Pictures of puppies, Pappy Van Winkle and listening to the Rolling Stones usually help me get over maddening setbacks. Last night, nothing helped. Winter of Welp....
Basketball
I actually want to spend as little time possible on this, so the quick roundup:
- AP: Tubby gon' Tubby, and throw some players under the bus.
- Fuller, with some Fullertweets.
Historically, when Tubby Smith calls out the Gophers, it usually backfires.
Instead of responding, the players have performed even worse when the team needed them the most.
Yep.
- OTS is rubbing off on the players, since they're all pointing fingers at each other now. Great.
- Rayno places the woes on poor shooting, plus more Tubby quotes:
"When you’re losing, people point the finger, that’s the way it starts," Smith said. "Instead of being it’s my fault, other things you have to deal with, you look at the refs, you look at the coach, it’s ‘somebody’s not doing something.’ And that’s what losers do."
Pretty much.
- From the Barn rants, then diagrams how you're supposed to take down the 1-3-1.
Football
- On to important EL SIDisms, and some news about roster attrition:
Brendan Beal, the Gophers linebacker who has had one knee problem after another, having torn his ACL three times, is taking a medical leave from the team. Everyone else on the Gophers with eligibility left will return except for defensive ends Matt Garin and Eric Jacques, who are graduating and moving on.
I don't exactly know what a "medical leave" is in the context of the NCAA's quagmire of rules, though I can only speculate that the most analogous situation was Xzavian Brandon taking some time off a few years back to recover from surgeries. In that sense, Beal is still a member of the team -in theory- and can return if he chooses to and his knee permits.
It's a shame, really, that the kid never got the chance to play football at the high level he began his college career with. At the very least, this season was a testament to his hard work and never giving up on living the dream of playing college ball -- a desire that still burned despite his 3rd ACL tear.
As for Garin and Jacques, this is more cut and dry. Both were redshirt juniors, both had experienced numerous injuries throughout their respective college careers and played sparingly the last two seasons. All three have graduated (Beal is taking graduate level quantitative finance courses), so APR hit is null. Best of luck to all three gents in their future endeavors.
Finally, EL SID did go on to mention Andre McDonald is still around and enrolled. Exhale.
- Speaking of Sid... a time warp.
- New locker room at the Gibson-Nagurski Complex? New locker room.
- RittenBRO has some early 2013 B1G Coach of the Year speculation in the latest WWL Chat.
- Michael Carter gets his due in the Big Ten player rankings.
- Former Gopher Tramaine Brock and his family are gearing up for the Super Bowl in nearby NAWLINS.
College Football
- Applicants for Wisconsin's head coaching gig did not include myself, GoAUpher or any other saboteurs but did elicit some weird filings.
- Go home NCAA, you're drunk.
- Ty Duffy's response to the "Has College Football Peaked?" firestorm that DODDDDD penned is to suggest college football become more like the NFL. I can't even muster up the strength after last night to sarcastically tear that down.
SMORGASBORD
- It really is only a matter of time before Oregon blows up Matthew Knight Arena and replaces it with this: