Many thanks to GN for keeping this site fresh the last couple weeks during my hiatus.

And during my time away, the men's baseball team really picked up their play. This weekend against Michigan the Gophers took two out of three and moved into first place in the conference by .5 games. And that's a nice place to be, on top of the conference that is, with one week left in the regular season. Though as you can see here it's tight atop the conference.

The Gophers finish with three games at State College, Pa next Thursday-Saturday against the ninth place Nittany Lions.

• An All Big Ten NFL team looks pretty good to me, though it'd be nice to see more than one Gophers on the squad.
• Marcus Fuller of the PiPress has a nice story from Sunday's paper about Jacob Thomas and Chad Calceterra, arguably Minnesota's two top prospects in the basketball class of 2010. Thomas hasn't been offered yet by Tubby Smith because of apparent concerns about academic standing and Calcaterra has an offer but is keeping his options open.
• Marcus Fuller also has an interview with Harrison Barnes, Scout.com's #1 recruit in the country for the 2010 class. Barnes recently narrowed his list of schools to 12 and the Gophers made the cut. It looks like Barnes is impressed with Royce White and Rodney Williams. Good stuff from Fuller. 
• Congratulations to former Gopher Jack Simmons for earning a contract with the New York Jets after being signed as a free agent after the NFL Draft. (HT-Shooter).