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?