Tubby Smith majored in health and education at High Point College in North Carolina. I would have guessed his major was psychology. Smith seems like the best head doctor the Gophers have ever had for building confidence in his players.
The Smith way is to let everyone play, even those players who fill the lower end of the roster. The coach’s mantra is to green light players who have open shots; even those who make fans bite their nails when they cast a ball toward the hoop.
Make no mistake, Smith is a demanding coach but he doesn’t scream at his players on the raised floor at Williams Arena and elsewhere. At post-game news conferences he doesn’t rip his players like a courtroom attorney savaging an insurance company.
Such psychology has improved a team that was 9-22 overall last season, 3-13 in the Big Ten Conference. The Gophers are 12-5, 2-3 in the conference today and are a better team with much of the same personnel as last season.
The University might have bestowed an honorary doctorate degree in psychology on Smith, had his Gophers pulled off upsets last Thursday and Sunday against nationally ranked Indiana and Michigan State. There were no victories, though, as the Gophers lost two games by five points each.
Gopher senior guard Lawrence McKenzie believes the team has more confidence now that they can play with quality teams. “We don’t really think about moral victories,” he said on Sunday. “They’re highly ranked teams and we were right there, and we felt we could have won them, but that just shows you we’re a good team, too. …”
Senior center Spencer Tollackson was 0-7 from the foul line in the Indiana game and felt bad about disappointing Smith. “It’s just kind of sickening that I can’t produce the way that he wants and wishes I could,” he said last week. “It’s really hard for me to say that but I mean you can’t come away empty. Like you can’t throw it in and then get fouled and not get a point. … “
What’s next for the Gophers are road games at Ohio State on Saturday, then at Michigan on January 31. The Gophers have lost two straight games for the first time under Smith and the Buckeyes, 3-2 in the Big Ten, will be a formidable assignment. But then Smith said on Sunday that “we play pretty well on the road.”
There’s that confidence again.