Bob CollinsSeveral reports, mostly citing CBS sports (update: now confirmed by WCCO’s Mark Rosen), say Tubby Smith has been fired by the University of Minnesota as men’s basketball coach.
The Gophers season went the way many Gopher sports’ (men’s) seasons go: Win enough games early to get people to believe, crash and burn in the Big 10, leave people calling for a coach’s head to distract from their own massive self-loathing for taking the bait again.
Between last week’s first-round NCAA win against UCLA (which got its coach fired) and the last non-cheating tournament win, 23 years elapsed.
Part of the problem — actually the problem is enough good high school basketball players don’t want to go to the University of Minnesota. Why would they?
And college basketball is merely a quick stop now anyway so even if Minnesota were to attract great talent, they would only be here for a year before going to the NBA, where we would continually target them for leaving beloved Minnesota.
The U of M already has the worst graduation rates in the Big 10 for basketball (source).
| Basketball Graduation Rates: Big Ten | |
|---|---|
| Illinois | 100% |
| Penn St. | 90% |
| Michigan St. | 82% |
| Northwestern | 80% |
| Nebraska | 75% |
| Iowa | 73% |
| Ohio St. | 57% |
| Purdue | 50% |
| Wisconsin | 50% |
| Indiana | 47% |
| Michigan | 45% |
| Minnesota | 43% |
| Bottom 10 Basketball Grad Rates: Major Programs | ||
|---|---|---|
| Connecticut | 25% | |
| Arkansas | 25% | |
| Georgia Tech | 27% | |
| Mississippi St. | 27% | |
| Auburn | 29% | |
| Cal | 33% | |
| Florida | 38% | |
| USC | 38% | |
| Tennessee | 40% | |
| Arizona | 43% | |
| Colorado | 43% | |
| Georgia | 43% | |
| Minnesota | 43% | |
| Temple | 43% | |
This is an open thread. Go ahead, make the argument below to a good basketball player on why they should want to play at the U.
