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.