Tubby Luv

From 1950 to 1971, Williams Arena had the largest capacity of any arena in the country. Based on the reaction to yesterday's news, the University of Minnesota may need to reconfigure The Barn to seat all 4,919,479 Minnesotans.

While Charlie Walters holds out hope Flip Saunders could still be named coach of the Golden Gophers, here are a few little-known facts about Tubby Smith to help you get acclimated to the new reality:

• Tubby attended Marquette University, where he played as a walk-on in the 1967 season but was cut before his sophomore season.
  
• He has a degree in History.
• As a child Tubby won a national tap-dancing contest. He later appeared as a guest of Jack Parr on "The Tonight Show."
• In the 1970s Tubby was briefly married to actress Susan Dey.
• Tubby writes a blog for the Access Hollywood web site.
  
• He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
  
• He has a supernumerary nipple.

Last—and you may already know this—Tubby has a .714 career winning percentage and has taken his teams to the NCAA tournament for 14 straight years. So while that third nipple may not play well in bluegrass country, I say gimme some more o' that Tubby Smith!

How's your bracket looking? If your champion's still alive, take heart. You sill have a shot at winning the St. John's Hoops Al McGuire Memorial Final Four Contest.

Speaking of St. John's: Hoops tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. Please let me know if you will or will not be playing.