Tubby Smith won nearly 75 percent of his games during 16 years as a head coach at Kentucky, Georgia and Tulsa. His resume includes 14 consecutive 20 win seasons and 14 straight NCAA tournament appearances. Can he soon duplicate that success at Minnesota?
The answer will have much to do with the answers to two other questions? At age 55 will the new Gopher coach approach his work with similar energy as in the past? Can Smith recruit effectively at Minnesota?
Tom Wistrcill, Minnesota associate athletics director, assisted athletic director Joel Maturi with the basketball coaching search. Wistrcill was asked whether there are any concerns about Smith’s energy? “Absolutely not,” he answered. “If you know how to build a program and produce a winner, you know how to do it, and he knows how to do it. He’s done it over and over and over, and he’s going to do it again here at Minnesota.”
A frequent rant at Kentucky was that Smith and his staff haven’t recently recruited top 25 high school players. “We think recruiting goes in cycles,” Wistrcill said. “When you aim big, you’re going to win some and lose some. He’s obviously still put out a very good product. He’s got great players at Kentucky. The rankings that go out with players, you can’t always put a lot of credence into those.
“It (the rankings) really wasn’t a factor for us. When you look at his total body of work and his years of success, it’s basically second to none. You know, that’s what you look at. You just don’t take a picture of one year.”
Wistrcill, who expects Smith will recruit all over the country, couldn’t be more enthused about the hire. He said the search process began with Detroit coach Flip Saunders but the former Gopher’s commitment to the Pistons ruled out coming home. Wistrcill also said that when Smith became a possibility for the job he was Minnesota’s “No. 1 target.”
“He (Smith) was the only finalist for the job,” Wistrcill said. “He was the only one that was interviewed and when we had an opportunity to grab a guy of his caliber, we’re going to grab him.”