Daily Nugz for 06-02-09

The excitement of Gopher baseball, the anticipation of Gopher football and out inability to let basketball go...the success of the Men's Track team has been largely ignored.  The Gopher men nearly swept the season ending awards.

• Track Athlete of the Year: Hassan Mead, Minnesota
• Field Athlete of the Year: Aaron Studt, Minnesota
• Track Athlete of the Championships: Hassan Mead, Minnesota
• Field Athlete of the Championships: Aaron Studt, Minnesota
• Freshman of the Year: Derek Drouin, Indiana
• Coach of the Year: Steve Plasencia, Minnesota

Mead has kind of dominated in his short Gopher career.  In his sophomore season he has won the Big Ten Cross Country Championships, the indoor distance titles (5K and 3K), both distance outdoor races (5K and 10K) and most recently won the Midwest Regional 5,000 meter title.

The Gophers will send 5 athletes to the NCAA championships.  Ben Blankenship (1500 M) joins teammates Hassan Mead (5,000 meters), Matt Fisher (high jump) and Aaron Studt (shot put) headed to the NCAA meet at the University of Arkansas on June 10-13.

• SLAM ONLINE | " USA Basketball 2009 Men’s U19 Team Trials Rosters Announce, PJS announced that RSIII was invited to tryouts, and here is the full tryout roster.
• Badger fans send message with decrease in UW football season-ticket renewals, that is just too bad the Badgers are losing season tickets.  A rebound year might be necessary for BB to keep his job.
• Gopher football has the 11th most difficult schedule according to Phil Steele.  This is not your Glen Mason schedule anymore.  Nearly a top 10 schedule and that does not include USC or potentially Texas down the road.
• You may recall that Joel Maturi was up for AD of the Year.  Unfortunately he did not win and was edged by Oklahoma AD, Joe Castiglione.  Maybe next year.
• Here are a few notes for you hockey fans on the draft combine.