Tubby To Take Izzo Down First

The first Big Ten game for Tubby Smith will be in East Lansing, against another coaching great Tom Izzo. The Big Ten released the upcoming conference basketball schedule yesterday.

The Gophers didn't receive any breaks with the unbalanced schedule. The two teams Tubby's crew will face only once are Iowa and Purdue. It'd clearly be beneficial if we played Ohio State once, for instance. It's unfortunate that Iowa is on the schedule only once for two reasons: they might be one of the worst teams in the conference this year and they are a border rival. The Big Ten should keep traditional rivals facing each other twice per year.

Three home games--Michigan, Iowa and Indiana--are scheduled to be telvised on the four letter (otherwise known as ESPN). The full schedule can be found here. The vast majority of the games will be televised on the much-discussed Big Ten Network. I'm thoroughly pleased I have DirecTV.

After travelling to East Lansing, the Gophers have two winnable games--hosting Northwestern and at Penn State. I'll be heading to Happy Valley for that contest if anyone would like to tag along.

The nonconference schedule should come out shortly. Various reports have come out indicating some of the games. Someone can correct me, but I believe the Gophers will travel to Iowa State, UNLV and Florida State (Big Ten/ACC Challenge). Home games I've seen reported are plenty bland so far: Colorodo State, South Dakota and North Dakota State and UC Riverside.

PJS is a college basketball fan first and foremost. I look forward to breaking down the entire schedule as soon as possible.

Weekend Linkerama

Topics: Tubby Smith, your typical college drop-out blogger and Ryan Wittman, of son of Timberwolves coach fame.

** When Tubby Smith left the University of Kentucky, he said he felt wanted in Minnesota. Much was made in the commonwealth of Kentucky when Tubby was hired how his about race would play in Lexington. Now that Tubby is gone, according to this article from the Lexington Herald-Leader, callers to talk show hosts have gotten ugly concerning Tubby.

P.G. Peeples, president and chief executive officer of the Lexington-Fayette Urban League, said he listens to basketball call-in radio shows and has heard some "bone-chilling and scary" things since Smith left.

A forum of community leaders in Lexington addressed the Tubby-race issue this week. I'm not going to offer a long comment on this seeing as I have not seen what has gone on in Kentucky first hand. I will say, however, that we want a winning basketball program in Minnesota. Tubby, we don't care if you are black, white, yellow, green or purple. Win and win the right way, and we'll love you. Shit, we'll put your name on the Williams Arena floor.

** Need more Tubby? This Kentucky blog suggests that Tubby didn't work hard enough to land Bud Mackey, a 4-star point guard from Georgetown, Ky. The blog quotes Mackey as saying Indiana and Kelvin Sampson outworked Tubby and Kentucky.

"There was a big difference. Indiana proved to me they wanted me more. They came to practices, they even checked up on me a couple of times at school."

The scuttlebutt on the Kentucky blogs is that the rabid fans wanted Tubby to recruit Mackey harder, even pursue him hard after he verbally committed to Indiana. Mackey is a top 10 point guard according to Scout.com.

Tubby strikes me as a gentlemen. Is he too nice for the recruiting wars? I can't answer that, but what I can say is that I've been impressed with how he's pursued recruits since landing in Minnesota. He's cut ties (presumably) with Rosemount center/forward Andrew Brommer. As a Gophers fan, I'm going to judge Tubby on what he does here, not what the lunatics in Kentucky might say. Time will tell.

** A commenter at a Golden Gopher forum gives an update to the men's nonconference basketball schedule for the upcoming year. The post states the Gophers will host Cornell, Nevada and Brown and travel to Iowa State, Florida State (ACC/Big 10 Challenege) and face UNLV, Kennesaw State and Nicholls State at the Duel in the Desert Tournament (Round Robin). This would mean a homecoming for Ryan Wittman, son of Timberwolves coach Randy Wittman, who was the Ivy League Rookie of the Year, according to a Big Red blog. Wittman, pictured at left, played prep hoops at Eden Prairie. The Gophers men's basketball schedule for the upcoming year has not yet been released. If anyone has more information on the schedule, let PJS know.

** Greg Oden is blogging. At least he appears to be blogging. But, considering Oden has dropped out at the Ohio State University, it makes one wonder if Oden is the one doing the typing.