Texas Tech interested in Tubby Smith

After being unceremoniously dumped by Minnesota, Tubby Smith is in line for another coaching job. Smith has been mentioned as a candidate for the open Texas Tech job.

According to sources, the school has contacted Smith about the job. Smith has been rumored to meet with the school on Thursday but that could not be confirmed.

Texas Tech already has met with a handful of other coaches about the job, including Oral Roberts' Scott Sutton, Southern Illinois' Barry Hinson, New Mexico State's Marvin Menzies, Indiana assistant Steve McClain and former UTEP and Nebraska coach Doc Sadler, who is in his first season as director of basketball operations at Kansas.

I would have to say Smith might be the favorite for the job, but is he the man to build a program. I'm not sure if Smith could be patient enough to take over a bottom feeder in a BCS conference. Regardless of who takes over the administration at Texas Tech will have to be awfully patient to wait for a turnaround. Texas Tech doesn't get the recruits like some of the other schools in the Big 12 so they should hire a program builder more than a coach. I do think Smith is a fine coach but not a good fit for Texas Tech.

Is Saunders trying to line himself up for the Golden Gophers job?

To some in the Twin Cities, Minnesota Golden Gophers head basketball coach, Tubby Smith, might be a disappointment. When Smith arrived in Minneapolis, there were some hoping that he could recreate the magic that Clem Haskins had during his run at Minnesota. Instead there has been mediocrity that could land Smith on the proverbial hot seat with two years left on his contract.

Flip Saunders is an ex-NBA coach and Minnesota alum. Since he is unemployed he has a lot of idle time on his hands. So in an interview with KFAN's Dan Barreiro, it almost sounds like Saunders is doing a bit of politicking on his behalf for the Minnesota job. 

When answering questions about why college coaches have failed in the NBA, Saunders unintentionally sounded as if he wanted the job.

"One thing I’ve always said a lot is college coaches don’t always translate to the NBA. But yet guys have been college, gone to the NBA, that maybe fail in the NBA even their experience when they go back to college, they always say they’re much better coaches in college after they’ve been to the NBA."

After Barreiro jumped on the reply, Saunders back-pedaled, saying " No, no, no, no don’t throw that out there. I’m just saying if you look at guys like Larry Brown, [who] went from a pro coach and then goes back to UCLA and Kansas, has a lot of success; you look at [John] Calipari, as far as [Rick] Pitino. And if you talk to a lot of those guys, you’ve got to realize you spend 24/7 on basketball; it’s the purest you can be from a standpoint of basketball that there is as far as just working on basketball and just working on different plays, different schemes. So when you’re doing that, and you’re playing so many games, 110 games a year when you’re in the playoffs, those are the things that are going to make you better as a coach because the more situations you see the better you’re going to get."

I get what he was saying, but Saunders could've used a better choice of words. As much as I dislike Saunders as a coach, I don't think he was trying to get a jump on the Minnesota gig. I think he might be content in his unemployment right now and would like a few years away from the game.