The Tubby Smith Principle

Tubby Smith (Photo credit: rburtzel)

Maybe you've heard of the Peter Principle, where in business the farther you go in your profession, the higher your level of incompetency becomes.  Or something like that.  Which is why so many CEO's who ran their corporations into the ground got nice, fat paychecks on their way out the door.

Tubby Smith, the University of Minnesota men's basketball coach, is working on a similar philosophy.  Having once coached a national championship team at Kentucky, Smith was hired to turn around a moribund program mired in scandal.  Since then, he's been running on the fumes of his past reputation.  In his six years of sideline pacing at Williams Arena, the Gophers have made two NCAA tournament appearances and almost as many in the National Invitation Tournament.

This season, Smith and the Gophers will make their third appearance into what the NCAA (and CBS) calls "March Madness".  They will play UCLA Friday night in the South regionals at Austin, Texas.  (It will be televised on a cable channel called truTV, the home of "Hardcore Pawn", "Lizard Lick Towing" and "Full Throttle Saloon".   They're one of the networks involved in the NCAA's current TV deal with CBS and Turner Sports.)

It's an amazing feat, given that the Gophers have lost 11 of their last 16 games, mostly in Big Ten conference play.  They have a 20-12 overall record, with their league record at 8-10.  But the committee that decides which teams get in the tournament figured that the Gophers, with their stellar non-conference wins against teams like Northwest Podunk State and "quality wins" over the likes of Indiana and Wisconsin at home was good enough to get in, even if nobody else believes that.

During their long Big Ten tailspin, the Gophers played uninspired basketball--blowing leads, losing by double digits to teams they should have beaten, etc.  Fans and local hoops pundits, seeing that their coach is losing his ability to lead his players, have been calling for Smith to resign or get fired.

Presumably, this is not the way seniors Rodney Williams and Trevor Mbakwe envisioned the end of their college basketball careers.

Seven Big Ten teams, including Minnesota, have been invited to play in the NCAA tournament.  This is either a comment on the strength of the conference this season, or the weakness of the rest of the field, or both.  Defending champion Kentucky, whose five starters last year left en masse for the NBA, isn't here this year.

Meanwhile, Tubby Smith has done his part.  He's gotten the Gophers into another post-season tournament, and has earned $100,000 just for showing up.  Unless the team makes it past the first round, the university bigwigs will no doubt be under pressure to release Smith from his contract, which could be much costlier than keeping him.  That means Smith will have reached his level of incompetency--and would be paid handsomely for it.  Just like any corporate CEO.

UPDATE:  Let the buyout begin.  Smith was let go Monday after going 1-1 in the NCAA tournament, beating UCLA and losing to Florida.  We can't say we're surprised, because we're not.   Smith leaves behind a 124-81 overall record over a six-year period, but 46-62 in the Big Ten.  He's still a respected coach nationally, but now he'll have to earn that someplace else if he wants to.  Virginia Commonwealth coach Shaka Smart and former Gopher player and Wolves coach Flip Saunders are considered the early favorites to replace Smith.

UPDATE#2:  After Smart, Saunders and others turned down the Gophers, the best they could come up with was Richard Pitino, who last coached at Florida International.  That's Richard, not Rick.  He's the son of the Louisville coach whose team is in the NCAA Final Four.  Obviously, the U of M thinks the old Pitino magic could rub off on their struggling basketball program.  Next thing you know, ESPN and CBS will want to schedule a father-son matchup between the Pitinos.  As for Tubby Smith, he's landed on his feet as the new coach at Texas Tech.