Golden Nugz 03.19.10

by GopherNation on Mar 19, 2010 4:00 AM CDT in Golden Nuggets

We haven't forgotten about Nugz this week, just focused on the NCAA Tournament.

Walter Bond was on the 1990 Gopher team that made a run to the Elite Eight (I think that one still counts). He lost his E8 ring (it was stolen), but it was miraculously found in a recent police raid.

"I don't think I knew how much the ring meant to me until I picked it up," Bond said Tuesday, hours after he was reunited with the ring at the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office. "It was incredible."

Kind of a cool story and gets me to thinking about just how cool it would be to see a run to the Elite Eight. It all starts later this morning. Bond is a motivational speaker, he needs to be in that locker room this morning with his ring and do some of that speaking and motivating.

Big Ten Geeks have a lengthy preview of the Gopher's pod. No real predictions but a nice breakdown of all four teams. Most interestingly, they found a stat that ranks Minnesota 346th out of 347 in consistency. I'm not real familiar with this stat but I generally trust KenPom stats and maybe we aren't really the 346th least consistent team in the country but clearly we are inconsistent.
This is a great article on Tubby Smith. It starts from his post game interview after Kentucky lost to Kansas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament a few years ago.

Fast forward to the 2010 Milwaukee sub-regional, where Smith looked happy, relaxed and completely at ease with his calling, no matter that the Gophers had taken a 335-mile bus ride to reach the Bradley Center.

I am so glad he is our coach. He isn't perfect and he's not a miracle worker but he is elite and we are luck to have him.
Brent Yarina of BTN had Iverson and Joseph on his B10 Tourney All-Tournament team.
Tubby took the time yesterday to promote Vince Taylor as an assistant who is ready to move on and be a head coach. Personally I don't want to see him leave, but for his sake I'd love to see him get a good job somewhere outside of the midwest.
Black Shoe Diaries previews the NCAA Wrestling Championships with predictions of All-American's by weight class.
Pioneer Press gives us 5 Keys for the Gophers.

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Comments

Overrated

Can we please make sure that everyone chastises the Big East like they would the Big Ten? You know that if the Big Ten had a miserable day like the Big East did, everyone would be talking incessantly about the conference being overrated.

So let’s start the battle cry here first and make sure it makes it all over the other message boards around SB Nation. The Big East is officially overrated.

by rencito on Mar 19, 2010 7:00 AM CDT reply actions

Oh No

KFAN this morning said CBS is reporting that “Auburn is going to make a very aggressive push to hire Tubby, and they are very close to hiring him”

"they're calling insane hogs???"

by CrowTrobot on Mar 19, 2010 7:48 AM CDT reply actions

Somehow I don't think Tubby will want to go back to the SEC to face UK every year.

Maroon and Gold Headquarters: The Daily Gopher

by PJS on Mar 19, 2010 8:05 AM CDT up reply actions

I hope not

I agree, UK is very powerful and he would probably lost 9 out of 10. Who would want that blow to your ego twice a year.

"they're calling insane hogs???"

by CrowTrobot on Mar 19, 2010 8:49 AM CDT up reply actions

As far as jobs go

Why would Tubby want to leave Minnesota? He will have all of his players next year coming off two straight NCAA appearances. Minnesota is in a better place than Auburn right now and in a better conference (top to bottom).

The only reason I could see him wanting this is because he likes being in the South for personal reasons. Everything is highly speculative, so I really see no use furthering the speculation. If it happens, it happens. Tubby, fans, etc, can all deal with this after the NCAA tournament.

by rencito on Mar 19, 2010 10:32 AM CDT reply actions