Is it Thursday yet?  This week long anticipation of Thursday's game is killing me. 

What has not yet been talked about yet here is the value of this game on the future of our Golden Gophers.  With only two seniors who do not contribute much, this team is going to get invaluable experience for subsequent seasons.  Joseph, Sampson, Iverson, Carter, Nolen and Hoffarber are all going to be around for the next two or three years.  The hope is that this is the first in a string of Tournament appearances as this team gets more talented starting next season.  The lessons learned here and the experience gained will be invaluable.

Let's move on to the game and the tournament.  Everyone makes picks based on many different strategies.

• From the Barn gives you a more rational and statistical guide to Texas' roster.
• This guy's wife is incredibly bright, she is picking the Gophers to win because Golden Gophers are "cute."  I fail to see anything wrong with her logic.
• Here is another intelligent and probably handsome blogger.  I think he's a Duke guy and is looking ahead to the potential Gopher/Blue Demon second round match up.
• This random blogger takes another interesting approach to making his bracket picks.  His "death match" approach is funny but I should warn you, it does not end well for our golden gophers.
• Dime Magazine headlines the coaching match up, which may be the most intriguing match up of the game.  There have been times when Tubby has made brilliant moves from the bench that proved to be the difference.  At other times he has zigged when he should have zagged.  Thursday should be interesting as Tubby has been known to make Sweet 16 runs when not expected to.