Weekend Recap

This week we saw a lot from the Gophers Basketball team. At Iowa, we saw what it looks like when they win ugly, and against Penn State we saw what it looks like when they win pretty with everything clicking. They shot almost doubled their shooting percentage from the Iowa game with 34% to 62.5% against Penn State. Devron Bostick was easily the star of the game with 19 points. Paul Carter also busted out the offense with 14 points. They both had made noticeable improvements in the games leading up to this getting more minutes and looking more comfortable, but no one would have predicted this type of breakout. I agree with the statement made by Myron Medcalf that the development of the two JUCO players is the difference between the Gophers making the tournament and making some noise in the tournament. The lastest AP Poll has the Gophers ranked 18th one spot ahead of Purdue. They have a big test heading to the Kohl Center to take on the Badgers.

I would like to know what Paul Carter's actual height is. He is listed at 6-8 and there is no way that is true. He is defintely smaller than DJ Swat. I think he is likely more around 6-5 than 6-8. Just like it was discovered that Colton Iverson is taller than 6-10 and at least 6-11 maybe 7-0.

If anyone wondered the affect Don Lucia has on the Gophers hockey team those questions were answered this weekend. That was one of the worst weekends of Gophers hockey ever as they were lambasted by North Dakota 6-3 and 6-1. They dropped to #8 in the USA Today Hockey Poll. They looked flat and seemed to have no interest in even competing or playing hockey this weekend. This team still has the talent and time to do some big things this year but they need to discover the fire and drive again and soon. One big problem is when the top line of Schroeder-Stoa-Barriball is in tact the rest of the team takes the game off. Schroeder or Stoa was involved in all four Gopher goals this weekend. Players like Carman, Hoeffel and White are going to need to start pulling their offensive weight if the Gophers are going to be a contender. On a positive note Lucia will be on the ice at practice today and plans to be their all week.

Bert Blyleven missed out on a trip to Cooperstown once again today. He finished fourth with 62.7% of the votes slightly up from 61.9% the previous year. The inductees are Ricky Henderson and Jim Rice. It is only a matter of time before he gets in but it might end up coming down to the Veterans Committee. Twinkie Town makes a good point in that the focus this year was on Ricky Henderson, and that next year with no stellar additions it might be a year they really push for Bert and get him elected to the Hall of Fame. He absoultely deserves to be in the Hall and it is a shame that he is not their already. Anyone who has ever watched a Twins game knows how much it would mean to him to be elected.

Stats of the Day

• 11-15: Devron Bostick shooting in the last three games. That is 73.3%.
• 9.0: Average steals per game for the Gophers. Purdue is second in conference with 7.8.
• 0: The highest +/- for a Gopher forward who has not played on the first line. It belongs to Mike Carman. Stoa is +12, Schroeder is +9 and Barriball is +3.