As one of three Black coaches to win an NCAA national basketball championship, the University of Minnesota’s Tubby Smith is certainly high-profile. He’s already a legend. The exuberant Smith is just the fifth coach in NCAA history to pull off the rare feat of leading four teams (Tulsa, Georgia, Kentucky and Minnesota) to the NCAA Tournament.
Everyone remembers 1998 when Smith won the national title with a Kentucky team that did not have an All-American or future NBA lottery pick on the roster. Entering his 20th season, Smith ranks among the college game’s elites with 467 wins (20th among active coaches), which translates to a scintillating .702 winning percentage.
Since his arrival in Minneapolis five years ago, the Minnesota Gophers have won their share of games. But they haven’t won the Big Ten Conference or advanced to the NCAA Final Four.
If the first half of last season is any indication, good things could be in store.
Minnesota won 16 of its first 20 games and was ranked as high as 15th in the national polls. But then, mounting injuries and the loss of a key player who transferred caused Tubby’s team to implode. The Gophers nosedived and lost 10 of their last 11 games. They did finish above the breakeven point at 17-14, but it wasn’t enough to earn a post-season bid.
For the first time in 17 years, Tubby Smith coached a team that failed to win at least 20 games.
Smith, however, had other concerns besides wins and losses. A few months ago, he announced that he had a cancerous tumor removed from his prostate in the spring. The venerable coach is cancer-free and eager to make amends for last season’s dismal finish.
