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[User Name:]

Tubby Smith was fired from Minnesota today.

Tubby Smith:

2007–2008 Minnesota 20–14 8–10 6th NIT 1st Round
2008–2009 Minnesota 22–11 9–9 T–7th NCAA 1st Round
2009–2010 Minnesota 21–14 9–9 6th NCAA 1st Round
2010–2011 Minnesota 17–14 6–12 9th
2011–2012 Minnesota 23–15 6–12 T–9th NIT Runner-up
2012–2013 Minnesota 21–13 8–10 T–7th NCAA 3rd Round


Minnesota does not stand for mediocrity or just NCAA appearances.

Last year I gave Mick tons of credit for handling the situation of the fight and turning the season around. UC was arguably one of the most dangerous teams in the tournament come March. Mick did a phenominal job. Because of that and bringing the program back from death, he has earned my support

This year, however, I think was a disappointment. This was supposed to be our year to go deep. Yes losing Gates was a big loss but we had nearly everyone returning. 9-9 in conference play is unacceptable. The play in the last 1.5 months was unacceptable. The offense was unacceptable

Now I'm not advocating Mick be fired. However, this was an underachieving year with the talent we had. Preseason top 25, ranked top 10 at one point and a 2nd half collapse.

Why are we happy with just making the NCAA tournament when we had such talent returning?

 

[Scheids21]

I agree with everything you said though I'm not sure who you think is happy we just made the NCAA tournament this year. I would say pretty much everyone is disappointed with this season and I can guarantee Mick is one of those people.

Until we make some deep runs, there will always be talk that Mick has taken us as far as he can; only time will tell.

 

[ralph1950]

Tubby Smith was fired from Minnesota today.

Tubby Smith:

2007–2008 Minnesota 20–14 8–10 6th NIT 1st Round
2008–2009 Minnesota 22–11 9–9 T–7th NCAA 1st Round
2009–2010 Minnesota 21–14 9–9 6th NCAA 1st Round
2010–2011 Minnesota 17–14 6–12 9th
2011–2012 Minnesota 23–15 6–12 T–9th NIT Runner-up
2012–2013 Minnesota 21–13 8–10 T–7th NCAA 3rd Round


Minnesota does not stand for mediocrity or just NCAA appearances.

Last year I gave Mick tons of credit for handling the situation of the fight and turning the season around. UC was arguably one of the most dangerous teams in the tournament come March. Mick did a phenominal job. Because of that and bringing the program back from death, he has earned my support

This year, however, I think was a disappointment. This was supposed to be our year to go deep. Yes losing Gates was a big loss but we had nearly everyone returning. 9-9 in conference play is unacceptable. The play in the last 1.5 months was unacceptable. The offense was unacceptable

Now I'm not advocating Mick be fired. However, this was an underachieving year with the talent we had. Preseason top 25, ranked top 10 at one point and a 2nd half collapse.

Why are we happy with just making the NCAA tournament when we had such talent returning?

The team overachieved this year, especially pre conference. The team had no inside game, and the perimeter players were not great shooters. The team won on defense as there was no other way this team was going to win.

Pre season rankings are meaningless, Kentucky was ranked # 3 pre season even though they lost 5 guys to the NBA and had unproven freshman coming in, how did that turn out?

 

[Cpaw]

Would you be happy with this??

2004–2005 19–13 NIT Quarterfinals
2005–2006 23–10 NCAA Sweet 16
2006–2007 30–7 NCAA Final Four
2007–2008 28–6 NCAA 2nd Round
2008–2009 16–15 NIT 1st Round
2009–2010 23–11 NCAA 1st Round
2010–2011 21–11 NCAA 1st Round
2011–2012 24–8 NCAA 2nd Round
2012–2013 24–5 NCAA 1st Round


This is Georgetown, JT III.

 

[UCBearcats]

Would you be happy with this??

2004–2005 19–13 NIT Quarterfinals
2005–2006 23–10 NCAA Sweet 16
2006–2007 30–7 NCAA Final Four
2007–2008 28–6 NCAA 2nd Round
2008–2009 16–15 NIT 1st Round
2009–2010 23–11 NCAA 1st Round
2010–2011 21–11 NCAA 1st Round
2011–2012 24–8 NCAA 2nd Round
2012–2013 24–5 NCAA 1st Round


This is Georgetown, JT III.

I wouldn't be thrilled, and I don't think a lot of G'Town fans are right now either. It's a different scenario though, JT III is the son of a legendary coach which gives him a little more leeway. He did make a final 4, granted it was largely with someone else's players but he continues to pull in top classes year in and year out. The pill that's really tough to swallow right now for G'Town fans isn't just the losses but the fact that they've lost 5 consecutive NCAA games to double digit seeds.

Because of who he is JT III will get the benefit of the doubt and I fully expect G'Town to be one of the teams that dominates the new Big East so that will help him. If this streak of getting bounced early continues for a couple of more years his seat might be getting a little warm.

 

[Bearcat04]

Tubby Smith was fired from Minnesota today.

Tubby Smith:

2007–2008 Minnesota 20–14 8–10 6th NIT 1st Round
2008–2009 Minnesota 22–11 9–9 T–7th NCAA 1st Round
2009–2010 Minnesota 21–14 9–9 6th NCAA 1st Round
2010–2011 Minnesota 17–14 6–12 9th
2011–2012 Minnesota 23–15 6–12 T–9th NIT Runner-up
2012–2013 Minnesota 21–13 8–10 T–7th NCAA 3rd Round


Minnesota does not stand for mediocrity or just NCAA appearances.

Last year I gave Mick tons of credit for handling the situation of the fight and turning the season around. UC was arguably one of the most dangerous teams in the tournament come March. Mick did a phenominal job. Because of that and bringing the program back from death, he has earned my support

This year, however, I think was a disappointment. This was supposed to be our year to go deep. Yes losing Gates was a big loss but we had nearly everyone returning. 9-9 in conference play is unacceptable. The play in the last 1.5 months was unacceptable. The offense was unacceptable

Now I'm not advocating Mick be fired. However, this was an underachieving year with the talent we had. Preseason top 25, ranked top 10 at one point and a 2nd half collapse.

Why are we happy with just making the NCAA tournament when we had such talent returning?

Who is happy with just making the tournament? Noting that it's the third year in a row is completely different than saying the season was a success. The fans that don't think this was a disappointing season are in the minority.

 

[westsidecat]

Tubby Smith was fired from Minnesota today.

Tubby Smith:

2007–2008 Minnesota 20–14 8–10 6th NIT 1st Round
2008–2009 Minnesota 22–11 9–9 T–7th NCAA 1st Round
2009–2010 Minnesota 21–14 9–9 6th NCAA 1st Round
2010–2011 Minnesota 17–14 6–12 9th
2011–2012 Minnesota 23–15 6–12 T–9th NIT Runner-up
2012–2013 Minnesota 21–13 8–10 T–7th NCAA 3rd Round


Minnesota does not stand for mediocrity or just NCAA appearances.

Last year I gave Mick tons of credit for handling the situation of the fight and turning the season around. UC was arguably one of the most dangerous teams in the tournament come March. Mick did a phenominal job. Because of that and bringing the program back from death, he has earned my support

This year, however, I think was a disappointment. This was supposed to be our year to go deep. Yes losing Gates was a big loss but we had nearly everyone returning. 9-9 in conference play is unacceptable. The play in the last 1.5 months was unacceptable. The offense was unacceptable

Now I'm not advocating Mick be fired. However, this was an underachieving year with the talent we had. Preseason top 25, ranked top 10 at one point and a 2nd half collapse.

Why are we happy with just making the NCAA tournament when we had such talent returning?

i agree with most of your post but don't understand the whole talent thing.

we had 1 second team all b e member, zero nba prospect, 2 four star players, then the rest. i'm more upset because of the experience we had returning vs talent.

 

[Amberlycolonel]

i agree with most of your post but don't understand the whole talent thing.

we had 1 second team all b e member, zero nba prospect, 2 four star players, then the rest. i'm more upset because of the experience we had returning vs talent.

Give Mick a break. He took over a mess that no one wanted. Isn't this the party line when Mick is attacked lol?

 

[CaptDale]

Tubby Smith was fired from Minnesota today.

Tubby Smith:

2007–2008 Minnesota 20–14 8–10 6th NIT 1st Round
2008–2009 Minnesota 22–11 9–9 T–7th NCAA 1st Round
2009–2010 Minnesota 21–14 9–9 6th NCAA 1st Round
2010–2011 Minnesota 17–14 6–12 9th
2011–2012 Minnesota 23–15 6–12 T–9th NIT Runner-up
2012–2013 Minnesota 21–13 8–10 T–7th NCAA 3rd Round


Minnesota does not stand for mediocrity or just NCAA appearances.

Last year I gave Mick tons of credit for handling the situation of the fight and turning the season around. UC was arguably one of the most dangerous teams in the tournament come March. Mick did a phenominal job. Because of that and bringing the program back from death, he has earned my support

This year, however, I think was a disappointment. This was supposed to be our year to go deep. Yes losing Gates was a big loss but we had nearly everyone returning. 9-9 in conference play is unacceptable. The play in the last 1.5 months was unacceptable. The offense was unacceptable

Now I'm not advocating Mick be fired. However, this was an underachieving year with the talent we had. Preseason top 25, ranked top 10 at one point and a 2nd half collapse.

Why are we happy with just making the NCAA tournament when we had such talent returning?

May sound funny coming from me, but I disagree with that statement. Considering we had no offensive presence in the paint, we actually did pretty well and achieved about what I thought we would. Cheikh was a good shot blocker with virtually no points to contribute. When you take the blocks average, it was really a miniscule part of our defense except maybe a little intimidation factor. He wasn't on the floor that much (21 min). So 3 on 5 we played decent with a few exceptions. Our shooting percentages were abysmal. The tight D kept us from being embarrassed too many times. You need a 5 man team on the floor.L-T said our passing was bad. He's right. There are drills for stuff like that. Guess they weren't taught(?) Watch these sweet 16 teams pass the ball. Why are they better? Too bad Davidson threw it away on the last play of the Marquette game. They really passed the ball well.

 

[Scheids21]

We may not have had incredible talent, but we had tons of experience. Obviously we lacked a post presence, but we were told that we would be running so much that it would not matter. We were told that our back court was so strong that it could cover up for our mediocre big men.

The truth is that a lot of this team's expectations were set by Mick Cronin. The reason the fan base was expecting his best team yet is because he told us this was his best team yet. Unfortunately, they did not live up to those expectations, no matter how realistic or unrealistic they were. Simply put, it was disappointing because they didn't achieve close to what most, including the coach, thought was possible and I am sure Cronin knows this.

 

[westsidecat]

Give Mick a break. He took over a mess that no one wanted. Isn't this the party line when Mick is attacked lol?

i'm not a mick hater or mick lover.

yes he did take over a mess and deserves credit for rebuilding the program. he also created this mess of a season and deserves responsibility for it.

 

[TheLongHaul]

I agree this year was a disappointment but I never thought this was a year where they should have been expected to go deep. And I think I even said this much at the beginning of the year when people were foolishly talking about final four runs. I still expected better scoring when returning three veteran guards but I expected them to struggle inside. I also expected them to try to make up for the loss of Yancy by being an uptempo team which never happened.

BTW, did anyone else hear Mick say prior to the Creighton game that everyone has the teams mixed in terms of tempo and it is UC that tries to push the ball each possession? I almost crapped my pants when I heard that. Now I'm not saying Creighton is an uptempo team but to say UC is and that they push the ball every chance they get is laughable. I think Mick needs to think long and hard what he wants his style to be. He says he wants it to be fast paced, run and gun, etc but he ends up playing totally different. He needs to just figure it out and recruit and coach to whatever philosophy it is. I think he is ultimately kidding himself. I'm guessing he wants to run a fun style offense but deep down he either doesn't know how to or is too afraid of giving up a little on defense and turnovers.

 

[Amberlycolonel]

i'm not a mick hater or mick lover.

yes he did take over a mess and deserves credit for rebuilding the program. he also created this mess of a season and deserves responsibility for it.

There is it lol.

 

[L-T]

May sound funny coming from me, but I disagree with that statement. Considering we had no offensive presence in the paint, we actually did pretty well and achieved about what I thought we would. Cheikh was a good shot blocker with virtually no points to contribute. When you take the blocks average, it was really a miniscule part of our defense except maybe a little intimidation factor. He wasn't on the floor that much (21 min). So 3 on 5 we played decent with a few exceptions. Our shooting percentages were abysmal. The tight D kept us from being embarrassed too many times. You need a 5 man team on the floor.L-T said our passing was bad. He's right. There are drills for stuff like that. Guess they weren't taught(?) Watch these sweet 16 teams pass the ball. Why are they better? Too bad Davidson threw it away on the last play of the Marquette game. They really passed the ball well.

Our team was fundamentally abysmal...but they could defend. Our head coach is the coach of the offense and the defense and the recruiting. He's responsible for all three, so if the talent was lacking, he's responsible. If the offense was abysmal and the fundamentals were lacking, he's responsible. If the defense was amazing, he's responsible. In my mind, he failed in two-thirds of the job, and got an A in the other third. His scheduling has been the subject of ridicule for most of the time he has been here, even though this year was a little better.

I think he has us in a difficult situation in the short term because our offense doesn't have any obvious answers next year, and we're losing 60% of our really good defensive starters. If he is the coach everyone on here says he is, he'll overcome what to me looks like trouble. His recruiting was at least ranked around 25th, so that is promising. He better hope there are some diamonds in the rough in that class, because we can't afford to wait on these guys to develop. We need help now!

 

[westsidecat]

Our team was fundamentally abysmal...but they could defend. Our head coach is the coach of the offense and the defense and the recruiting. He's responsible for all three, so if the talent was lacking, he's responsible. If the offense was abysmal and the fundamentals were lacking, he's responsible. If the defense was amazing, he's responsible. In my mind, he failed in two-thirds of the job, and got an A in the other third. His scheduling has been the subject of ridicule for most of the time he has been here, even though this year was a little better.

I think he has us in a difficult situation in the short term because our offense doesn't have any obvious answers next year, and we're losing 60% of our really good defensive starters. If he is the coach everyone on here says he is, he'll overcome what to me looks like trouble. His recruiting was at least ranked around 25th, so that is promising. He better hope there are some diamonds in the rough in that class, because we can't afford to wait on these guys to develop. We need help now!

agree about this class comments. everyone thinks this class will bring all the answers with it. outside of lawrence, who gonna provide the instant impact?

mick's best class was in 2007 that was ranked 15th by rivals. i highly doubt the 13 class will be ranked higher. everyone wants to say tony can do this, strickland will be a beast, ect, ect. it's a nice class but it won't push uc to the next level.

 

[CPAW29]

agree about this class comments. everyone thinks this class will bring all the answers with it. outside of lawrence, who gonna provide the instant impact?

mick's best class was in 2007 that was ranked 15th by rivals. i highly doubt the 13 class will be ranked higher. everyone wants to say tony can do this, strickland will be a beast, ect, ect. it's a nice class but it won't push uc to the next level.

on paper this class coming in is a upgrade over what where losing imo. I will miss cash and parker but I feel thomas and davis can fill there rolls. sprinkle in some of the new class and I think there a little better especially with depth and more athleticism

 

[bearcat jeff]

People nationally don't have a clue what facilities UC has (which are pretty darn good) or what budget UC has....That said their class next year looks pretty good so hopefully UC/Cronin can build off of it.

That's just wrong. They do know and that's part of why they respect him. I have heard it talked about. It was talked about during the BEast tournament last year (how he had the next to last budget) in BEast.

 

[JasonS]

That's just wrong. They do know and that's part of why they respect him. I have heard it talked about. It was talked about during the BEast tournament last year (how he had the next to last budget) in BEast.

This is true and he is well regarded as a program builder around the country.

 

[JasonS]

Let me just say this regarding Mick and the program:

1. I like Mick a lot and think he is a fantastic young coach who will continue to grow and will lead UC to great success.

2. The offense this year wasn't good. Not having a big man to throw the ball inside to really hurt. I think Mick thought he was going to get a little more from Mbodj and Justin on the block but it never materialized. It is extremely difficult to run an offense without an inside presence. Defenses pushed out on the guards as a result making it extremely difficult to get open looks. This could be an issue next year. Hopefully Justin bulks up a bit and works on his offensive game. Maybe Strickland will contribute some solid minutes too. I don't completely fault Mick but at the same time I don't exonerate him either.

The ability to run a drive and kick offense took a major hit when Cash went down. Mick even said tonight that Cash couldn't jump stop after the injury and he had said previously that had Cash been a Freshman or Sophomore, he would have been out the rest of the season. I also think JDIII could have really helped getting into the lane with his quickness and kicking the ball out to the shooters.

3. I think the recruiting has been pretty good and is definitely on the up swing. People always want to bash Mick for not landing more "top players" but also fail to realize what he walked in to and more importantly what he was instructed to do. UC was on the brink of NCAA sanctions because of APR thanks to the team that Andy Kennedy was coaching. If Mick didn't land good 4 year student athletes, this program would have been in real trouble. UC had already been docked a scholarship as a result of the APR when Mick arrived.

4. I disagree with the notion that players haven't progressed since Mick has been here. I would argue that SK and Cash have significantly improved offensively. JJ and Cheik have gotten better defensively. I think making blanket statements is the easy way out. But once again, I don't think this completely falls on the coaching staff. The player has to put in the extra work too.

5. In closing, I like the way Mick runs this program. He is genuine and truly loves this university. He is a good ambassador for UC and I hope he stays a long time.

 

[TheLongHaul]

That's just wrong. They do know and that's part of why they respect him. I have heard it talked about. It was talked about during the BEast tournament last year (how he had the next to last budget) in BEast.

Umm, no it's not. So a few people talked about it on a show therefore it is nationally known? Okay so maybe it is nationally known by a few people. I travel quite frequently and talk hoops to people all the time and I have never once heard anyone say anything about UC's budget or facilities.