Gopher happenings

Lots going on in the nation of the Gopher this weekend.  First, Gopher football lost to Northern Illinois, what else is there to say?  Take everything that was said after the loss to South Dakota, multiply by 10, and repeat.  I was at this game and you could feel the apathy from the crowd the whole way, and the amount of people pouring out of the stadium at halftime was staggering.  Not that it's ever been a hot ticket with everything else there is in town, but Gopher football is a joke both in terms of product and fan interest, which is pretty sad considering the beautiful stadium that's just a year old. Pretty amazing accomplishment by Brewster, actually, and the only thing he's accomplished. 

It's almost unfortunate the way recruiting works, because that's really the only reason for him to still have a job right now, although he's been doing such a bang up job that having his signees leave might actually improve the team.  I mean, he's taken a thoroughly average BCS program in every way and taken it to the bottom.  Certainly they are the worst team in the Big Ten, and might very well be the worst BCS football team in the country, a possibility Marcus Fuller wrote about.  And Brewster has done this all with a shiny new stadium.  Pretty amazing.  Not even Dan Monson could have pulled this off.

And speaking of Monson, that would be a good segue into some good news:  Tubby and Gopher hoops locked up Joe Coleman of Hopkins for the 2011 season on Friday.  I already wrote quite a bit about Coleman here and here, so I won't go over it all again, but needless to say I'm pretty happy about this.  Getting the best player in Minnesota each year should be a priority, assuming he's a Big Ten caliber player, and Coleman is far beyond that.  He's ranked as #116 overall and the #34 shooting guard by Rivals, #80 and #26 by ESPN, and the #29 small forward by Scout, so it's safe to say he should be a pretty high quality edition.

In other recruiting news, there were a couple interesting developments in other players the Gophers are after.  First, Andre Hollins visited campus this weekend, and got to see the football team embarrass itself, but by all accounts enjoyed his visit.  He says all five schools on his final list (Minnesota, Harvard, Stanford, Auburn, and Ole Miss) are still tied at the top, but let's hope some of the local talent did their best to swing him in our favor.  Also, Josh Oglesby, who had previously whittled his list down to Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and Arizona State, has dropped the Illini from consideration so the Gophers are now in the final 3.  Both Hollins and Oglesby are combo guards who are pretty much consensus top 150 players so either (or both) would be a quality get.

Lastly, a few recruiting notes around the state (and if you are on Twitter and aren't following Ryan James, you really need to).  First, Shelby Moats, who the Gophers were interested in but who I said seemed more suited to a nerd school, once again proved how smart I am by signing on with Vanderbilt.  He's perfect for that system and they love their academics, so he can go ahead and join the Tri-Lams without being persecuted.  And finally, Chaska's Ross Travis, a player the Gopher never showed a ton of interest in even though there was a segment of the fan base who thought they should, has signed with Penn State.  This way we will be able to watch and judge if and to what degree Tubby made a mistake on this kid twice a year.  Let's hope his eye for talent is still 20/20.