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| No Tournament But Beat Duke Twice – I’m Good |
Terps did not make the NCAA Tournament, but Tubby Smith’s Minnesota Gophers did, so go Gophers. (Too, a little Ridge boy vengeance, Tubby’s former employer the University of Kentucky did not make the tournament.)
Reminds me of when Tubby was coaching his first college team at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma in the early 90’s and they had a big game scheduled against Arkansas. My buddy Ron Edwards, a diehard Arkansas Razorback fan, was going to be in Tulsa at that time and wanted to catch the game. Knowing Tubby from Great Mills High School, Ronnie called and asked Tubby to hook him up with a ticket which he did.
Ron arrived at the game wearing his Razorback jersey, hat and jacket to find that his court side seat was located just behind the players’ bench but right in the midst of several Tulsa fans. As Ron settled into his seat, the car salesman kind of guy in the next seat very condescendingly asked him “How did you get this seat?” Ron replied that he was a friend of Coach Smith. The guy then replied “Right. I’ll have to talk to Coach Smith about giving good seats like this to people like you.”
Ron said that it was a great back and forth, overtime game. Immediately following the game, Tubby came over to Ron and said “Hey Ron, give me a few minutes and then we can go grab something to eat and catch up.” Ron said the guy next to him just turned and said in a surprised voice “Damn, you do know Coach Smith.”