By Larry Fitzgerald
Originally posted 3/17/2010
It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish — how many times have you heard that cliché? Tubby Smith is a Yankee. After leading Tulsa, Georgia and Kentucky to the NCAA’s and being under-appreciated in the Bluegrass State, Smith has come to Minnesota and gotten the job done again.
All year this team has played in the shadow of controversy. Many of my quick-to-judge local media brothers have painted a picture of doom and despair. But somehow Smith’s incredible strength of character and leadership qualities shined through.
He kept this family of Gopher players on target to accepting his coaching. The season-long suspensions of highly anticipated talents Trevor Mbakwe and Minnesota’s prized Mr. Basketball Royce White did not become anchors.
Many have used these players’ absence as crutches and distractions only because their personal anticipations and expectations were not fulfilled. But Smith treated the losses of Mbakwe and White and then the unexpected academic failure of junior starting guard Al Nolen as simply missed free throws.
He reminded his players to focus on the job at hand, that they as a team had a job to do, and if they continued to believe and follow his lead he would show them the way. This just in: Tubby’s Gophers are dancing again. They are NCAA-bound; now it’s back-to-back seasons in the NCAA for this state’s only Division 1 institution that’s even capable of qualifying.
It’s a great achievement, a Minnesota NCAA bid for only the 12th time in 100 years of Gophers hoops. That averages out to just about one trip each decade.
Hurry up and build Smith his practice facility; he’s the first Gopher men’s coach to the lead them to the NCAA’s in consecutive years since Clem Haskins.
He’s also the first coach to win 20 or more games at Minnesota in three straight seasons, and at 17 he has the longest consecutive active streak of winning 20 or more among Division 1 coaches. He’s also among the very few coaches who have guided four different NCAA Division 1 programs to the NCAA tournament at lease twice (Tulsa, Georgia, Kentucky and Minnesota).
The Gophers will play Xavier University Friday at 12:25 pm in Milwaukee at the Midwest Regional. The Gophers are seeded 11th after winning three straight games at the Big Ten Men’s Basketball tournament in Indianapolis.
Victories over Penn State, Michigan State and Purdue helped the Gophers convince the NCAA selection committee that Tubby’s Gophers were indeed worthy, even though they were dominated in the Big Ten tournament Championship game 90-61 Sunday by Ohio State. The Gophers trailed only 33-30 at half before running out of gas. Playing for the fourth straight day, they lost their legs playing with a shortened bench missing three players.
Smith, the 16th coach in Gopher basketball history, has done a remarkable job of putting the weight on his three seniors — Lawrence Westbrook, Damien Johnson and Devron Bostick — to do what seniors are expected to do, lead the way by working hard and playing smart.
Larry Fitzgerald can be heard weekday mornings on KMOJ Radio 89.9 FM at 8:20 am, and on WDGY-AM 740 Monday & Saturday mornings at 7:50 am and Fridays at 3:50 pm; he also commentates on sports 7-8 pm on Almanac (TPT channel 2).
Larry welcomes reader responses to lfitzgerald@spokesman-re corder.com, or visit www.Larry-Fitzgerald.com.
