If you know me or have been reading my drivel over the last couple years, you are aware of my obsession with the coaching carousel. I love trying to predict who’s getting fired, who’s leaving for greener pastures, and who the candidates are for replacement. Round and round they go, it’s a great way to ween yourself off of the season in the springtime.


One of the early indicators that change could be looming is when a new athletics director steps in. He or she did not hire the current regime, and often want to put their own people in place. The guy who hired Orlando “Tubby” Smith away from UK, Joel Maturi, is calling it quits after this season. Now, while the Gophers aren’t exactly known as a traditional basketball power, the fact that Smith is yet to win an NCAA Tournament game for Minny is something I’m sure the new leader will be made aware of.


Will he be fired? Should he? I have no idea. But like Pitino before him, the Tubster is learning that the pressure to win at Kentucky more often than not leads to, well…winning. Not as easy to do elsewhere. Here’s more from the worldwide leader:


Maturi kept Dan Monson as the men’s basketball coach through a series of mediocre seasons until dismissing him in November 2006. Maturi then persuaded Tubby Smith to leave Kentucky and come to Minnesota in March 2007, his most remarkable hire as AD, but even Smith has yet to produce an NCAA tournament victory in his five years with the Gophers.

Smith has been pushing for a practice facility separate from Williams Arena to keep the program competitive in the Big Ten. He says he’s not nervous about a new boss, that “the pressure is always there.”

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7532760/minnesota-golden-gophers-athletic-director-joel-maturi-retire-summer