Offseason Goldy News and Thoughts

• Scout and Rivals have revealed their top 300 and 250 respectively for the football class of 2010 and the Gophers are off to a good start. Offensive lineman Jimmy Gjere is #161 overall on Rivals and a 4-star and #159 and a 4-star on Scout. Linebacker Konrad Zagzebski is #239 on Scout. Other notables Sentreal Henderson is #1 overall on both lists by a wide margin according to reports. Beau Allen is #247 on Scout.
• With Spring Football approaching the Daily Gopher noted that Brewster has started participating in the irritating fad that is Twitter. Here is his feed. Reading through this Brewster is devolving into just a characticture. Sometimes it is really hard to take him serious with the rah-rah nonsense that comes out of his mouth.
• Speaking of a character babbling non-sense Pat Reusse is at it again. Nothing gets me more annoyed than Pat Reusse taking potshots at the University of Minnesota. I don't know what the University did to him but he clearly hates the U. He writes an article about how every Gopher program this year was mediocre and collapsed and while it is true in some cases, he is stretching and bringing pessimism to a whole new level. He then ranks the disappointments in order of most disappointing.
• He claims the Volleyball team failed because it was ranked 10th nationally and lost at home in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Explain how to me that is a failure. The Washington Basketball team was ranked high and won the Pac-10 this year but lost in the second round in Portland to Purdue. Were they a failure? No, then why would the Volleyball team be one.
• Next is the Women's Hockey team that only won the WCHA crown, was ranked #1 for a lot of the year and lost in the Frozen Four to Mercyhurst. While it is disappointing they could not win, never is a trip to the Frozen Four a failure or a collapse. When it is one and done anything can happen.
• Wrestling came next. They were acknowledged to be in a down year and had a bad year but every powerhouse has a bad year as they finished 7th in the Big Ten tournament. I would take any bet that they will be a lot better next year.
• Then he had the balls to list the Men's Basketball team as a failure or collapse. He uses the excuse that the team was ranked #19 and was mediocre down the stretch. He claims that Damian Johnson regressed in Big Ten play and anyone who actually watched the team knows the opposite is true as he became our best player down the stretch. He doesn't dwell on the fact that this team won 9 games two years ago and still has 4 players from that team contributing. This team met or exceeded any rational expectations for this team heading into the season. I think Reusse would fit right in as a Kentucky Wildcat fan.
• He again thinks the Women's team failed for making the second round of the NCAA and beating a higher seed on its own home court. He was around when the Women were at the bottom and 100 people watched them in the Sports Pavilion and now being one of the top 32 teams isn't good enough.
• He then brings up the Gopher Football "collapse". What always is failed to be mentioned is that the Gophers never beat a bowl team the whole year. They did not collapse they just beat crappy teams early. People thought the Illinois and Purdue wins were impressive but they ended up not to be. The Gopher football team definitely has not been an overnight success but they did improve over 2007 and there is no reason to believe they won't improve on 2008 next year.
• Then finally he brings up the Hockey collapse. While I admit that it was a terrible collapse and this team had way too much talent to miss the NCAA tournament, he took it too far. Here is his quote about the hockey team "Don Lucia again turning his Yankees of college hockey into the St. Paul Saints". I don't even fully get the analogy and to say it is an overeaction is to put it mildly. They finished as the 15th best team in the nation and while they disappointed this year they certainly were not a minor league team.
• I'm sorry for the rant and it is probably hard to follow and read but I hate Reusse and I don't get why he feels necessary to rip the U. If Tubby wins the Big Ten next year, Reusse will either write an article about some old football coach talking about his playing days at Gustavus or he will take the day off and wait until they lose in the tournament and rip the failure of the program.
  

A Time to Reflect

That was ugly. We couldn't do anything offensively. Our defensive had issues. Nothing was working in the second half and to make it all the more frustrating we had to watch it listening to Tim Doyle who made Spencer Tollackson seem like Bob Costas. His most annoying call, after another three by Craig Moore, he cried "In the midnight hour, you need Moore, Moore, Moore." Stupid and he wouldn't shut up about playing Spencer.

When we win I give the player of the game but today you get the goat of the game and it was an easy one to call. Al Nolen came into the game with 93 assists and 25 turnovers. In the game he had only two assists and 6 turnovers. He failed to get the offense going at all and did not look like a college basketball player at all. He is only a sophomore but he needs to play like he did in the Louisville game by controlling the tempo and running the offense.

The initial reaction of the diehard Gopher fan is to declare that the sky is falling and all the progress they have made is destroyed but that is totally incorrect. The loss hurts and stings but the damage is minimal. They only fell to #21 in the AP poll. The latest Bracketology has them as a 5 seed which is up from the 8 seed they were last week. In college basketball it is more who you beat than who you lose to and Northwestern despite the record is very dangerous with Moore and Coble they will win a few more Big Ten games they shouldn't. All it does is make the Purdue game more important. If the Gophers want to be a team with a 4-6 seed and make some noise instead of just making the tournament they need to beat Purdue at home. They are still on the way to making the tournament, they just had a little setback and probably lost any small chance they had of winning the Big Ten which will go to Michigan State.

If there is any questions of the affect Lucia has on the Gopher hockey team those were answered this weekend. Without him at North Dakota they get swept 6-3 and 6-1. With him they sweep St. Cloud 5-1, 8-6. This team was struggling of late but I still think this team has a very real chance of winning the National Title they just need to get hot at the right time. Also it is time to start looking at Ryan Stoa as the front-runner for the Hobey Baker award. He leads the WCHA in scoring and has 15g and 15a for 30 pts in 21 games.

Stats of the Day

• 19: Number of turnovers committed by the Gophers against Northwestern.
• 6-23: Gophers shooting from 3 after starting 4-4. If you aren't making them maybe you should try to go inside.
• 5-11: Gophers free throw shooting. They need more than 11 attempts but they really need to make more than 5. They missed some big free throws that could have gotten them back in the game in the second half.
  

Oh, Its a Great Time to be a Gopher

That is what college basketball is all about. I'm struggling to write this because I at a loss for words to describe how awesome that game was. I think this finalizes any complaints or naysayers saying "well they didn't play anybody". We have beaten Louisville, Ohio State and Wisconsin. That is three NCAA teams and our only loss is to an elite Michigan State team. Now to the game. It goes without saying that the MVP of the game is Lawrence Westbrook. He scored a career high 29 points including the clutch three to send it into overtime. He then preceded to score 9 points in OT including clutch free throws to seal the deal. I have been less than overwhelmed with Westbrook over his career but he was clutch and put up one of the best single game performances by a Gopher in a long time. Grier against Wisconsin and Pryzbilla against Indiana come to mind.

The other bright spot is the continued development of the Junior College transfer players. They may have scored more against Penn State but I was more impressed with their performance today. Paul Carter pulled in a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebs. He also had a clutch block down the stretch and did a great job defending Landry down the stretch. Bostick continued to showcase his offensive game. He scored 11 points with some impressive drives to the lane in the second half. When he gets aggressive on the offensive end he is quite the force.

A sign that I'm still used to Monson ball. Who thought that the Gophers were done at halftime and when they didn't cut the lead early in the second half? A Monson team would have packed it in and looked forward to the Northwestern game. Not a Tubby team. They will never stop playing hard. In all three road games they have come back from double digit deficits to win the game. This win is due to Westbrook and the work ethic and drive that Tubby has installed in the team.

Other Thoughts

• What is with the Purdue team? They seem to be the definition of inconsistent. They get crushed by Duke, crush Davidson, soundly beat Wisconsin, and they should have lost tonight to Northwestern. With the Gophers win and their lack of consistency I think the Gophers can finish second in the conference this year. Michigan State is still the runaway favorite but I see no team that is significantly better than the Gophers in the conference.
• The Don Lucia saga seems to have a happy ending. It has been diagnosed that a twinged nerve caused by infection or inflammation caused the headaches and numbness on the left side of his face. I think this great news should move the Gophers hockey team to a great second half of the season starting this weekend with St. Cloud State.
  

Stats of the Day

• 4: The number of Big Ten home losses by Bo Ryan including the loss to the Gophers.
• 20.8: The 3-pt shooting percentage of the Badgers. They went 5 -24.
• February 2nd, 2005: Last time a Gopher scored at least 29 points. Vincent Grier did it scoring 32 points against Northwestern.