The Minnesota Golden Gophers basketball team has consistently been NCAA tournament contention under head coach Tubby Smith's tenure. Apparently that's not enough for the Golden Gophers, who fired Smith today, one day after his squad was beaten in the third round of the NCAA tournament by the University of Florida.

Smith did not turn the Gophers into an elite program during his six years. Minnesota made the tournament three times under Tubby, and won a tournament game for the first time on Friday when they defeated #6 seeded UCLA (who also fired head coach Ben Howland yesterday). However, they were consistently in the mix for an at-large bid.

Smith's Gophers were a bit Jekyll and Hyde. They would routinely begin a season strong, but fade down the stretch. His team never finished above .500 in Big 10 play.

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