Why do rumors keep occurring about Tubby Smith leaving the University of Minnesota?
Smith has been the Gophers coach for three seasons and linking his name to possible head coaching basketball jobs at other schools is commonplace. Awhile back Smith was rumored to be a possibility for the Virginia and Maryland jobs. In December of last year it was North Carolina State. Last week it was Oregon and Auburn.
Why? Former Gophers coach Jim Dutcher offered an explanation. The college basketball landscape has a handful of high profile coaches including Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, Florida’s Billy Donovan and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim. Smith is in the conversation when power coaches are mentioned but unlike most he’s shown a willingness to change jobs. “He’s the only one who has shown a propensity to move,” Dutcher told Sports Headliners.
Smith left Kentucky to come here after 10 seasons. Before that he was at Tulsa for four years and Georgia for two.
There’s something else, too, and it’s a mindset nationally that Minnesota isn’t a job deserving enough to retain a power coach. The stepping stone attitude says the best coaches earn the right to be at the programs with the most resources, whether defined by player talent, facilities or compensation.
Does Dutcher believe Smith will stay at Minnesota? “Short term he’s staying here,” Dutcher said. “I wouldn’t want to guess whether he’s here five years from now.”
Dutcher hesitates on the five years for reasons that might not be so obvious. Dutcher, whose winning Gopher teams included a Big Ten champion in 1982, grew up in Michigan and was an assistant coach for the University of Michigan before coming here. He never wanted to leave Minnesota. This was home, a place he and his wife liked. Their four children graduated from the University of Minnesota.
Home for Smith growing up was Maryland and his career stops have included Kentucky and Georgia. Those places are a different culture than the Midwest. Weather is different, too. Dutcher remembers power coaches who left the Big Ten even though they had success in the Midwest. Gary Williams dumped Ohio State for Maryland, Bill Self went from Illinois to Kansas and years ago Midwesterner Lute Olson and his wife decided the weather and other factors in Arizona were more attractive than Iowa.
“You see it all the time where sometimes Big Ten jobs aren’t, in their view, the ultimate jobs,” said Dutcher who believes that decisions to relocate are often based on family as well as coaching considerations.