People have been fairly hard on the Gophers lately and I believe that at this moment the negativity is unwarranted.  In a sports town with the Timberwolves and the inevitable crumbling of the Vikings this current Gopher team should offer some reason for optimism.

Obviously being a Minnesota sports fan will lead a person to the absolute brink of insanity, but I have been sent on a mission to teach moderation in expectations when it comes to being a sports fan.

I couldn't agree with Insight News more.  I don't want to get too excited, not too low or too high, but this team gives reason for tempered enthusiasm.  Are we good enough to win the Big Ten this year?  Not a chance, but is this team vastly improved with a foundation for future success.

So as far as the Gophers go, give Happy Brewster a chance. Sure they have had a tough stretch at the end of the season, but they certainly are a lot better than anyone thought they would be. To jump on Brewster and the Boys now, would be like jumping on Barack Obama in 2010 because he had only fixed the economy and housing, but there weren't enough cars on the road that use corn fuel. Hope springs eternal, but common sense and patience spring sanity. Also keep in mind that 'fan' is short for 'fanatical'.

• Kirk Ferentz interview.  Some typical coach quotes during game week.  Last week we played good and beat another team that played good.  This week's opponent  good, my team good, should be good game.
  
• The Hopkins Royals are currently ranked #22 in the USA Today top 25.  Hopkins is relevant for a couple reasons.  One, it is where I currently reside and two, the Royals are led by future Gopher Royce White (you may have known this).  
• This little nugget gleaned from the end of Kent Youngblood's Gridiron Gold blog is absolutely priceless.  He first notes that Tim Brewster was here for the Gopher's very first game in the Metrodome as a member of the Illini.  That is an interesting tid bit on it's own.  Then?  The big finish...
  

  It was 1982 the 19th-ranked Gophers were 3-0 entering their home conference opener. The Gophers led 24-20 entering the fourth quarter before losing 42-24 to an Illini team headed to the Rose Bowl. The Gophers didn’t win another home game until 1984.

  Who would have guessed it would lead to nearly three decades of similar debacles.
• It is basketball season and Rush the Court isn't easing into their favorite season.  They are parralleling ESPN's marathon of hoops by live blogging along with them.  It began for them 11/17 @ 11:45 pm and Part II ended liks this...
  

  7:56pm — I’m ridiculously tired. 

  There it is.  THE WALL. 

  The energy drinks have worn off — QUICK.  It feels like a bear has wrapped itself around my neck and will not let go.  The bear doesn’t want to eat me.  He wants me to lay down and watch the TV for about 6 nanoseconds until I fall asleep.  I must run from him.  Syracuse held on 76-71, by the way.

  Someone should head over to jstevrt's house to make sure he is OK before he starts up again.
• Finally if you are a proponent of Tim Brewster and want to seem him stick around and establish the Gophers as a destination program, then this is a a bit of good news.  The University of Texas has locked up their defensive coordinator, Will Muschamp and more importantly has named him Mack Brown's successor.  This is bad news for any school with a coaching vacancy, but is good news for Gopher fans as there is no doubt Brewster would leave Minnesota if he ever had the opportunity to coach the Longhorns.

We still have a game remaining but it's never too early to start looking to post season awards.  The EE-ES-PEE-EN blogger assigned to the Big Ten is giving his first draft of All-Big Ten first and second teams.  This is highly unofficial and doesn't mean anything except look how far we have come.  Adam's list includes...

First Team

WR-Eric Decker
DL - Willie VanDeSteeg
CB-Traye Simmons

Second Team

QB-Adam Weber
CB-Marcus Sherels

In case you didn't notice that is three players on first or second team defense!  Decker is a given, and Weber has a great shot at second team.  But two players on the first team defense?  And a walk-on receiver turned corner who is second team All-Big Ten as a junior?  Incredible.

There is a great chance that Simmons and Sherels will not sniff first or second team, but the fact that someone who's sole job has been to intently watch Big Ten football has determined that at the very least these guys are worthy of consideration says a lot about how far this defense has come. 

Thoughts?  Anybody else belong in the conversation?

• This was a week ago but the Denver Post did a story on Brewster.  His ties to some former coaching greats like Mack Brown, Marty Schottenheimer (who would be a great replacement for Childress by the way) and Mike Shanahan have given him a pretty extensive network of people to go to.
  

  Brewsters' three greatest mentors have been Texas coach Mack Brown, whom he assisted at North Carolina and Texas; Marty Schottenheimer, whom he assisted at the San Diego Chargers; and Shanahan.

  Shanahan taught Brewster everything from how to dissect film to the atmosphere you create. I don't see much Shanahan in Brewster. Shanahan is corporate and calculating; Brewster is fire and brimstone. Talk to Brewster for 10 minutes and suddenly you want to winterCreate Story: SB Nation: The Daily Gopher in International Falls.

  It is way too early to know much about Brewster other than he is passionate and a very good recruiter.  If he truly picked up things from the guys listed above he also stands a chance to be a very good football coach.
• The Star Trib's Rachel Blount has done a really good article on the Iowa / Minnesota rivalry.  The story behind Floyd of Rosedale is intriguing and the animosity between the two fan bases is certainly different today than it was in mid-30s. 
  
• On what I believe was the first play of the fourth quarter, Willie VanDeSteeg set a school record for career tackles for loss.  After a very disappoining junior season it is nice to see WVDS bounce back and have a genuinely strong senior season.

At the time, I said Tim Brewster made the right call. It was the end of the first half. The Gophers were up 21-7. We had just recovered a fumble to stymie a Wisconsin drive. As Brewster was running out the clock, some in the game thread questioned the move. They suggested we should try and set up a field goal to end the half.

I instead was thinking about how aggression at the end of a half hurt the Gophers against Northwestern. I imagine that's what Brewster was thinking too. I can see both points of view, but hindsight being what it is, I'm inclined to say my initial call was wrong and so was Brewster's.

Having to read a Wisconsin fan state the following hurts:

As distasteful as it may be to say, Jefferson’s scary injury seems now to have been the turning point of the game, perhaps sucking some life out of Minnesota and providing Wisconsin with a rallying point. Consider this: The result of the play that injured Jefferson was a fumble recovered by Minnesota, giving them the ball on their own 21-yard-line with 2:05 remaining on the clock and two time outs. Instead of attempting to score — and the Gophers were at that point having about as much trouble moving the ball on Wisconsin as John Madden has trouble inhaling a tender and juicy turducken — Gopher coach Tim Brewster, either feeling overconfident with his 14-point lead or thinking it unsavory to score again on a team that just had one of its players leave on a stretcher, ran out the clock.

What do you think? Was it the right call Brewster made?

• Without giving any justification or telling us where he went to speak to a soothsayer, Charley Walters tells us that Paul Carter will lead the Gophers in scoring this year. I'd be willing to bet Shooter that Lawrence Westbrook leads the team in scoring.
• Sticking with the PiPress, Phil Miller opines that the "Colton Iverson era of Gopher basketball" has begun. Iverson did have a very nice game defensively Saturday night with nine blocks against BGSU. But the Iverson era?
• Proof anything is possible: Pat Reusse has a somewhat positive article about Gophers football.
• I know this is just some random blog, but this is why I harp on the negative perception around Tubby Smith's recruiting ability. "Tubby was a good in-game coach, but not a recruiter." I'm so sick of hearing this. Do UK fans realize Smith's 2008 and 2009 classes have arguably been superior to UK's?
• Good news for those that want that bronzed pig. Eric Decker is expected to play against Iowa.
• Don Lucia's boys kept their undefeated streak a live with a win and a tie this weekend against Michigan Tech. Gopher Puck Live has more on Alex Kangas' first shutout of the year on Sunday.

It's gameday!

Excuse my excitement, but the college basketball season is my favorite time of year. November and December kick off with interesting match-ups all across the country in various tournaments. Then come January, as our lawns glisten with snow, there's nothing better than a Saturday afternoon of college basketball.

Unlike the NBA, in most every game, you see the passion. Many of these kids dreamt of playing college basketball. Many of them are living their dream and you can tell.

The Gophers' 2008-09 journey begins tonight when they open up Williams Arena to the NABC Classic. The opponents are nothing to write home about. But tonight at 8 p.m. central time on BigTenNetwork.com, the Gophers will open their season against Concordia-St. Paul. On Saturday at the same time and same place the Gophers host the MAC's Bowling Green. And the three-game round-robin winds down Sunday at 6 p.m., again online, against Georgia State.

The Gophers are obvious favorites to go 3-0, but I expect some tense moments, more than a few miscues and some nerves among the 5 new Gophers. I can't wait!

GN is heading to Madison tonight to cover the football Gophers tomorrow. I'll be here with a game thread tonight. Since the game is only on BTN online, if you're watching the game you might as well join the conversation here as well.

I'll also be back later this afternoon with some items to watch this weekend. Forgive me if I don't preview Concordia St. Paul!

• The Gophers communications team has a breakdown of the participants in the NABC Classic and the new look Gophers here. And this tidbit: Did you know the last time Williams Arena hosted a tournament was the Pillsbury Classic in 1981?
• Big Ten speed baby! Apparently all Big Ten basketball teams are going to employ a fast pace of play this season. Big Ten Geeks has all the pertinent links, though Todd Lickliter and Bill Carmody are apparently holding out.
• Here's a pretty well done Big Ten basketball preview. We're going to wait on our conference predictions until closer to Big Ten season.
• Minnesota wrestling fan? This wrestling forum has good things to say about J. Robinson and notes some things to look at in 2009.
• Despite his season tailing in off (in part due to injuries) Tim Brewster remains a candidate for the Tennessee job according to news sources culled by Football Rumor Mill. Texas Tech coach Mike Leach would seem to me to be the most attractive on the list. North Carolina coach Butch Davis has said he's not interested. Meanwhile, David Climer of The Tennessean has this to say about the Vols coaching search: "Personally, I'd gravitate toward Tim Brewster at Minnesota because of his live-wire personality and relentless recruiting style. If you can sign blue-chip recruits at Minnesota, you should be able to one-up that at UT."
• Badgercentric tries to answer this question: How good are Brewster's Gophers?
• This writer says the Big Ten basketball race is a three team battle with Purdue, Michigan State and Wisconsin. I just want to remind everyone that very few people at this time last year picked Purdue to do much of anything.

Via Jerry Tipton's UK basketball blog I learned last night that Tubby Smith will be a featured guest on ESPN's recruiting show on tap for Friday.

Here's the release:

The ESPNU College Basketball Signing Day Special will be televised Friday, Nov. 14, from 4 - 6 p.m. ET during college basketball’s early signing day period, which begins today (Wednesday, Nov. 12).  The program will showcase several men’s college basketball coaches and top basketball recruits from the ESPNU 100 player rankings.  ESPNU anchor Lowell Galindo will be joined in studio by ESPN Scouts Inc. basketball recruiting analyst Paul Biancardi, who will provide in-depth analysis of top recruits and recruiting classes from around the country.  Special guest players will include No. 1 Xavier Henry, SG (Putnam City H.S., Oklahoma City, Okla.), No. 3 John Henson, PF (Sickles H.S., Tampa Fla.), No. 14 Abdul Gaddy, PG (Bellarmine Preparatory School, Tacoma, Wash.) and No. 30 Michael Snaer, SG (Rancho Verde H.S., Moreno Ranch, Calif.), who will announce his college decision between UCLA, Kansas, Missouri, Florida State and Marquette.  Coach Tubby Smith (Minnesota) and coach Jay Wright (Villanova) will also make appearances.

This may seem like a small thing, and maybe it is, but I don't remember the Minnesota basketball program getting this type of national attention, since, well Jan Ganglehoff. This has also got to annoy some of the UK Tubby haters who said he couldn't recruit. Somehow I doubt ESPN would have Tubby on their recruiting show if he couldn't recruit.

And why is Tubby getting this attention? Well, Scout recruiting analyst Paul Biancardi had this to say about Tubby's recruiting class on an ESPN chat.

I love Tubby's class. It's filled with athleticism, size and skill. This is a Top 20 class. I'd be very excited if I was a Gopher fan.

• Tim Brewster and Bret Bielema apparently don't like one another very much. Good. Better dead ....
• Shocker! Apparently the Gophers need others to step up offensively while Eric Decker is out. This is total crazy talk.
• The Wisconsin State Journal (courtesy of the BTN) has more on the emerging dislike between Brewster and Bielema. They article also chronicles all that was last year's trash-talk filled bout.
• Myron Medcalf at the STrib put together a feature piece on Minnesota recruit Royce White.
• Now this I like to hear. Joel Maturi and company are trying to convince the NCAA to bring the FInal Four to Minneapolis in 2014, 2015 or 2016.

Even after a couple losses the coaching rumor mill hasn't died down for Tim Brewster.  We still get multiple e-mails a day for stories tying Brewster to Tennessee or other vacancies.  Well the Tennessee blog Third Saturday in Blogtober has finally given their Tim Brewster entry in their Better Know a Candidate series of potential candidates for the Tennessee vacancy.

I really like Tim Brewster because he knows how important recruiting is and he’s good at it, but he looks to me like he could be the next Ron Zook. Think about it, he’s likable, and a good recruiter, but can he compete with the coaches in the SEC in recruiting or on the field? He just needs more experience as a head coach for me to believe he’s not just a flash in the pan.

I hope he doesn't have to compete with coaches in the SEC more than once during the regular season and maybe a bowl game.

Ultimately I agree with the take that it is too soon to determine anything about Brewster except that he is a great recruiter.  A year ago I preached that you can't crucify him after one season and we also cannot declare him the next Bernie Bierman after this 7-3 season.  It is all too early.  I doubt he'll get an offer too good to refuse based only on this season.

• Gopher hockey has moved up in the polls to #2 in the nation.  After tieing and then beating New Hampshire, Minnesota moved up two spots and sits behind Boston University.
• More crazy coaching rumor mill business.  Brewster starts the season on the hot seat, then takes his team to 7-1 and he gets mentioned for every coaching vacancy in D1.  Iowa's Kirk Ferentz has moved from the hotseat to the NFL rumor mill with one win over Penn State (I think they were ranked or something).  
• Not sure if you heard, but Eric Decker will not be playing this weekend in Madison. 
• Varsity Blue wraps up the Gopher/Michigan game from their perspective.
• Down With Goldy has updated his site.  It is black and looks sharp.  He quickly marks the Gophers as the #1 team that sucked over the weekend.
• And Buck Bravo gives an accurate run down of the good, the bad and the ugly from the Gopher loss to Michigan. 

The late edition of the Golden Nuggets.

Gary Parish of CBSSports has released his first NCAA Tournament projection and the Gophers?  Well they are on the bubble.  There are a few games yet to be played before March 15th (Selection Sunday), but starting on the bubble is a baby step from last year. 

I really feel that this team will be an NCAA Tournament team.  We are less experienced than a year ago but we are more athletic.  I expect we will defend better than a year ago and we may struggle with offense early but come February our guard play will really carry us.  We will not be dominant and I'd be shocked if we came close to the second weekend of the tournament but I'm on record that we will be playing in the NCAA Tournament this year.

• Big Sports Central says St. Paul is the best overall hockey town in the country.  The Wild are one thing but the passion of Gopher hockey fans is what put us over the top.
• While we are on the topic of lists, T.O. Sports ranks Gopher basketball shooting guard, Blake Hoffarber as the sixth best sixth man in the country.  Hard to argue this one, although the Hoff isn't the most explosive player on the team he is a dangerous scorer that requires the defense to know where he is at at all times. 
• The Gopher women's soccer team has had a remarkable turnaround this season and finished second in the Big Ten tournament this past weekend losing to a dominant Penn State team.  The team that finished 20-3 now moves on to the NCAA Tournament and they will host a regional which includes Marquette, South Dakota State and the region's top seeded Colorado.  Bracket PDF.
• Badger wide receiver and MInnesota native, David Gilreath was recently named the Big Ten co-Offensive Player of the Week.  Think this speed receiver would look good returning punts and playing opposite Decker?
  
• This gets bumped up from the comments.  Tubby Smith has a new website and it is incredible.  The site has some cool videos, pics, music and is likely a valuable recruiting tool.  
• Speaking of Tubby and his recruiting, it is expected that his current class of verbal commitments will be a consensus top 20 class.  The kids can begin signing their letter of intents on Wednesday and that should wrap things up for the Gophers.  Marcus Fuller of the PP says we are #20 according to Rivals ranking and #12 by Hoopscooponline.
• Sticking with the PP if you didn't notice this before, they outlined some of the incentives embedded in Brewster's contract.  Looks like he'll be in line for a $25K bump this year but lets hope he gets into that six figure bonus range next year!
  

  BOWL APPEARANCE

  a) National championship game appearance: $300,000
  b) National championship game victory: $50,000 in addition
  c) BCS bowl game appearance that is not a national title game: $200,000
  d) New Year's Day bowl or post-Jan. 1 bowl that is not a BCS game: $100,000
  e) Bowl game appearance not covered above: $25,000

  BIG TEN FINISH

  a) Big Ten champion (or tie): $200,000
  b) Big Ten second place (or tie): $75,000

After two exhibition basketball games it seems a lot of people are asking questions about Devron Bostick. A JUCO transfer that came to Minnesota with some decent hype, Bostick has apparently struggled in two exhibition games. I'd be lying if I said I watched these games. I haven't. They are exhibitions, which to me sounds a lot like a scrimmage.

But let me just say . .... Whatever. These are two SCRIMMAGES!!.

First we have Myron Medcalf reporting that Bostick has been intimidated by Tubby Smith.

During Thursday’s game, Smith said he pulled Bostick aside to ask him what was wrong. Bostick told Smith that he was intimidated by him. Smith told Bostick to “get used to it … because I’m going to be here.” Not only is Bostick struggling with a new system, but he’s also trying to get over the reality that he’s being coached by Smith and he’s playing in the Big Ten. Smith said he still has confidence in Bostick but said there are some things he has to “re-learn” because he’s been with another team for the past two seasons.

Based on the practices and games I’ve watched so far, Bostick has a tendency to rush shots. He’s a proven scorer that will probably help his team out if he settles down once he gets into the game. But that’s easier said than done.

For someone like Bostick, who has probably gotten away with sheer athleticism and talent, it could come as a shell shock to have someone challenge your every move as I'm sure Tubby Smith does. Bostick probably used to have the green-light whenever he had the ball. Now he's on a team. Just like Lawrence Westbrook had to learn to let the game come to him instead of forcing his game, Bostick will have to learn the same thing.

From the Barn picked up ont the Bostick conversation in a post here. He writes "It could be nothing. It could be everything. It could last all season or be solved in one night."

Until we have more than two scrimmages to judge Bostick on, I think we should give the kid a little time to adjust.

• Oh, by the way, Tubby's Gophers won their second exhibition game 92-62. Paul Carter had 17 points and 7 rebounds. Westbrook led the team with 19 points. Devoe Joseph had 14. Ralph Sampson III had 12.
• I'm sure GN will have more (he has the football recruiting beat), but Ra'Shede Hageman has committed to play for Tim Brewster and the Gophers. He has looked like he could be a great tight end.
• At least the Gophers football team laying an egg Saturday made one Michigan fan--who really seemed like he needed it--happy.
• The Star Tribune's Jim Souhan wrote something I've been thinking myself: "Ten games into a supposedly transformative season and three weeks after what coach Tim Brewster called a "program-changing'' victory at Illinois, we still don't know if the Gophers are capable of beating a good team, or even a bad team playing decently for one afternoon."
• If you missed the Minnesota-New Hampshire series at Mariucci this weekend, Don Lucia's boys took another series 1-0-1. The Boston Globe has more on Minnesota's 6-2 Saturday night win.

Perhaps the most annoying thing about sports, and college sports in particular, is the coaching carousel. Not a day goes by now without something coming into my inbox pushing Tim Brewster as a potential new coach for some other program. Today it was this thread from Clemson fans.

There's no faulting fans of Clemson or Tennessee for speculating. After a long season, speculating about a potentially brighter future provides some comfort. But what frustrates me is coaches not fulfilling their committments to their schools. Think Nick Saban, Bobby Petrino, Ben Howland or just about every other college coach.

At some point, I'd like to see university presidents put a stop to this madness. Coaches, their agents and lawyeres manipulate the process and use leverage to get contract extensions and raises. Charley Walters of the PiPress notes that Joel Maturi is going to review Brewster's contract at year's end. I'm betting he gets a raise, especially if other jobs across the country aren't filled.

That's fine and good until the same coach decides to bolt for even greener pastures one year later. I know there's a free market argument that will be used to disagree with me, and that's fine. But these coaches are making multi-million salaries most of them. I tend to think they owe a little loyality to their employers. And if not them, then they owe a bit of loyality to the players they recruit.

I'll keep dreaming over here.

• Minnesota blogger Buck Bravo writes that similarities between Brewster's 2007 team and RichRod's 2008 Michigan team are few and far between.
• Anticipation for the men's hockey series this weekend against New Hampshire is growing. Star Tribune's Roman Augustoviz, who does a great job of covering an assortment of UofM sports, quotes Don Lucia calling the series a "measuring stick."
• Jim Tressel apparently didn't like being asked questions about the suspension of Buckeye Ray Small. He cut off a press conference after four minutes. My question is this: Has anyone asked Tim Brewster specifics behind Ralph Spry's suspension? I'm serious, it's possible I missed it somewhere.
• The latest reason to get over your woe is me, we lost to Northwestern doldrums: Maize n Brew has a post titled "All I Want To See." Guess what they want? OUR JUG!
• If you haven't heard, Michigan quarterback Steven Threet is "very questionable" for Saturday according to Michigan Sports Center. MSC writes that "Is there any way that Michigan can just forfeit the Minnesota game and start worrying about Northwestern instead? I ask that because there's no point to even play the game if Steven Threet doesn't start at quarterback for Michigan." I know Michigan's quarterback situation is abysmal, but for Wolverines fans, perhaps they should look to last week, when the Gophers allowed Northwestern back-up Mike Kafka to earn Big Ten offensive player of the week honors.
• That's all for today's Nugz. You see anything of interest?

Wake up, University of Minnesota fans. One week ago, many of you were looking at your schedules and talking about January bowl games. Now, after one heartbreaking loss (these things happen in sports) it seems Gophers fans are back to feeling sorry for themselves.

Well, WAKE UP. It's Jug week. Michigan is coming to town.

And Tim Brewster has turned this program around so far that he is a semi-finalist for the national coach of the year award.

Let me tap my inner Joe Biden and repeat that, Tim Brewster is a semi-finalist for the national coach of the year award.

Yes, last weekend was a letdown. Losing to Northwestern always is. But we can bounce back this week, beat Michigan and capture the Jug. If we do that, we'll be back on track to one of the most amazing seasons in Minnesota football history.

• And don't write off that January bowl berth! Here's Herb Gould of the Chicago Sun-Times (reprinted by the BTN) stating that MSU and Minnesota are the odds on favorites to represent the Big Ten in Jaunary in either the Outback or Capital One Bowl--both on New Year's Day.
• The Gophers are worried enough about a Jonathan Williams injury that he had an MRI, reports the Pi-Press. They are hoping it's not a hernia.
• Sticking with the Pi-Press, Tom Powers had a piece yesterday on Minnesota's desire to take the Jug back. Winning the Jug would be tremendous Jug, so get fired up about it!
• Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune has picked up on what we've been talking about here: the offensive line. Here we are in the final stretch of the season and this group is still in flux.
• Remember shortly after Tubby Smith was hired at the university, there were rumblings that he was trying to persuade Jai Lucas and Patrick Patterson to attend the U. Smith was pursuing them both at Kentucky and Patterson eventually signed with the Wildcats and Lucas eventually picked Florida. Well, Lucas is transferring out of Florida. Wonder if Tubby will pick up the phone?