What is the beef with Maturi?

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GopherNation

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What's with people's beef with Maturi?

The guy hired a prolific college coach in Tubby Smith. He has given the basketball program a new identity and the talent level is the best it's been in 10 years.

Brewster was a highly sought after coaching candidate four years ago. Just two years ago, everyone was begging for him to stay. Now that he has failed, Maturi has listened to the fans and has fired him.

It seems to me Maturi has listened to what we have wanted. Is there something I am missing?
 

You had me going until I saw this "Brewster was a highly sought after coaching candidate four years ago". Nice try.
 


gopherweirdo said:
You had me going until I saw this "Brewster was a highly sought after coaching candidate four years ago". Nice try.
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He was hired because he was one of the most sought after recruiting coordinators in the Nation. if you go to the Texas Longhorns board, they are begging to get him back. He obviously failed, but a few years back he had a lot of steam. Let's not forget he almost got the coaching job at Tennessee.
 

"if you go to the Texas Longhorns board, they are begging to get him back"

too funny, your hurtin me.
 


how about the dramatic mishandling of pretty much everything having to do with any major program? how about appearing to care only about sports not named football, basketball, and hockey? even if he does give a damn no one can tell. how about him never actually making one goddamn decision? he's always playing politics. appeasing everyone. tonights decision was probably not his, and if it was it was only to save his own ass from getting canned (before the end of JUne at least).

everyone knows tubby hired maturi, not the other way around. yes maturi talked to him, but once tubby liked it here, it was going to happen. maturi didnt coach the basketball team to that level.

we've wanted an AD with some balls to move the/any program forward. we're still waiting.
 

High School or College....if you have a winning football program, nothing else matters. A winning football programs feeds the fan base. Once you start winning...the walls could be crumbling down in every facility on campus and the response you will get is...."Yeah well, at least we beat Iowa and Wisconsin this year" nobody cares about anything else.
 

I lost my trust of Maturi when he wouldn't say anything during the Monson fiasco five years ago. The hockey guys are mad for letting Lucia rot at the helm. And if the hiring of Brew didn't pan out, it was going to be squarely on Maturi for missing the hire.

Tubby is the only thing that he's got going for him.
 

I was having this conversation with a friend. Even the top research school idea is far overshadowed by the football program. you ask anyone who isnt vested in academia whats the first thing they think of when they hear Minnesota, or any college for that matter. Its the football program (or basketball in the case of MU or Kentucky, etc). The football program's strengths draws both fans and MONEY to the school, and so far maturi hasnt pieced those together. he's content to let the major programs rot.
 



GopherNation said:
What's with people's beef with Maturi?
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Don't you know. Joel is the worst AD ever even though the Gopher football team has not come close to a Big 10 Championship in 43 years. We can blame Joel for everything that is crummy about the U including their mediocre academic programs and their extremely average students.
 

Studwell55 said:
Worst decade ever?
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What? A decade where we got a hall of fame coach for the basketball team and one where we finally got a new $300M football stadium? Not even close. I am no Maturi fan but lets not go overboard here. Just getting the stadium built is a huge plus for Maturi in my book and something that will be his legacy. I definitely appreciate it as the game day experience is about 1000 times better. Also, it will help the next coach accelerate the development of the program. If we were still in that craptastic dome the future would be hopeless.
 

If you blame him for hiring Brewster, you have to give him credit for getting Tubby. Can't have it both ways. And, Lucia has earned the right to try and right the ship. He was also instrumental in getting TCF built. Yes, he screwed up hiring Brew, but i am not as down on him as some.
 

Studwell55 said:
Worst decade ever?
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Gophers Sports over the last decade...it hasn't been all that bad. The horrible football program has overshadowed everything, but we did get a new stadium with the help of Maturi.


Men's Hockey - 2 National Championships (02, 03), 5 WCHA Championships (03, 04, 05, 06, 07)

Women's Hockey - 3 National Championships (00, 04, 05), 6 WCHA Championships (01, 02, 04, 05, 09, 10)

Baseball - 6 Big Ten Championships (00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 10)

Wrestling - 3 National Championships (01, 02, 07), 5 Big Ten Championships (01, 02, 03, 06, 07)

Men's Basketball has 7 tournament appearances all time, 3 being in this decade (05, 09, 10)

A lot of the other minor sports had championships as well.
 



koppco1 said:
What? A decade where we got a hall of fame coach for the basketball team and one where we finally got a new $300M football stadium? Not even close. I am no Maturi fan but lets not go overboard here. Just getting the stadium built is a huge plus for Maturi in my book and something that will be his legacy. I definitely appreciate it as the game day experience is about 1000 times better. Also, it will help the next coach accelerate the development of the program. If we were still in that craptastic dome the future would be hopeless.
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Studwell only care about football and what the players are wearing. He doesn't give a sh*t about anything else at the U.
 


Remember Brew's qualifications, he had never even been so much as a coordinator at the college level before he was hired as our coach. Maturi took a HUGE risk hiring him. As it turns out, Brewster will go down as one of the worst coaches in Gopher football history. If that is not enough for you, it happened at a time when the Gophers absolutely could not afford it; the opening of TCF Bank Stadium. This event represented a chance to resurrect our program like we had not seen since Holtz.

So here we are 11 games into the history of TCF Bank Stadium, and the stadium is a complete non-factor because Maturi's risky hire has moved our program backwards 15 years. Instead of the stadium helping us to move up, we are instead in desperation mode and starting from scratch.

And that is just for football.
 


-He dithered on giving Mason a contract extension in 2005 until literally the last minute.

-When Mason struggled the following season but rallied to 6-6 he let him stay on. Then changed his mind because we lost the great Insight Bowl. By firing him in January instead of November he left the program picking from everyone else's leftovers. This was a monumental blunder.

-He agreed to fire Dan Monson in March 2006. It was leaked to the media. Then he got cold feet and wouldn't pull the trigger. Instead a hasty, sheepish press conference was held where he said 'if it was about wins and losses he'd be fired.' Monson's recruiting was shot. He was a dead-coach walking. 8 games into the next season he was canned. The entire situation was an epic blunder. Falling back-asswards into Tubby Smith doesn't excuse it.

-Having put himself in a difficult position by dithering on firing Mason, he proceeded to make the worst possible choice in Brewster. This is actually more forgivable then the offenses above.

-In 2009/10 the Gopher basketball team was set up to have one of its best seasons ever. Mbakwe was accused of a crime he asserted absolute innocence from. It became apparent around August that the legal situation was going to drag for many months. At minimum Maturi could have told Mbakwe in no uncertain terms 'Sorry you can't play until this is resolved.' Mbakwe may well not have enrolled at MN. But at least we would have been upfront with him. But instead, he dithered, refusing to make a decision until the 1st game, even though nothing in the case was going to change. By some accounts he would have let Mbakwe play, but Royce White's issues made him change his mind. This dithering is not becoming a big-time AD.

This is just a few of his greater transgressions.
 

UpnorthGo4 said:
Studwell only care about football and what players wearing.
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Is that you Mongo?

mongo.gif
 


You have to know that Tubby or his agent contacted Mn. We can thank Clem Haskins, and one of the past Timberwolves coaches for Tubby, not Maturi. Tubby fell into his lap and at least he was smart enough to hire him.
 

GopherNation said:
I have this written in another thread, but I think Maturi deserves some credit. Bash him for the football program that is fine, but he hasn't been all that bad overall.

Gophers Sports over the last decade haven't been all that bad. The horrible football program has overshadowed everything, but we did get a new stadium with the help of Maturi.


Men's Hockey - 2 National Championships (02, 03), 5 WCHA Championships (03, 04, 05, 06, 07)

Women's Hockey - 3 National Championships (00, 04, 05), 6 WCHA Championships (01, 02, 04, 05, 09, 10)

Baseball - 6 Big Ten Championships (00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 10)

Wrestling - 3 National Championships (01, 02, 07), 5 Big Ten Championships (01, 02, 03, 06, 07)

Men's Basketball has 7 tournament appearances all time, 3 being in this decade (05, 09, 10)

A lot of the other minor sports had championships as well.
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how many coaches in this pile were hired by maturi? iirc the stadium was going to happen regardless of who was sitting in the AD chair. are you maturi? do you not see that basically all the successes during his tenure have been manufactured by hard work from other coaches and players, and not directly from his hirings? tubby smith hired maturi. not vice versa.

maturi was hired in 02. please lop off any and all wins before july 02, then get back to me, then erase everything that was a coach not hired by him, or a year after a coach hired by him took over (i.e. success due to previous years work carrying over)

*edit i did your research for you. every coach except womens hockey and mens bball has been under a coach who took over before maturi. which means he doesnt get props for that. and i think im right in that the womens hockey coach was at least around the team before maturi took over and was just recently promoted. that leaves him with almost nothing.
 

Look at Iowa. They are absolute garbage in every sport except football and wrestling, but you don't see the same complaining and strife becaues the football program is decent. And, they aren't even a phenomenal program. Heck, we have a more recent Rose Bowl victory than they do, but if you keep a decent football program, everything else fades into the background.
 

Welcome to a week ago. And no, not all of Texas' fans want him back. I've supported him for the past few years, but holy crap... his capability to make extremely poor decisions as a head coach have turned my support for Brew completely off.
 

GopherNation said:
What's with people's beef with Maturi?

Brewster was a highly sought after coaching candidate four years ago. Just two years ago, everyone was begging for him to stay. Now that he has failed, Maturi has listened to the fans and has fired him.
QUOTE]

I don't recall too many begging for Brew to stay. I certainly never was happy with Brew and would have helped pack his bags. As far as Maturi goes, he's 100% responsible for Brew--picking the least qualified candidate he could and the results are no surprise to me. Maturi has been a curse to the basketball team. Sure Tubby came (but it had nothing to do with Maturi) and then we had the chance to be a very special basketball team last year and Joel overruled Tubby and kept Royce and Trevor off the team all year.
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True, tubby was going to be ok with the guys playing on a short leash, especially since royces case was drawn out almost criminally by the inept and or malicious police force, and mbakwe's for about the same reason. thought we know that mbakwe was innocent and royce was at least a corrollary, but so many months for just a misdemeanor trespassing was ludicrous.
 

So let's send him back. I've got a few bucks to chip in for postage.
 

[censored] said:
Welcome to a week ago. And no, not all of Texas' fans want him back. I've supported him for the past few years, but holy crap... his capability to make extremely poor decisions as a head coach have turned my support for Brew completely off.
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My bad, didn't see it posted in the forum. I'm with you though, I'm glad we are moving a different direction.
 

We've won NOTHING in either football or basketball in Maturi's 8 years.

I could go on, but I find it sad that this question is asked, like we should expect the type of results that have occurred during Maturi's tenure.
 

UpnorthGo4 said:
Don't you know. Joel is the worst AD ever even though the Gopher football team has not come close to a Big 10 Championship in 43 years. We can blame Joel for everything that is crummy about the U including their mediocre academic programs and their extremely average students.
Click to expand...

Like the Carlson School?
 

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