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So there was some news yesterday. Before we get to the Tubby Smith stuff, let's cover some other significant events unfolding at the U.
Women's Hockey
This team went 41-0 and won their 2nd national championship in a row. That is impressive and it should be a big deal. Unfortuantely they were overshadowed by Gopher basketball in Round 2 of the NCAA Tournament (I refuse to acknowledge the play-in games as their own round) and then the Tubby firing.
GoAUpher was covering the women's Frozen Four like a blanket this weekend and you should go back to read his stuff. It was all kind of quickly buried by the Florida game and then yesterday's events.
- Amanda Kessel beat out two teammates to win the Patty Kazmaier Award.
- Recap of title game as they won their 2nd straight national title.
- And highlights of the title game. Congrats to the Gopher Women.
- SBnation.com even has a story on the Gopher Women.
Gopher Football
Opening press conference for Spring Practice was yesterday. Unfortunately the press conference started within 90 minutes of the Tubby story breaking.
- Joe Christensen was still covering football yesterday and has some notes from yesterday's press conference.
- Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press talks about the current absence of Andre McDonald and the depleted wideouts.
- Apparently Jack Lynn and Damien Wilson will be battling for the starting MLB role.
Gopher Basketball
Moving on to Gopher hoops and the Tubby Smith firing. There are so many links from all over the web. The gist of the national media is summed up by Michael Wilbon on PTI who said "Who does Minnesota think they are?" Apparently he was on board with Northwestern firing Bill Carmody but Wilbon may not realize is that over the past 5 seasons Tubby Smith has exactly 4 more wins than Carmody. 34-56 for Northwestern over the last five seasons, 38-52 for Smith. If you throw out this season, one in which Northwestern suffered massive injuries, they have the same Big Ten record over a 4-year stretch. I'm cherry-picking seasons now but the point is, Tubby Smith was only marginally more successful than Bill Carmody and if you want to talk about challenging places to win then Northwestern is unquestionably more challenging than Minnesota. #rant
- Alabama's SBN site wonders if Minnesota will court Anthony Grant. Remember that Tubby was rumored to be leaving Minnesota for that job a few years ago, funny stuff.
- GopherIllustrated has their hot board of Gopher coaching candidates.
- Atlanta Journal Constitution is very condescending in their recap of the Tubby firing.
- What about Jay Wright? VU Hoops, of the SBN family, talks about the likelihood of Wright leaving for Minnesota.
- Eamonn Brennan has a reasoned approach to the firing and can admit that it was time and that Gopher fans should be careful what we wish for because this will not be an easy job to fill.
- Roger Sherman, writing for SBnation.com also wonders what Minnesota was doing and asks questions about how good can Minnesota basketball be.
- A Sea of Blue weighs in on the Tubby firing but mostly from a Kentucky perspective.
- The Dagger sees this move as a big gamble for Minnesota.
- CBSSports.com uses a few experts to predict who the Gophers will hire. Andy Enfield, Flip Saunders and Ben Howland were their predictions. So that must mean we can scratch those names off the list? You can bet I'll be watching FGCU more closely this weekend.
- Marcus Fuller looks at Shaka Smart, he is the people's choice but it might be a really tough sell for Teague to land him.
- Amelia with a TON OF LINKs and some great quotes from Tom Izzo. This one is at the bottom of my list but it is a MUST CLICK.