Yesterday was par for the course in the land of Gophers basketball. The squad earned a not-pretty-but-gritty win over Illinois by 23 points, defeating the Big Ten contender after 20 consecutive defeats over close to 10 years. The man they call Tubby has (predictably) straightened the ship after a two-game losing streak and now has the lads 18-3 and humming along again to a likely NCAA tournament berth. He’s created a fan expectation of good coaching and a stout defensive effort in every game — hallmarks that were, not coincidentally, also absent for about a decade. To balance out this equation, however, comes the flip side of the Tubby ritual: his name being mentioned in association with every halfway-decent coaching job available. In this case, it was Georgia — one of his previous coaching stints — and a columnist suggesting Bulldogs AD Damon Evans should give Smith a call after axing Dennis Felton on Thursday. It will be inconvenient, at the very least, for Tubby to next year simultaneously coach Georgia, Arizona, Alabama and perhaps Maryland or any other BCS school that fires a coach this season.

Is he in it for the long haul at Minnesota? Who knows. What we do know is that the outside-the-state superiority complex that leads to the insinuation that he should want to leave Minnesota as soon as possible, combined with the inside-the-state inferiority complex that wonders at every turn just how long we’ll be able to keep our best and brightest coaches and athletes — well, let’s just say we’ve had enough of both.

All together now: there is nothing wrong with Minnesota as a place to live, play sports or coach them for a living. Are there better places to live, work and play? Depends on who you are and who you ask. Is a gig at Alabama or Georgia any better than the Minnesota head basketball coach job? A laughable question and an emphatic “no.” What about Arizona or Maryland? Depends on who you ask and what you are after. Is Minnesota for everybody? No. (See: Stephon Marbury). Will some coaches inevitably use a Gophers job as a stepping stone? Yes. (See: Lou Holtz). Do we inevitably lose every great athlete? Kevin Garnett — had him for 12 years. David Ortiz — didn’t want him. Johan Santana — didn’t want to be here anymore. Torii Hunter — had him for a decade, let him walk at the right time. Justin Morneau — still here. Joe Mauer — still here. Adrian Peterson — still here. Kirby Puckett — Twin for life. Randy Moss — didn’t want him. Marian Gaborik — been here 8 years, future TBA.

Point being: cut the inferiority complex. Stop believing it’s just an accident when something good happens and that it will inevitably come crashing down. Get excited that every Gophers victory thrusts them further into national prominence and stop fretting that every win nudges Tubby Smith closer to the door. It only feeds an outsider’s perception that they, for whatever reason, have more to offer than we do. In most cases, it just isn’t true.

Fasola-link! Super Bowl Madden-libs.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 9:22 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.