Fanshots

Rachel Banham Named Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year

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Former Gopher basketball star Rachel Banham was named the 2015-16 Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year on Wednesday. Banham was selected by a panel of voters over every other nominated female athlete from every sport from all fourteen schools. She is the first Gopher basketball player to win the award and third Gopher overall after swimmer Gretchen Hegner in 2007 and hockey's Amanda Kessel in 2013.

Banham finished her collegiate career as the Big Ten's all-time leading scorer with 3,093 points. She was named the Big Ten Player of the Year in March. Banham holds Minnesota’s game (60), season (914) and career (3,093) scoring records as well as all three 3-point records with 10 in a game, 119 in a season and 354 in her career..

Banham was drafted fourth overall by the Connecticut Sun in the WNBA draft and is averaging 4.1 points per game in just over an average of 11 minutes per game in her rookie season.

Michigan State's Denzel Valentine won the Big Ten's Men's Athlete of the Year.

Talking Minnesota Basketball with BT Powerhouse

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I talked with Thomas Beindit about Minnesota's off-season and expectations for next year. Some of the inarticulateness on my part was because I was trying to corral a dog. Blogger life is the definition of Bourgeoisie.

Gopher Basketball to Play Vanderbilt in Sioux Falls???

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In a tweet that apparently got lost by everyone, not just me, ESPN basketball reporter Jeff Goodman reported Tuesday that Minnesota would take on Vanderbilt at the Pentagon in Sioux Falls this season. It would be the second season in a row the Gophers would play a neutral site game in Sioux Falls after falling to Oklahoma State last season.

Goodman appears to be the only media member reporting this game so far as it does not appear either of the Gopher beat writers or either of the schools has made any comment on the potential matchup. If it does occur, it would be the fourth confirmed major conference team on the Gophers non-conference schedule in the 2016-17 season after a road game at Florida State and home games against St. John's and fellow SEC member Arkansas.

The only other non-conference game confirmed so far for the Gophers is a home game against Northern Illinois. The rest of the non-conference schedule is still a mystery, but it will be expected that if you like sweet pastries, you will have your fill at Williams Arena.

In any event, playing major conference teams, even in neutral locations is still a positive. The next step is defeating these teams, which is still a work in progress.

TDG Gopher Football Scholarship Grid (updated)

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Page has been recreated and new Scholarship Grid Dashboard is ready for your consumption. (bear with us as I try to get the new scholarship grid to replace the old on under the Library dropdown)

Minnesota Has 500-1 Odds to win College Football Playoff

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ESPN's Brett McMurphy has the list of the Las Vegas Superbook's odds for teams to win the 2017 College Football Playoff. On twitter he is responding to fan's tweets about their team's odds to win the title. As you can see above, The Gophers have 500-1 odds to win the title in 2017. Not great, but far from the worst on the list either.

Some other odds of note:

Alabama 5-1

Clemson/ Michigan/ Oklahoma 7-1

Ohio State 8-1

Florida State/ LSU 12-1

Notre Dame/ Tennessee 15-1

Michigan State/ Stanford/ USC 30-1

Florida/Georgia/Ole Miss/ UCLA/Wisconsin 40-1

TCU 50-1

Baylor 60-1

Nebraska 100-1

Arkansas 100-1

Penn State 300-1

Indiana/Rutgers 1000-1

So you see....Vegas thinks the Gophers don't have a great chance. But it could be worse. Only 70 teams are actually listed....and Minnesota is one of them.

Laquon Treadwell’s brother likely to play for Illinois

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Gophers aren't very interested in Juawan Treadwell, and he'll likely play for Illinois.

Gophers to Introduce Helmet Stickers Next Season

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Per the Pioneer Press' Andy Greder, the Gophers football team will introduce new helmet stickers next season. Players will be rewarded with small bricks on their helmets for big plays, similar to what Ohio State and Florida State have done for years. Personally, I like it. I've always been a fan of the helmet stickers. But I'll be interested to see what the bricks look like.

The Plane Truth: the University of Minnesota needs to give Richard Pitino a bigger travel budget

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Pitino has this team in a mess, but his overuse of private planes isn’t a problem for the University of Minnesota.

Video of Mark Coyle's Press Conference

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Did you miss Mark Coyle's press conference this afternoon. Read our recap to get our reactions and then watch the full presser above!