Let's do this quickly.
Rush the Court has their first BCS rankings and matchups. This is a bit tongue-in-cheek but there are some interesting observations made, especially concerning our Gophers. They used the regular human polls plus 3 computer rankings (ESPN Insider RPI, Sagarin and KenPom). The Gophers rank 15th in the BCS standings largely due to their human poll rankings. But file this under the category of "Do the computers know something we don't?"
Minnesota (15th), Memphis (28th), and Illinois (33rd) are not in any computer top 25.
Interesting that the Gophers are outside of the top 25 in all of the computer rankings. We have a pretty good strength of schedule and have beat a couple good teams, but apparently the humans love us way more than the computers.
- Gopher baseball will be in a tricky situation this year with the Metrodome out of commission until March. Remember when they thought they could have it fixed in a few days and be ready for the Bears game? Gopher baseball has games in February including the DQ Classic and their Metrodome Tournament (that may have to be renamed).
"With 32 games at the Metrodome the well-being of the facility obviously has a big impact on our program," said Minnesota Head Coach John Anderson. "At this point, we are working with the opposing teams that are affected to make alternate arrangements. With the recent developments in this situation, we do not have any definitive answers regarding those plans. As soon as we finalize those arrangements we will release them publicly."
Practice may also be an issue, this is a real mess as it affects more than just the Gophers. There are about 300 baseball games that will have to be moved or canceled. - Here is a good article/interview taking a look at Indiana and Tom Crean's rebuilding project. It isn't going quite as planned but this is a young team with some talent. 2010 may not be their year but 2011 this could be a Tournament team. If they aren't happy with Tom Crean, we'll take him as the heir to Tubby.
- If you are into politics here is a mildly interesting story about Sen. John Thune's family. The GOP Senator's father played his college hoops as a Golden Gopher. Store that away as a Cliff Clavin "little known fact."
- Don Lucia will be moving Eric Bjugstad to center when he returns to the Gophers.
- Sporting News has an overview of Gopher Football, looking ahead.