Mahatma Gandhi played an important role in India, achieving independence from England. His philosophy of non-violence brought India freedom and inspired other movements throughout the world, giving form to civil disobedience. A man of the ages, he was known as Teacher, or Great Soul. A popular description of his teaching is passive resistence. It’s hard to realize it’s been 60 years since his death.
You would think Gandhi’s philosophy would not be a good idea in a sports situation. However, I saw Tubby Smith’s Gopher basketball team employ it on defense a few times when they lost to Northwestern, the No. 8 team in the conference, by 10 points.
It was hard to remember our Gophers were once considered a solid top-20 team. While watching recent games, it seemed that without point guard Al Nolan, they had lost their confidence as the defeats mounted game by game. With that, they also lost some of their ability to be aggressive on defense or offense.
There has been some concern over Tubby Smith’s coaching. Why did players leave his program? Is he recruiting well? Why haven’t certain members of the team improved? Granted, Smith’s recruiting is not his strength. If it was, he probably would not have been urged to leave his previous team. However, his recruitment years in Minnesota have twice been ranked in the top 25. Also people have to realize that the Minnesota program, while a major, is not considered an elite one. It’s not Duke, Michigan St. or North Carolina and the prospects out there know that.
Why haven’t Colton Iverson and Ralph Sampson III improved more since their freshman year? Tubby could use a big man coach. Maybe he could ask ex-Gopher coach Jim Dutcher to lend a hand.
Players left, but they left for a variety of reasons. One, Justin Cobbs went to Cal because he wasn’t getting enough playing time. He sure would have gotten plenty this year. Another left to be with his very ill sister, another because Tubby’s rules were not to his liking. One question was why did Tubby keep running the same offense even after Nolan was injured? Why not run the ball into the middle with the biggest guys in the Big Ten manning the interior? I don’t know, but perhaps it was because Tubby still felt it was the appropriate offense and then too, it would have been very difficult to change the system with just 10 games left. If he had tried the unfamiliar, perhaps the team would have had a complete collapse. So whatever could go wrong, went wrong. It all came together in a "Perfect Storm."
I think the best thing you can say about Tubby Smith and the team is that the season is finally over and let’s look forward to next year and believe that Tubby and his players are going to work very hard in order to not repeat this year.
One quick note about the Minnesota Twins. Things are looking up. Delmon Young’s "turf toe" is better. Justin Morneau is happy and following doctor’s orders with success. Joe Mauer is being Joe Mauer Nobody is worried about his not playing in Spring Training, because we all remember what happened in 2009 when he missed the early part of the season and won the American League MVP award.
However, do you notice how little has been said about the team’s middle relief? It could be that the middle relievers are being hit hard and the Twins are a little worried. Other than that, all looks well.
