Tubby Smith was fired from his head coaching position with the Minnesota men’s basketball team on Monday after failing to move the squad past the first round of the NCAA Tournament over the weekend.
Smith has been with the Golden Gophers for the last six years, and this season marks the first win for the team in the NCAA tournament since 1997. He coached the basketball team to an 83-63 victory over the sixth-seeded UCLA Bruins, and earned himself a $150,000 bonus. If Smith had beaten Florida on Saturday, he’d have received a bigger bonus and the guarantee of another year at Minnesota.
As it turns out, Minnesota made the decision to buy Smith out of his $2 million a year contract for the lump sum of $2.5 million. The university expected Smith, who coached the University of Kentucky to an NCAA title in 1998, to have a more electrifying and immediate impact on the success of the men’s basketball team. His axing is a simple case of too little too late.
Minnesota happens to have the tenth-most profitable team in the country, earning over $11 million in operating income. Therefore, they have the flexibility to buy Smith out and search for another coach they believe can elevate their standing in the Big Ten and in the national tournament.
“Our goal is to secure the best candidate to build a Big Ten and NCAA men’s basketball program that is a consistent winner,” Minnesota athletic director Norwood Teague said, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.“ We expect the new coach to manage and build the program. Expect him to recruit high-quality student athletes and develop them on and off the floor.”
Smith, who has coached four teams to NCAA victories and is one of only a handful of coaches to accumulate 365 wins in under 15 seasons, will most likely not be away from college basketball for long. And if coaching is behind him, there’s always TV commentary.
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