Minnesota fires Tubby Smith after 6 seasons

Minnesota fired Tubby Smith on Monday, cutting ties with the veteran coach one day after the Golden Gophers lost to Florida in the NCAA tournament.

Athletics director Norwood Teague announced the decision Monday and said it was time for a "fresh set of eyes" on the program. The school will hold a press conference at 4 p.m. ET.

Smith was 124-81 (.610) in six seasons at Minnesota, helping to bring the program back to respectability and ramping up expectations for a team hit hard by an academic cheating scandal.

Smith won 20 games five times. But he went just 46-62 in Big Ten play and never finished higher than sixth in the conference. The Gophers made three NCAA tournament appearances under Smith. They beat UCLA this year before losing on Sunday. Read the full AP story here.

[RELATED: Twitter reaction to Smith firing | Dienhart: 'It's Shaka Smart or bust' ]

Teague announced that a national search for the 17th men?s head basketball coach in the history of the Golden Gopher program is ongoing.

"Tubby has had a long and distinguished career and we feel it?s time for a fresh set of eyes for our student-athletes and our program in general,? Teague said in a statement. ?We are grateful to Tubby and his entire staff for their hard work and dedication to this University, our students and the entire Minnesota community. We wish Tubby, Donna and the entire staff well.?

In their first game of this year's NCAA Tournament, the No. 11-seed Golden Gophers beat UCLA. In the second NCAA tourney game, Minnesota rallied from a 21-point halftime deficit to pull within seven of third-seeded Florida, but Minnesota lost.

Minnesota hired Smith on March 23, 2007 . Before that, Smith spent 10 seasons (1997-2007) in the Southeastern Conference as the head coach at Kentucky, where he led the Wildcats to the 1998 National championship, four "Elite Eight" appearances, five SEC titles, five SEC Tournament titles and six "Sweet Sixteen" finishes.

[RELATED:  2012-13 Minnesota stats | 2012-2013 Minnesota roster | 2012-2013 Minnesota schedule ]

Look back at the 2012-2013 Minnesota season with the schedule below.

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