Bad Things Happen in Threes, Three Times Over

by Buck Bravo on May 27, 2010 3:01 AM CDT in Golden Nuggets

The bad news keeps rolling in for the University of Minnesota football and basketball programs. The cascade of unexpected misfortunes has yet to be answered with a single unexpected occurrence of good fortune. We're in the football and basketball off-season, so many fans may not be keeping up with everything happening in both programs. The hits just keep coming:

Jurors ruled yesterday that the University is obliged to pay Jimmy Williams nearly $1.25 million in an employment lawsuit which claimed that he was falsely promised a job by Tubby Smith. Fans can only hope that this incident is now in the past and doesn't influence Tubby to look elsewhere.
Apparently two Junior College football defensive backs from the 2010 class, Herschel Thornton and Dwight Tillman, are ineligible to play for Division 1 teams and have been sent home. The football program desperately needed these two in the defensive backfield.
Football recruiting coordinator Dan Berezowitz has been suspended for two weeks due to a self-reported recruiting violation involving Seantrel Henderson.
There are rumors that indefinitely suspended power forward Trevor Mbakwe may look to transfer. The basketball program would sorely miss him on the court.
There have also been rumors that blue chip basketball recruit Royce White, who sat out the 2009-2010 season, may also be looking to enroll elsewhere.
Point guard Justin Cobbs is transferring to California.
Point guard Al Nolen was ruled academically ineligible, while 5 star point guard recruit Corey Joseph, brother of current Gopher Devoe Joseph, committed to play for Texas alongside another great point guard.
Starting safety Kim Royston broke his leg in Spring practice. He may be back for the regular season, but can he return at 100%? Based upon what I've seen of Royston, he's a fighter who will have as good a chance of any at a full recovery by the start of the season. But still, this was a bad break for the team.
Kyle Theret, Sam Maresh, and Gary Tinsley have all been involved with alcohol-related incidents this Spring. All three are reportedly still on the team, but their leashes must be fairly short.

So here's the question that I pose for you. Be it by karma, justice, Yin-Yang, or the law of averages...what would it take to balance out all of these misfortunes?

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You also forgot, for fans of TCF, Bono breaking his back and this summer’s concert getting cancelled.

Here’s how karma pays Minnesota fans back: the mens’ hockey team rebounds, and Mike Leach settles his lawsuit and decides to pay Brewster’s buyout himself.

BTW, I was going to post the Thornton / Tillman news today. Way to vet those guys, AD staff. Here is the current depth chart at DB:

CB – Carter and …. Collado (dear God pass coverage) as starters, with either true freshmen as backups, or dudes the coaching staff has so much confidence in they felt they needed to bring in JUCOs in year four of their program to fill an immediate need.

S – Royston (broken leg) and Theret, with Lewis as backup, along with dudes the coaching staff has so much confidence in they felt they needed to bring in JUCOs in year four of their program to fill an immediate need.

Any complication in Royston’s recovery, or any injury to one of the other guys, will be terminal for this defense. If anyone needs to see what happens to a team that has no depth or experience in their secondary, queue up the last seven games of Michigan’s 2009 Big Ten season. They had 6 scholarship D-backs on the roster and were plugging holes in the dyke the entire year. And, that was with “guru approved talent,” and with nowhere near as difficult a schedule as Minnesota has this year.

by JG2112 on May 27, 2010 7:06 AM CDT reply actions

Tubby's suit

The Williams decision is apparently being appealed.
At least the gophers will lose in a nice stadium.
No bowl game to have to pay to travel to this year.
The football games will not be close enough to cause pain when they lose 11 times and
referees will not determine gopher loses.
Sid, one of the last living people to remember really good gopher teams, is 90.
This will be Brewster’s last year
The band is always decent

by bobbyspringfield on May 28, 2010 5:48 AM CDT reply actions