Golden Nugs: Welcome Coach Motzko Edition

Tuesday was a busy day over on the U campus. Bob Motzko was officially announced as the new hockey coach of the Minnesota Golden Gophers. PJ Fleck and the Gopher Football team held their first open to the public practice of the spring season. Several Gopher football alums were on campus to get ready for their pro day today. we try and recap it a bit in today’s nugs.

Did ya hear we have a new hockey coach?

The Star Tribune was all over the story.

Randy Johnson has their basic recap of the hire article.

Johnson also has a general profile of Motzko’s background.

Patrick Reusse has a column on the Motzko hire, and he even limits himself to just a few small cheapshots on the Gophers behalf.

Michael Rand has a piece on the reaction of the St. Cloud State fans to the hire...and lets just say they sure don’t do anything to take away from the stereotype of Jan Brady State University.

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Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press has his recap article of the hire as well.

Drew Cove of the Minnnesota Daily has the student’s point of view on the Motzko hire.

Nate Wells handles The Athletic’s coverage of the hire.

Mick Hatten has the St. Cloud side of the hire for the St Cloud Times

Did you go to the open spring football practice?

Pj Fleck talks about some of their new motivational words for the season:

Randy Johnson was working double duty yesterday and had a practice recap and a nice piece on Carter Coughlin in the Star Tribune.

The AP’s Ralph Russo sat down with PJ Fleck for the latest edition of his podcast.

Gopher Pro Day is today?

Yes, Yes it is. Eleven former Gophers are working out for NFL scouts today. They include: Kunle Ayinde, Vincent Calhoun, Jonathan Celestin, Merrick Jackson, Kobe McCrary, Duke McGhee, Steven Richardson, Ryan Santoso, Andrew Stelter, Nate Wozniak and Garrison Wright.

Steven Richardson was already tearing up the bench press this morning to show off to NFL scouts.

The Daily Norseman, SB Nation’s Minnesota Vikings blog gave their take on a few of the Gophers who would be performing at pro day today.

Unlike last year when PJ Fleck caught a bit of heat for not allowing some of the smaller DII and D3 schools from the area to participate at the Gopher Pro Day due to the coaching transition and such, they are welcome this year. Here is a story on St. John’s wide reciever Evan Clark who will be participating. Another on Bemidji State’s Jake Krause.

Anything else?

Former Gopher women’s basketball star Carlie Wagner will compete in the Three Point Contest at the State Farm College Slam Dunk & 3-Point Championships. The competition is this Thursday in San Antonio—the site of the men’s Final Four. It will air live on ESPN 2 at 8PM. She is one of eight women’s players in the competetion and is just the second ever Gopher to take part. The other? Rachel Banham who would win not only the women’s competition but the overall competition against the men’s champion in 2016.

As we posted on last week, former Gopher basketball player Nate Mason will compete on the Big Ten team in the Dos Equis 3X3U National Championship. The full four-man Big Ten roster was announced yesterday and it includes Mason, Indiana’s Robert Johnson, Ohio State’s Jae’Sean Tate, and Purdue’s Vincent Edwards. Former Purdue star Robbie Hummel talked about the roster yesterday.