In a perplexing turn of events, Adam Ritttenberg is reporting that former Gopher Dominic Jones will NOT be addressing the team this week. 

Before getting to the links, I spoke today with Minnesota coach Tim Brewster (Q&A to follow soon), and he said former Gophers star safety Dominic Jones, who is serving a year in the county workhouse after being convicted of fourth-degree sexual conduct, will not address the team tonight, as originally planned. Brewster didn't elaborate on the reason for the change and said he wasn't sure if Jones could talk to the team at a later date.

As of Sunday morning, Brewster stated in a KFAN interview that Jones was still scheduled to speak with the team.  What changed in 24 hours?  I'm not going to speculate but hopefully we will find out what the reasoning was behind the sudden change of mind. 

From a PR standpoint this does not look good for the program.  This was supposed to be a chance for Jones to offer up a pointed perspective on how to conduct yourself as a D1 athlete.  He is living proof that they are not untouchable and everyone they come in contact with deserves to be treated with respect.  But something happened on the way to this message being delivered.

• The U of M has not formally announced the mens basketball schedule but KentuckySports.com lists the Gophers non-conference opponents.  Since I have not seen this anywhere else I don't know how accurate it is but here is who they say we will be playing...
  
  This isn't an overwhelming schedule and I was hoping for just one more quality opponent.  Having L'ville on the schedule is an upgrade but still makes things difficult to boost that NCAA resume.  North Dakota State will be solid this year with PG-Ben Woodside leading a talented group of returners but outside of L'ville and Virginia the schedule is pretty weak.

Louisville - neutral court

Virginia - Big Ten / ACC Challenge

North Dakota State

Cornell

Colorado State - road

South Dakota State

Southern Miss

High Point

And a home tournament involving Bowling Green, Georgia State and team TBD

• Wisconsin media members are kinda creepy.  Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was sitting alone in a parking lot oogling the women's soccer practice.  When approached by campus security he CLAIMS he was transcribing notes football practice ended.  Again, we don't want to speculate here, but clearly he was posing as a respected media member while wearing his new Favre jersey and staring at college chicks.
• Former Gopher wide receiver, Trey Herndon is transfering to Vanderbilt.  Apparently Herndon is relatively smart and hopefully he'll get the chance to dominate the SEC in 2009.
• From the Barn has a new look.  They have added some color but most importantly the banner pic was not changed.  I love that pic!
• Two key members of the offensive line have returned to practice.  D.J. Burris and Chris Bunders have both come back from minor injuries and are ready to prepare for Northern Illinois.
• Speaking of NIU, Tennessee also has the huskies on their schedule and NIU is the Enemy Feed of the Day on Tennessee blog Rocky Top Talk.