Football season ended in December, Basketball season ended this past weekend and now we enter the season of Tubby Smith to a new school season. I'm starting to get annoyed that nobody in the national media or the NCAA basketball community believes that Minnesota deserves Tubby Smith. We cannot be a destination job. We are just not good enough that a coach like Tubby Smith would stay here.
I am fully aware that this is not an elite job. But the notion that Auburn or Virginia or Alabama or Oregon are significantly better jobs is offensive to me because they are lateral moves. In some ways they are better jobs and in other ways they are not. But really...is the Gopher job so miserable that as soon as another BCS job opens up Tubby is the most logical candidate? This is a Big Ten job.
I know in this business coaches leave all the time and leave their recruited players behind. But Tubby has been down that road and he isn't going to be leaving for the sake of leaving. This is going to happen every single year as long at Coach Smith is here. Maybe it doesn't bother anybody else, but it annoys me.
- Now that my rant is done, time for HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TO JAYSON NESS! The Gopher wrestler finished his season undefeated and a National Champion! Ness was also named the NWCA Outstanding Wrestler of the Championships. The four-time All-American had an outstanding Gopher career.
- YAY, the Twins signed Joe Mauer. The real question will be if they'll be able to field a competitive roster over the next few years with Mauer eating up a huge portion of their payroll. Be sure to check out Twinkie Town for the coverage and analysis.
- The New York Times has an interesting article on the firing of St. john's fired coach Norm Roberts. Roberts is accused of doing things the right way and not getting caught in the game of bending the rules when it comes to recruiting. A good and quick read that is worth the time.
- If true, this rumor found on GopherIllustrated message boards is hilarious. Supposedly the Cornell band started playing the Minnesota Rouser as they were routing the Badgers on Sunday.
- KARE11 is reporting that the TCF Booze Bankare11.com | Twin Cities, MN | Lifting booze ban at the Bank? may be on the table in the upcoming legislature.
- I enjoyed seeing the Big East struggle mightily on the first day and it continued through the second round. Eight teams made the Big Dance, two remain. Three-fifths of the Big Ten remain