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Post by Kapitan on Jun 30, 2019 15:25:33 GMT
In what is probably best described as the greatest thing ever to happen anywhere (or at least a welcome surprise this morning), FIBA is broadcasting the U19s. USA v Lithuania is livestreaming now. Games are archived and available.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 5, 2019 23:16:22 GMT
It's almost college football season. In Minnesota, this is usually irrelevant to people's lives. But I'm cautiously optimistic about this year's Gophers. We return a lot of young talent, add a lot of talent, and have been on the upswing under (the horribly annoying, cliche and buzzword spouting, motivational speaker-persona) third-year coach PJ Fleck.
Unfortunately, our 50-50 competition between a redshirt sophomore and true sophomore quarterback was decided when true sophomore Zach Annexstad suffered a "serious" foot injury and is apparently out for a while. So it's redshirt sophomore Tanner Morgan, who did pretty well as Annexstad's replacement last year.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 27, 2019 12:44:27 GMT
The ongoing legal cases related to lifting pay restrictions on some NCAA athletes took a laughable turn on Friday, when the National Federatin of State High School Associations entered a filing (I’m assuming an “amicus brief,” which is basically an unsolicited opinion on the topic by non-parties to the lawsuit) that argued the NCAA should prevail and continue to not pay athletes. Why? Because eroding amateurism will damage school spirit. Amateurism creates “strong and cohesive student bodies, and thus is good for school spirit. Amateurism in high school and college sports promotes an environment in which audience members are not mere passive spectators but enthusiastic and spirited supporters of their teams and fellow students.” They pointed to the movies “Friday Night Lights,” “Hoosiers, and the Beach Boys song “Be True to Your School” as evidence. Without an emphasis on amateurism, they say, “high schools will struggle to prepare their students for the future.” What a load of trash! To give the devil his due, yes, sports help build community, including at schools. But I would question whether those athletes have to be amateurs to build that community. (See: pro sports. Green Bay Packers, for pete’s sake.) More importantly to the actual issue, this argument basically says that the concrete fact of the NCAA raking in over $1 billion a year on the unpaid labor of athletes—who are compensated in a way, but certainly not compensated at anything close to market value (in the major sports), and are in fact forbidden from being compensated by outside income sources—is necessary because of the vague societal good of school spirit. Person A must work for free to earn Entity B $1 billion a year so Community C can feel socially bonded.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 30, 2019 12:58:49 GMT
South Dakota State is a great 1-AA (I just can't get into the habit of FCS/FBS or whatever) football program. I don't deny that. But sweet lord, that the Gophers struggled to beat them in our home opener last night was not a good sign--especially since we're seen as a candidate to win the Big Ten West!
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Post by Kapitan on Sept 8, 2019 12:58:53 GMT
The Gopher football team is 2-0 after a 2OT road win at Fresno State last night. I'm watching it now on DVR, in that the odds of me watching a 3.5 hour football game that begins at 9:30 local time are, uh, well, there are no odds. Infinity comes into play with that. (I'm getting old. I'd rather sleep than watch a game after midnight. Go to hell!)
The good record is a little misleading, though. We weren't great against South Dakota St. in the home opener, and last night was rough as well. On the positive side, sophomore WR Rashod Bateman is looking like a superstar. He had a freshman-record setting season here last year and through two games has 12 catches for 237 yards and 2 TDs. Conversely our highly regarded senior WR Tyler Johnson, who is a very legit NFL prospect himself, has only 9 catches for 99 yards as both opponents have obviously schemed for him.
The running game isn't anywhere near expectations, either. Our OL averages something like 6-5, 350 lbs. (Go ahead and reread that if you want. It's bigger than the Vikings OL.) And we have a bevy of talented running backs, including two formerly productive sixth-year seniors (Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks), redshirt sophomore Mo Ibrahim, who ran for 1,000 last year in their absence, and several really talented freshmen and sophomores. Yet two games in, the team has run for only 278 yards total, with a 3.0 ypc and 5 TDs.
It has to get better for the B10 season or we're in a lot of trouble. And this team was seen as a borderline Top 25 team and even dark horse candidate to win the B10 West.
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Post by Kapitan on Sept 19, 2019 0:37:19 GMT
Today Ben Carlson, a 6-9 forward from East Ridge High School (in the suburban Twin Cities area) committed to Wisconsin, just one day after 6-10 center Steven Crowl of Eastview High School (also suburban Twin Cities) committed to them. Carlson is generally considered to be in the 75-100 range nationally, while Crowl is in the 100-150 range.
Earlier this summer, 6-8 forward Dain Dainja (rated around 50th nationally) from suburban Minneapolis committed to Baylor.
Top 10 recruit Jalen Suggs is widely believed to be either going to Gonzaga or going pro. Dawson Garcia, a 6-10 forward in the 25-40 range nationally, narrowed his list to seven schools, with the Gophers alongside North Carolina, Arizona, and assorted other schools that make us look unlikely. And 6-4 guard Kerwin Walton of suburban Minneapolis, a 75-100 range recruit, is being recruited by Kansas, Arizona, and others, as well as Minnesota.
My point is, for the first time I can remember, we have FIVE legit top 100 recruits and probably 3-4 others in the next 100. Insane. And it seems entirely likely that the Gophers will swing and miss on them all. (We also recently lost out on twin brothers Gabe and Mason Madsen, the former a 125ish recruit whom I just love, and the latter a darn good player. They signed with Cincinnati.) Oh, and 6-11 C/F committed to Colorado State over Minnesota.
I would fire Richard Pitino at this point. Over his tenure, had he kept all of Minnesota's best talent, we would be a national championship contender. I acknowledge that is unrealistic to expect. But as the only D1 program in the state, you'd hope he could keep home at least half. He doesn't. Not close. He's landed a few good local and regional guys, but that's about it.
I would fire him and replace him with someone who can do a better job in state.
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Post by Kapitan on Sept 21, 2019 14:25:00 GMT
It looks like the FBI/NCAA basketball scandal of the past few years is finally getting through the courts and to the point of NCAA sanctions: Kansas is expecting notice of "major violations" and will most likely receive serious sanctions such as loss of scholarships and postseason bans.
An Adidas consultant paid at least two people to get their commitments to Kansas, and accepted $60k from someone affiliated with Maryland to get one of those Kansas recruits to go to Maryland (talk about double-dealing...). Making it probably more painful for Kansas, the recruits haven't even been particularly productive: Billy Preston was a McDonald's All-American power forward who never played for Kansas, opting to go pro a few months into his freshman season (which he had been sitting out as the investigation went on); and Angolan power forward Silvio de Sousa averaged 4 ppg and 3.7 rpg in his freshman season but sat out last season because of the investigation.
This seems only to be one of several schools for which penalties are forthcoming. I'd assume Arizona, Auburn, Louisville, Maryland ... those are the others that seemed intimately involved in all this, anyway.
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Post by Kapitan on Sept 22, 2019 13:34:52 GMT
Anyone watch Notre Dame v Georgia last night? I did, and it was a lot of fun. Not beautiful offense, for sure, but a really enjoyable contest. I'm a lifelong Notre Dame fan, so the result was disappointing. But I was thrilled to see them hanging in there, honestly. They just had no running game whatsoever and, as the night wore on, their defense wore out against that talented Bulldog offense. Georgia's RB De'Andre Swift is really good.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Sept 22, 2019 13:44:33 GMT
I didn't catch that Notre Dame/Georgia game. I'm not really a big college sports fan, thus my lack of posts in this thread. However, I am a Chip Kelly fan (I know, I know) so I try to follow UCLA football. Late last night I was watching the UCLA vs. Washington State game, and Washington State was winning 49-17 halfway through the 3rd quarter. I then dozed off, only to wake up to find that UCLA won the game 67-63. Incredible!
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Post by Kapitan on Sept 22, 2019 13:48:43 GMT
I just looked at that UCLA v WSU box score. Holy cow! The teams combined for more than 1,300 yards from scrimmage (plus a 100-yard kickoff return TD and a 69-yard punt return TD). Both QBs threw for more than 500 yards, with one throwing 5 TDs and the other throwing 9. WSU had seven receivers with 61 or more receiving yards, while UCLA had receivers get 150 and 147 yards, respectively.
Unbelievable.
WSU's defensive coordinator is Tracy Claeys, who was longtime defensive coordinator for former Gophers coach Jerry Kill and was briefly head coach here after Kill's health-induced resignation/retirement/quitting. I'm guessing Claeys wasn't happy to give up 67 points and that kind of yardage!
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Post by Kapitan on Sept 28, 2019 15:50:55 GMT
The Gophers open their Big Ten season in West Lafayette, Ind., this afternoon on ESPN2. Minnesota is a disappointing 3-0, struggling in all three games (hosting South Dakota State, at Fresno State, and hosting Georgia Southern). Chief Propagandist and Head Coach PJ Fleck is spinning it as three hard-fought wins over quality opponents, but come on... A Big Ten team is not supposed to have squeaked through ALL THREE of these games.
Purdue is only 1-2, but has the super-talented WR Rondale Moore. While they have no running game to speak of, the Boilermakers do have quite a passing attack that has produced 50% more yardage than Minnesota has through the air.
The Gophers do return two starting-caliber tailbacks (Rodney Smith and Mohamed Ibrahim) from injury plus the season debut of starting-caliber tailback Shannon Brooks from a bigger injury. They should help balance things out. Last game we had none of them and relied on two talented but very young backs. Today they won't all even see a snap.
Anyway, as crazy as it is to say "big game" when two unranked opponents meet this early in the season, for Minnesota this is a pretty big game. It helps determine whether the Gophers are a legit team, an outside-chance contender at a Top 25 ranking and serious bowl game; or whether they're just another .500ish team, a 5, 6, or 7-game winner that plays in the joke-bowls...if that.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 4, 2019 17:23:00 GMT
My first post in this thread was about a local controversy about the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN) being kicked out of its DIII athletic league (the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, or MIAC) because it has been dominant in most sports. The thought was they'd jump to DII, but there have always been some quiet whispers and hopes for an eventual DI jump, especially with Minnesota one of only a few states to have only a single DI program ... this while North and South Dakota have two apiece, while Wisconsin and Iowa have five each!
Well, my dream seems to be coming true. Maybe. The Summit League has unanimously supported an invitation to St. Thomas, which is submitting a waiver request to the NCAA to allow the otherwise disallowed leap directly from DIII to DI beginning in Fall 2021.
Honestly I can't recall being this excited. About anything. I'm not kidding.
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jdude
Denny's Drums
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Post by jdude on Oct 13, 2019 10:52:02 GMT
It looks like the FBI/NCAA basketball scandal of the past few years is finally getting through the courts and to the point of NCAA sanctions: Kansas is expecting notice of "major violations" and will most likely receive serious sanctions such as loss of scholarships and postseason bans.
An Adidas consultant paid at least two people to get their commitments to Kansas, and accepted $60k from someone affiliated with Maryland to get one of those Kansas recruits to go to Maryland (talk about double-dealing...). Making it probably more painful for Kansas, the recruits haven't even been particularly productive: Billy Preston was a McDonald's All-American power forward who never played for Kansas, opting to go pro a few months into his freshman season (which he had been sitting out as the investigation went on); and Angolan power forward Silvio de Sousa averaged 4 ppg and 3.7 rpg in his freshman season but sat out last season because of the investigation.
This seems only to be one of several schools for which penalties are forthcoming. I'd assume Arizona, Auburn, Louisville, Maryland ... those are the others that seemed intimately involved in all this, anyway.
Hey, they had Snoop Dog perform at their Midnight Madness! Might as well go out on probation on a high note!
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 13, 2019 12:55:46 GMT
My first thought about Snoop performing at Kansas was, "do these 18-22-year-old kids care about Snoop Dogg?!" Seems a little out of touch to me, or were they just trying to impress these kids' parents...? It would have been like having John Denver or BTO perform my freshman year of college.
In college football, the Gophers blew out Nebraska in nasty weather last night in Minneapolis, going up to 6-0. The next two games are Rutgers and Maryland before a bye, and then on Nov. 9 we host Penn St. Assuming we don't blow one of the next two--a VERY dangerous assumption for Minnesota football--that's going to be a huge game!
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jdude
Denny's Drums
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Post by jdude on Oct 13, 2019 19:07:21 GMT
Yeah, well MSU got blown out of the water at Wisconsin last night. Looks like it's time for a coaching change in East Lansing.
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