Bye, Tubby

The University of Minnesota actually showed some fortitude and fired Tubby Smith yesterday, thus ending a coaching tenure full of promise, but short on delivery.

Smith is a good man.  He appears to have run a clean program.  He was respected in the community.  But his winning percentage in the Big Ten was well below .500.  His most recent team - arguably his most talented - lost 12 of its final 18 games.  Their half-court offense was among some of the ugliest seen in Division 1 basketball.

With the firing, Tubby Smith, the man, will be just fine.  He has a $2.5 million buy-out, and will never need to work another day in his life.

Which is a good thing, because, based on his past performance, Tubby Smith the coach won't be working at all anytime soon, if ever.