The late edition of the Golden Nuggets.

Gary Parish of CBSSports has released his first NCAA Tournament projection and the Gophers?  Well they are on the bubble.  There are a few games yet to be played before March 15th (Selection Sunday), but starting on the bubble is a baby step from last year. 

I really feel that this team will be an NCAA Tournament team.  We are less experienced than a year ago but we are more athletic.  I expect we will defend better than a year ago and we may struggle with offense early but come February our guard play will really carry us.  We will not be dominant and I'd be shocked if we came close to the second weekend of the tournament but I'm on record that we will be playing in the NCAA Tournament this year.

• Big Sports Central says St. Paul is the best overall hockey town in the country.  The Wild are one thing but the passion of Gopher hockey fans is what put us over the top.
• While we are on the topic of lists, T.O. Sports ranks Gopher basketball shooting guard, Blake Hoffarber as the sixth best sixth man in the country.  Hard to argue this one, although the Hoff isn't the most explosive player on the team he is a dangerous scorer that requires the defense to know where he is at at all times. 
• The Gopher women's soccer team has had a remarkable turnaround this season and finished second in the Big Ten tournament this past weekend losing to a dominant Penn State team.  The team that finished 20-3 now moves on to the NCAA Tournament and they will host a regional which includes Marquette, South Dakota State and the region's top seeded Colorado.  Bracket PDF.
• Badger wide receiver and MInnesota native, David Gilreath was recently named the Big Ten co-Offensive Player of the Week.  Think this speed receiver would look good returning punts and playing opposite Decker?
  
• This gets bumped up from the comments.  Tubby Smith has a new website and it is incredible.  The site has some cool videos, pics, music and is likely a valuable recruiting tool.  
• Speaking of Tubby and his recruiting, it is expected that his current class of verbal commitments will be a consensus top 20 class.  The kids can begin signing their letter of intents on Wednesday and that should wrap things up for the Gophers.  Marcus Fuller of the PP says we are #20 according to Rivals ranking and #12 by Hoopscooponline.
• Sticking with the PP if you didn't notice this before, they outlined some of the incentives embedded in Brewster's contract.  Looks like he'll be in line for a $25K bump this year but lets hope he gets into that six figure bonus range next year!
  

  BOWL APPEARANCE

  a) National championship game appearance: $300,000
  b) National championship game victory: $50,000 in addition
  c) BCS bowl game appearance that is not a national title game: $200,000
  d) New Year's Day bowl or post-Jan. 1 bowl that is not a BCS game: $100,000
  e) Bowl game appearance not covered above: $25,000

  BIG TEN FINISH

  a) Big Ten champion (or tie): $200,000
  b) Big Ten second place (or tie): $75,000