Louisville is winning and beating good teams. This only makes us look better. L’ville has beaten Villanova and Notre Dame in the last week. The Big East is crazy but I think we should all be rooting for L’ville to win it.

….is suggesting that Heupel will NOT be the OC choice for Brewster, and that Brewster could announce his choice today. He’s suggesting Coach Salem’s son is a possibility.

Huh?

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/37481019.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUjc8LDyiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU

First, Tubby Smith is no Tim Brewster. I have heard a few people around town say that the basketball team will collapse like the football team did. The two comparisons are not analogous. First, Tubby is a big time coach with tons of experience. He knows how to prepare his team and how to make in-game adjustments. We will not be outcoached. Secondly, the basketball team has proved they can beat good teams such as Louisville and Ohio State. You can make excuses for both of those teams, but it doesn’t change the fact that we still beat them.

Secondly, I am getting very encouraged by the Golden Gophers play of late. I believe we have two elements that are always lauded come tournament time. One is solid guard play. Even though he is only a sophomore, Nolen has played tremendously (obligatory Brewsterism). His assist/turnover ratio is over 4.0. If you count only Big 10 play and the Louisville game it is 3.8. The other element is depth. I don’t know that our bench has been outscored this year. We have so many combinations of size and skill sets that will drive opposing coaches nuts.

Finally, let’s keep an eye on Dan Monson’s Long Beach State team. The 49ers are 4-0 in Big West play. Their overall record isn’t great, but it is because they played some tough games on the road: BYU, Wisconsin, Syracuse, Oregon. If they can dominate the conference, they could end up as #13-14 seed in the tournament. Definitely on the optimistic side to forecast a #3-#4 seed for the Golden Gophers, but if we can beat Wisconsin this week on the road, suddenly that doesn’t seem too far fetched. I, for one, will cheer for the 49ers because Monson did an admirable job while he was here. He cleaned up after the scandal and produced some NBA players while getting us to an NCAA tournament once. We definitely fell on tough times in his last year, but with all the defections to the NBA it was tough. Sure he had other shortcomings, but no reason to harbor any ill will against him. He was the bridge from Clem to Tubby.