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.”

Sports Illustrated’s baseball preview issue picks the Twins for a fourth place finish in the AL Central Division.  The magazine has Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago ahead of the Twins who were ranked as the 17^th best team in the major leagues.  SI’s top five teams: New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels, Boston, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets. 

Both the Yankees and Red Sox make their only visits to Minneapolis early in the season. The Yankees are here April 9-11 while the Red Sox series is May 4-6.  As of yesterday morning ticket sales were about 60,000 tickets for the Yankees series and 70,000 for the Red Sox. 

Viking head coach Brad Childress visited coaching legend Murray Warmath, 94, at his residence last week.  “Where do I sign up for 94?” Childress asked.  He brought Warmath a Viking sweatshirt and visited with him for about two hours.  Warmath was head coach of the Gophers from 1954-1971 and worked for the Vikings following his college career as an assistant coach and scout. 

ESPN.com listed the best teams that never went to the Super Bowl.  The 1998 Vikings, who scored an NFL record 556 points, ranked No. 1.  The Vikings, 15-1 during the regular season, were upset by Atlanta in a home playoff game that could have sent the franchise to the Super Bowl for a fifth time. 

Cole Aldrich of Bloomington Jefferson High School, bound for Kansas, was the only Minnesotan playing in Wednesday night’s McDonald’s All-American Game in Louisville.   Aldrich is one of five finalists for the state’s Mr. Basketball Award.  The others are Noah Dahlman of Braham, Blake Hoffarber of Hopkins, Trevor Mbawke of St. Bernard’s and Alex Rubin of Armstrong.  The winner will be announced on April 29.  

Jai Lucas, who also played in the McDonald’s game, hasn’t made a college choice and was considering Kentucky and Tubby Smith earlier this year.  A true point guard, Lucas would probably help the Gophers win several more games next season if he comes to Minnesota.  Lucas is from Bellaire, Texas and is the son of former NBA star John Lucas.

Al Nuness, a former Gopher player and assistant coach, says Tubby Smith is Minnesota’s best basketball coaching hire in his lifetime.  KFAN’s Dan Barreiro, often an outspoken critic and never a homer, rated the Smith hire a “B+” on his radio program yesterday.  Fans e-mailed Sports Headliners to say they don’t know how athletic director Joel Maturi attracted Smith but they love the move. 

Nationally, Dick Vitale told America last night on ESPN that the Smith hire is a “home run, a grand slam” for Minnesota.  Respected basketball author John Feinstein told Barriero’s audience that Smith was a “very good coach.”  ESPN’s Andy Katz gave the hire perspective saying that Smith was tired of the second guessing and scrutiny in Kentucky. 

Nuness, who captained the Gophers in the late 1960’s and later was an assistant coach under Bill Musselman, said Smith is a top 10 coach.  He praised Smith’s ability to teach and coach.   “My hat is off to Joel Maturi,” Nuness said. “I don’t know how he pulled this off.” 

Nuness, an executive with Jostens, has met Smith and followed his career.  As the first African-American coach at Kentucky, Smith has been subjected to racial abuse and other irrational slurs.  “He got tired of having garbage and for sale signs placed on his lawn,” Nuness said. 

With a national reputation that includes 10 years at Kentucky and an NCAA title, Smith brings a more glamorous resume here than perhaps any local coach or manager in memory.  Whether he can maintain his image will ultimately be mostly determined by wins and losses. 

His recruiting was criticized in recent years at Kentucky but Nuness said Smith has long been known as a good recruiter and the effectiveness of that task will also be determined by his assistant coaches.  Nuness suggested Smith’s recent recruiting results may have been lessened by speculation that he wasn’t going to remain Kentucky’s coach. 

At age 55 does Smith have the energy to turn the Gophers into Big Ten Conference champions?  Nuness suggests it’s not a problem, rattling off the names of older coaches you may have heard of including Lute Olson of Arizona, Jim Calhoun of Connecticut and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse. 

For anyone out there in Tubbyville who may not have heard the names, those guys have long been considered top 10 coaches, too.