In cased you missed in this weekend amid actual excitement surrounding the U's football program, there was plenty of basketball recruiting news.
Two Minnesota basketball products have committed elsewhere. And a Colorodo center that Tubby Smith offered decided to go elsewhere. Mike Broghammer, a 6'8 forward from Minnetonka, and Sam Dower from Osseo committed to Notre Dame and Gonzaga respectively.And Trevor Williams, a would-be project center who stands at 6'11, 250, decided to stay close to home and play at Colorado State.
According to Scout, Broghammer had scholarship offers from Southern Illinois, Penn State, Santa Clara, North Dakota-State and a few others. The Gophers were never seriously involved in Broghammer's recruitment.
On the other hand, Smith made a late run at Dower, who had been courted by Mark Few and Gonzaga for months. But Dower committed to be a Zag this weekend after visiting the Pacific Northwest. He told Rivals that Gonzaga rolled out the proverbial red carpet for him. Dower, a 6'9, 220 pound power forward, had narrowed hist list of schools down to four, including Minnesota, George Mason, Cal and Marquette.
Tubby's 2009 class has two scholarships remaining after including 5-star Royce White's verbal. Rodney Williams, who reportedly has trimmed his list to Minnesota and Santa Clara is a logical bet to grab one of the spots. After that, Tubby will have to lock down either a big man--Torin Walker--or a point guard--Darius Smith. We shall see.
- For the first time in a couple years, I enjoyed reading the day-after coverage from the opposition. This piece from an Ohio paper quotes Greg Brandon as saying the Falcons let the almost full-capacity crowd down. Sweet.
- Ohio State dropped to #5 in both polls this week after a near embarrassment against Ohio University. Maybe they missed Beanie Wells, but that looked nothing resembling a top-5 team in the country. Even the partisan Eleven Warriors agrees, suggesting before the polls came out that the Buckeyes would be lucky to stay in the top-6.
- In a round-up of Big Ten play, Boiled Sports gives the Gophers "big ups."
- Michigan's win against Miami (Ohio) was as painful to watch as Ohio State's over Ohio U. Michigan Sports Center provides a thorough recap here.Jon at TNABACG gave someone named Clint Dempsey his #1 star for Saturday despite the Gophers throttling a Bowling Green team on the road.
- I enjoyed this line at Down with Goldy: Meanwhile, over at the Daily Gopher, Gopher Nation is seriously delusional, predicting a Gopher victory, while PJS is more intelligent, seeing a seven point Bowling Green victory. They're all wrong. Bowling Green 49, Minnesota 28." That didn't work out so well for me.
- Finally, if you're looking for injury updates on Duane Bennett, Nedward Tavale or Jeff Tow-Arnett, you'll have to wait until tomorrow. Reports indicate we won't know more until then.