Golden Nugs: The Evening Edition

This is coming out in the evening because instead of having time to post it this morning I was driving around trying to find a parking spot for an hour. Never drive in a city, especially if that city is Washington DC. It will only bring you regret, sadness, and a complete hatred of patchwork urban planning.

On to the Nugs.

Gopher Football

Minnesota's spring is in the books and E$PN generically summarizes the developments. The way-too-early prediction? Tight ends will be important to the offense. Admittedly I'm not sure that's so much of a prediction as a description of Limegrover's offense, but I don't make the big bucks writing.

Gopher Basketball

The Men's team officially received letters of intent from Bakary Konate, Gaston Diedhiou, and Zach Lofton.

Niki Dawkins joined the Women's basketball staff. Dawkins will the top assistant and recruiting coordinator for the Gophers, positions she held previously at VCU.

Gopher Wrestling

The Gophers signed Luke Destiche from Luxemburg-Casco High School in Wisconsin. He was 44-0 as a senior and the Division 2 state champion in Wisconsin.

Gopher Baseball/Softball

Sweeps are fun. Both the baseball and softball teams swept Penn State. After winning the first game at Siebert Field, 2-1, the baseball team recorded two shutouts in the Saturday doubleheader.

Freshmen pitcher Sara Groenewegen pitched her first no-hitter.

Awesome Longform of the week

I have a general rule that whenever Spencer Hall writes something I read it immediately. His piece for the mothership on going to a Fenerbahçe-Galatasaray game in Istanbul is a phenomenal investigation into fandom, soccer, and violence, with wonderful asides like the following:

[I]t is very much worth noting that the most recent round of fan restrictions between the big three of Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe, and Besiktas occurred after rioting broke out between Galatasaray and Besiktas supporters AT A WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL GAME.