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Here are some lunchtime nugs for you to digest:
Gopher Football:
In case you have been sleeping, spring practice starts today. All the usual sources have their previews:
Joe Christensen of the Star Tribune has a whole suite of articles this morning. He brings up five questions that the Gophers have going into spring practice.
He also looks into how Tracy Claeys wants to bring more physicality to the Gophers.
Additionally, Joe looks at how the Gophers can use Ryan Santoso at both punter and kicker next season, but would really like to not have to.
He also has this nugget from Claeys press conference yesterday that should make a lot of Gopher fans happy:
Correcting my earlier Tweet: Claeys plans to divide team into two squads and play an actual game for #Gophers spring game on April 9.
— JoeChristensen (@JoeCStrib) February 29, 2016
Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press gives his preview from the east side of the river:
He talks about how the Gophers want to get used to the new offensive system as fast as possible.
Additionally Greder recaps Claeys pre-practice press conference.
Brian Bennett and ESPNs' Big Ten Blog preview Gophers spring practice.
Gophersports.com has their first spring preview up featuring the quarterbacks reder also has a recap of how three former Gophers performed at the NFL Combine this past weekend.
Gopher Basketball:
During Coach Richard Pitino's radio show last night, he mentioned that he expects that the three suspended players, Kevin Dorsey, Dupree McBrayer and Nate Mason will play Wednesday night against Wisconsin according to Marcus Fuller.
Unfortunately, the cause for the suspension is even letting Badger beat writers make fun of Minnesota...
One good thing about #Badgers playing Minnesota this week. They have plenty of film on the #Gophers. Some of it even playing basketball.
— Tom Oates (@TomOatesWSJ) March 1, 2016
Other Gopher Sports:
The Gopher softball team went 5-0 on the weekend at a tournament in Tempe, Arizona. Sara Groenewegen was named the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week for the second time this season, and 8th time in her career. She went 3-0 this weekend including a win over #19 Arizona State where she struck out 10 and allowed just four hits. Maddie Houlihan was also named the Big Ten Freshman of the week after hitting a grad slam in the Gophers win over Mount St. Mary's.
Congrats to Gopher women's gymnastics senior Lindsey Mable who was named the recipient of the Wayne Duke Big Ten Postgraduate Award. The award is an annual scholarship recognizing one male and one female Big Ten senior pursuing a postgraduate degree for achievements in academics, athletics, extracurricular activities and leadership. Mable has been amazing again this season for the Gophers winning the Big Ten Gymnast of the Week award five times allready this season. For her career, the three-time All-Big Ten honoree has claimed five individual Big Ten titles, while also leading her team to two regular-season conference championships. She boasts seven individual NCAA Regional crowns and is the reigning back-to-back NCAA Regional all-around and floor exercise champion. Mable owns 11 regular-season and championship All-American Awards and was a 2015 Honda Award nominee. She also is a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree and a 2015 Academic All-American. The senior from Aurora, Colo., holds a 3.838 GPA in elementary education and aspires to be an elementary school teacher.
Check back later this week for a recap of the WCHA Season awards and a preview of the Gopher Women competing in the WCHA Frozen Face-off at Ridder Arena this weekend.