Golden Nugz the late edition - 03-31-09

by GopherNation on Mar 30, 2009 10:11 AM CDT in Golden Nuggets

I love looking ahead and when you have as much returning to the Gopher basketball team as we do, looking ahead is very exciting. This is a few days old but City Pages cofirms that the cupboard is in fact full for Tubby...

For, that knowledge and taste of March Madness will belong to a 2010 Minnesota club that returns it's top nine scorers, it's top eights rebounders, and it's top eight minute men. Among those, surely junior-guards-to-be Al Nolen and Blake Hoffarber need to exhibit a boatload of offseason growth. The incentive for such ascension is not a product of sophomore-slumpage alone as, according to Rivals.com, the Gophers' sport the nation's #22 recruiting class for next season (3rd in the Big Ten), led by former Henry Sibley and St. Bernard's bulky standout Trevor Mbakwe (currently starring at Miami Dade JUCO), Robbinsdale Cooper forward Rodney Williams, and, most notably, Hopkins forward Royce White. White is ranked by Rivals as the #2 small forward recruit in the nation.

Tubby has had fine success in his respective year number three of coaching at both Tulsa and Kentucky: each club won at least one NCAA game in that year under his guidance.

We overachieved this year, we return a lot and most importantly the injection of talent will do more this team than ARod's cousin did for his power numbers. Excitement for next year begs the question, what are acceptable expectations for next season? Is winning an NCAA Tournament game enough? Top 3 in Big Ten? Sweet 16? What do you think?

We almost NEVER touch on women's basketball here. But they are in a heated recruiting battle for the state's top player who is also a top 10 player nationally. Taylor Hill has the Gophers in her final four along with Texas, Ohio State and Duke. This would be pretty significant for the Women Gophers.
This Cornell fan is not happy that Josh Figini was left off the All-Metro team (Star Tribune). Figini is headed to Cornell to play next season. It is kind of interesting how Cornell has tapped into Minnesota for Ryan Wittman who will be a senior next year shooting to be first team Ivy League for three years in a row.
In case you didn't know the Big Ten actually got two teams in to the Final Four! Michigan State will be heading to Detroit and Penn State is heading to New York City for the NIT! Penn State vs. Notre Dame sounds like a great matchup of two football schools moonlighting as basketball schools.
Finally is looks like Calipare is in the hunt for the Kentucky opening. This Memphis TV station gives us 10 reason's he'll stay in Memphis. But I think UK and Calipare are a great marriage. He'll bring the personality and exciiting style of play, he has been very successful and the resources he'd have at UK would enable him to put together some really good teams. Eventually CUSA titles are going to feel rather empty and the chance to dominate the SEC and will be too much to turn down.

Tweet Comment 18 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

First off...

I hope Calipari does go to KU. Then the fans can get rid of his there after he is found guilty of some recruiting violations and the program is out of the NCAA’s for a few years. I don’t see Calipari as being much different than BG in that he is not a great PR person. He’s a coach and even though he’s had some success through the years, he is not one of the top coaches in the nation. In that respect he also reminds me of BG.
Secondly…
I would expect Minnesota to rank in the top 3 at the end of next year and win at least one game and if they can get to the Sweet 16 I would consider that a plus. (You can tell I’m a long time Minnesota fans and my expectations are not that high – LOL)

by COJOMAY on Mar 30, 2009 12:26 PM CDT reply actions

"rank" top 3?

as in a top 3 seed or one of the three best teams in the country?

what you say here can, and will, be used against you

by GopherNation on Mar 30, 2009 1:09 PM CDT up reply actions

As a top three in the B10

by COJOMAY on Mar 30, 2009 1:17 PM CDT up reply actions

Disagree about Calipari.....

….I think I heard on Westwood One this weekend that Memphis’ graduating class of seniors leave this year with more wins in a 4-year stretch than any other team in the history of college basketball.

Calipari has won 80% of his games at Memphis. The conference winning streak is unreal no matter the teams he is up against. He’s been to two Final Fours. He almost won the national title last year, if his players could have made their free throws.

Tell me again the coaches who you consider to be better, based on their track record, right now other than Calipari. I would say Coach K, Roy Williams, Tubby Smith, maybe Tom Crean, Billy Donovan, and Howland. How is he not one of the top coaches in the country?

One more point – he is able to get ridiculously good recruits to come to a school which is rarely on national television and is in a bad conference. How is he bad with PR? He’s a fantastic recruiter and gets along great with his players, which is the best PR out there (and supposedly, some of the PR which torpedoed Gillespie – rumor was that half of his team was going to transfer away from UK).

Minnesota should be pre-season top 15 and should make the Sweet 16. Those should be the baseline expectations.

by JG2112 on Mar 30, 2009 12:49 PM CDT reply actions

If I was running UK...

I would have tried Izzo first. I just think he is a better coach. You’re right, Calipari is a good coach, but the reason I don’t see him as one of the top in the country is I am comparing him to others that UK people were taking about. Izzo, Patino, Donovan. I don’t think he’s as good as any of them, but that’s just my personal opinion. Calipari may have won 80% of his games but many of them are inferior competition compared to who Kentucky plays. That why he’s not on TV much.
And finally, I didn’t mean he was bad at PR. I didn’t explain myself. Maybe I should have used the word, “kissing A—.” I think he’s his own man and what’s important to him is basketball. I just don’t see him as the kind of PR guy that Patino was and why they loved him at Kentucky so much.
But “Forty Year Cat” should be posting up and I’m waiting to hear his take on this. He is one of best at looking at things from the Kentucky angle. I just live here.
But it looks like Calipari is going to be the choice.

by COJOMAY on Mar 30, 2009 1:25 PM CDT up reply actions

Izzo is a better coach

But there’s no reason for him to leave MSU. Given what he’s built there, Kentucky would be a sideways step at best. (Sure, they have more history. But at the moment, MSU is at least as good a program.)

Calipari’s the only big name who has a reason to make the jump (that being a desire to prove himself in a major conference instead of beating up on a mediocre conference day in and day out).

by SpartanDan on Mar 30, 2009 5:58 PM CDT up reply actions

Oh, and as to that shot at....

Notre Dame’s basketball program, GopherNation……

Bill Laimbeer will see you now. : )

by JG2112 on Mar 30, 2009 12:52 PM CDT reply actions

I'll see your Laimbeer

and raise you one Joel Pryzbilla

what you say here can, and will, be used against you

by GopherNation on Mar 30, 2009 1:10 PM CDT up reply actions

Now this will be an exciting back and forth.....

….I double down with Kelly Tripucka and Adrian Dantley.

by JG2112 on Mar 30, 2009 1:34 PM CDT up reply actions

time to play my trump card

~~Spencer Tollackson~~ I mean Bobby Jackson

what you say here can, and will, be used against you

by GopherNation on Mar 30, 2009 3:16 PM CDT up reply actions

Leaving Rick Rickert...

..and Stan Humphries in the deck. Well, I’ll break out my David Rivers and Orlando Woolridge!

by JG2112 on Mar 30, 2009 5:10 PM CDT up reply actions

And....

…the latest Tubby rumor is that Virginia offered him $3.2 million, a house and the use of two cars.

Gopherhole is reporting he turned it down though nothing is confirmed.

If he turned that down, he is the Man.

by JG2112 on Mar 30, 2009 1:08 PM CDT reply actions

That Was A Rumor (Not A Firm Report)

And Gopherhole would have no idea (since it was a Virginia based RUMOR).

by FortyYearCatFan on Mar 30, 2009 3:44 PM CDT up reply actions

well then they're fools

for having written it.

by JG2112 on Mar 30, 2009 5:11 PM CDT up reply actions

You Could Stopped At The Subject Line

Gopher Hole is more and more A Ship Of Fools.

Not ALL of course. But WAY too many of them.

by FortyYearCatFan on Mar 30, 2009 7:11 PM CDT up reply actions

I had to laugh at this comment...

on “Sea Of Blue” talking about respective conferences and why Calipari would choose Kentucky and why not hire Izzo:
“there’s no comparison between CUSA and even the Big Ten.”
Ahhh, excuse me. How many teams came from the SEC vs the Big 10? What conference is in the Final Four and not one team from the SEC?

by COJOMAY on Mar 30, 2009 2:26 PM CDT reply actions