It is known as "The Tubby Stare" within the college basketball community -- an intense glare that says, with no words needed, that Tubby Smith is not happy with what he's watching.
A week ago, late in a one-sided exhibition victory over Minnesota State Mankato, sophomore Kevin Payton tossed an alley-oop to senior Lawrence McKenzie on a fast break. McKenzie bricked the dunk.
The 56-year-old coach sitting atop a chair on the elevated Williams Arena court delivered his well-known stare.
The wonder within college basketball is that "The Tubby Stare" is being cast this season toward Gophers players. Smith is one of the biggest names in the college game, winner of at least 20 games the past 14 seasons at Tulsa, Georgia and then Kentucky. He won a national title at Kentucky in 1998 and has directed nine teams to the Sweet 16.
The Gophers have fallen on hard times since Clem Haskins' tenure as coach ended in a massive academic fraud scandal in the late 1990s. Minnesota has made one NCAA tournament appearance since 1999 and is coming off a disastrous 9-22 season.
But a program needing a change found a coach who had tired of the lofty expectations of Kentucky. Smith has embraced his newest challenge, saying he is confident he can return the Gophers to national prominence.
"It's been a long time, but they're capable," he said about the Gophers' past success and potential. "It's another chance for me to kind of [judge] myself and our program ... against great programs in the Big Ten and other good coaches in the Big Ten."
So, just who is Tubby Smith?
Friends, former players and family members describe him as a charitable, funny and caring person who still abides by the principles he learned as one of 17 children born to a Maryland sharecropper. Many of those principles apply to what he teaches young men on the basketball court.
Those who know Smith best agree that he's an intense and fiery teacher who will not settle for mediocrity.
Intensity demanded
Steve Hawkins, a friend of Smith since childhood, said the coach earned everything he achieved through hard work learned while growing up in Scotland, Md., and he expects the same of others. To learn the game of basketball, Smith had to hitchhike 12 miles to high school basketball practice during Maryland's winters. When he was back at home, he battled with his buddies on a dirt court with a wooden basket tied to a tree.
"Tubby was an excellent competitor, all the way through," he said. "We competed in everything. And we competed even from sports to dressing to dancing. He wanted to win everything."
That tenacity is still evident in the way he coaches. A few weeks ago at a rare open scrimmage, Smith walked up and down the court passionately demanding tougher defense from his players. When he wasn't satisfied, everyone ran.
That's the norm in Gophers practices. No walking, no yawning. Everything has to be at full speed, full intensity.
That will not surprise Smith's former players. Barry Manning, who played at South Carolina while Smith was an assistant coach there, said Smith frequently challenged players who weren't playing defense properly by jumping onto the court and demonstrating. That South Carolina team became one of the toughest defensively in the country.
There were times, however, when the demands were too much. After one defeat, Smith decided to make players squat in a defensive stance for nearly 20 minutes. One by one, they began cramping up before then-Gamecocks head coach George Felton asked Smith to stop the drill, Manning said.
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