Golden Nugz - 07.16.13

There is so much coverage both locally and nationally on Tyus Jones, Rashad Vaughn and Reid Travis. I could almost fill up a daily Nugz with stories just on those guys.

The big news now is the proposed package deal of Tyus Jones and Jahlil Okafor.

• ESPN did a story on the package deal.
• Rivals.com also had a story with an intriguing quote from Okafor. "So we're both looking at our home-state schools; we both feel our home-state schools have a lot to offer. He's trying to talk to me about Minnesota and I'm trying to talk to him about Illinois." Interesting, at least a little bit.
• Amelia has a bunch of notes from her trip to the Peach Jam last week.
• Not to be forgotten is Jarvis Johnson, a 2015 point guard who plays for DeLaSalle.
• The MN Daily sat down with Johnson to talk.
• Marcus chats with J.P. Macura about his Gopher scholarship offer.
• Ameila also catches up with J.P. Macura. The 2014 shooting guard who you should pay close attention to as well.
• Yahoo!'s The Dagger looks at 5 programs with the most at stake this summer. Minnesota makes the list with a new coach who needs to make a major recruiting splash.
• David Sharma has a quick post on a potential Minnesota vs. Louisville match-up in the Vikings new stadium. That would be fun.

FOOTBALL (finally, I know)

• Philip Nelson is profiled by Chip Scoggins as the old man, at 19!
  

  Nelson dissected his 2012 season in the film room this summer. He has watched every game twice - the first time focused on what plays worked against certain defenses, the second time zeroed in on third downs specifically. He has a stack of notebook binders in his bedroom filled with notes, concepts and opponents' defensive tendencies.
  
  At the request of coaches, Nelson also identified plays that left him in "funky" situations. For instance, on one play, he had a short underneath route to a receiver moving to his right. But a pass rusher from his right forced him to move to his left, causing an awkward throw. Nelson and the rest of the quarterbacks created their own drill in individual workouts to simulate that exact scenario in case it happens again.

Other Stuff

• The Gopher women's soccer team had their leading scorer transfer to Stanford. Good luck ever getting a job in this town again!
• Brian Cardinal is possibly going to be a Purdue assistant coach? Shouldn't there be rules against allowing that thug back into the Big Ten?
• Former Gopher baseball player Mike Kvasnicka was traded to the Twins this offseason and is competing at their high A minor league team in Fort Myers. Jim Souhan profiles.