability to be able to mold and shape? Gopher hoops was supposed to be a lock for the NCAA and our Winter sports GEM! I think it is fair to question what is happening at Williams.
 

I'm a third year guy with BB coaches. As of right now what's the diff between Tubby and Monson?
He has been a failure if you look at it without emotion. We suck and it appears Kentucky was right. I don't even like his coaching during the game to be perfectlyu honest.

Ugh

Take a really long, hard look. If you can't see the difference, you should really learn how to observe more accurately.
 

Sockpuppet

I think we have to evaluate the progress of the players. Some have improved and some have not. The team is not doing very well, obviously. If Mbwkee and White had played this year we would not be having this discussion. had the AD department handled these situations differently the way other Universities handle these type of issues Tubby would have had a scorer and rebounder added to his talent pool. I hope we don't lose Tubby to frustration and a lack of leadership in the AD department. SOme of the Sophmores have not improved the way we thought. Maybe a kid like Iverson just does not have the RAW ability to be able to mold and shape? Gopher hoops was supposed to be a lock for the NCAA and our Winter sports GEM! I think it is fair to question what is happening at Williams.

Millions of Missed Layups,

perhaps you should just call him Trevor.

His full name is Trevor Mbakwe
 

Millions of Missed Layups,

perhaps you should just call him Trevor.

His full name is Trevor Mbakwe

Yeah, it's getting harder and harder to take things seriously from someone whose every post reads like a basic grammar test.
 

MRJ

Yeah, it's getting harder and harder to take things seriously from someone whose every post reads like a basic grammar test.

My all time favorites are when missed layups quotes millions, or vice versa!

Just too darn funny.

The admins should ban one of his userids, IMHO.
 




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