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Tubby Smith loved to coach.
If that isn't evident merely by his longevity — nearly a half-century of coaching at the high school or college level — it should be from this: After being shoved out of the head job with the Gophers in 2013 at age 61, Smith went on to be the head coach at three other schools.
But all things must come to an end, and it appears Smith has reached the end of his coaching journey. On Wednesday, Smith announced that he is stepping down effective immediately as head coach at High Point — his alma mater — while his son G.G. Smith takes over the program.
Smith, now 70, contracted COVID-19 recently, his second bout in a year. He cited that as a factor in his decision — one that sure sounds like it's a permanent end to nearly five decades in coaching.
"I feel blessed to have had an amazing career leading, coaching and teaching great young men at first-class institutions," Smith said in a High Point news release. "Working at my alma mater during this stage of my career has been a dream."
Minnesota was, of course, one of those institutions — the fourth stop on his college head coaching journey, and as it turned out the midpoint of seven schools in all as Smith went from Texas Tech to Memphis and eventually High Point in the last nine years.
As I talked about on Thursday's Daily Delivery podcast, Smith's Gophers career, which began in 2007, felt like it came up short at the time. He had coached 10 consecutive NCAA tournament teams at Kentucky before his arrival, including six that reached at least the Sweet 16.
With Minnesota, Smith reached the tournament three times in six years. He won just one NCAA tourney game, ironically getting fired not long after by then-Athletic Director Norwood Teague in 2013.
When placed into the context of the last two decades of Gophers men's basketball, though, the Smith Era was a relative success. The Gophers have been to just six NCAA tourneys this millennium; Smith presided over half of those, while Dan Monson (one) and Richard Pitino (two) produced fewer during longer tenures.
Smith's ponderous scanning of postgame box scores during late night news conferences could be torture on deadline, but his teams played hard. And as a man, the word "decent" springs to mind when thinking about Smith.
"I always tell kids about the importance of getting an education, and that is what I got from High Point University – an education on how to make decisions, how to live and conduct myself, and how to help others," Smith said in the news release.
Those seem like simple things, but they shouldn't be forgotten.
