Notes and Links on a Tuesday

-  According to Adam Zagoria over on the Twitter, (who you should follow) and confirmed by Rivals, Ryan Boatright will attend West Virginia in 2011.  This sucks for many reasons, including the fact that I desperately wanted him like a school boy.  And also the fact that he was really good:  #11 PG in the class according to Rivals, #48 overall, and the #2 non-committed PG behind Quinn Cook.  I don't know what exactly happened, but I know the Gophers were at least showing some interest at some point, but either they or he decided they weren't interested because the Gophers aren't on his official list and he's not listed as having received an offer.

Doesn't make it hurt any less.  It's like that girl you were secretly in love with in high school.  You know, she never reciprocated, but you guys were really good friends so you always thought you had a chance, and then that one time she picked you to be her physics partner and you got to go over to her house and eat dinner and it was magical, and then your physics project was kick ass and you're feeling really good about things and then she goes to prom with some dumb soccer player from a neighboring school.  Or something.

-  Sliding into first is dumb enough, but to slide into first and then somehow miss the base?  I gotta say, I've never seen that before.  Leave it to Gardner to take sliding into first into a whole new stratosphere of dumb.

-   Speaking of dumb, at what point do we get to leave this whole Brett Favre dong pic thing alone?  Come on, who hasn't done something similar?  I've texted pictures of my junk to at least seven people, five of whom didn't ask for it and four of whom were women.  So big deal, right?  He's just like a big kid out there, remember?  So to him it's probably not even sexual, it's just a funny picture of a funny body part.  You can't talk about his youthful kidlikeness and boyish exuberance and then expect him to act like an adult when it comes to being responsible in regards to pictures of his crank.

By the way, did you hear those pictures were actually supposed to be going to his wife?  They were intercepted.  Seriously though, how do we even know that's his schlong?  Other than the fact that it's throwing an interception in one of the pictures?

I can do this all night.

-  Back to Ryan Boatright for a second.  With WVU also picking up Tommie McCune, that means that is the second recruit Huggy Bear has ganked from Tubby.  I don't think I like this matchup.  I feel like Huggins is going to get his man every time.

-  The name I most often hear from people with an opinion but haven't really thought about who the next Gopher football coach should be is Tony Dungy.  Thank god he finally put that rumor to bed today, which is weird because he also put that rumor to bed back in September, and now we can move on to more wild speculation.  Or, more accurately, less wild speculation such as Mike Leach, who admitted he would be interested in the job if he was contacted.    Couple things.  One, how fun would it be to watch that Texas Tech offense come to Minnesota?  Answer:  legendary.  Second, I highly doubt they would hire someone here at the U who had been fired for locking a player in the closet.  Although based on the reason (kid couldn't play after a concussion) I'd say the Twins should maybe look into him as a bench coach.

Serious write-up on Leach as a possibility can be found here from The Daily Gopher.  It's a lot of words so I'm going to assume it's good.

-  Good recap on that midnight madness thing right here.  I think my favorite part is that Ralph Sampson not only participated in the 3-point contest, and was one of only three contestants, but that he almost beat Devoe Joseph, losing only 9-11.  He's always had the confidence to take the shot, but I only remember him hitting one big one against Purdue.  If he's truly added that to his arsenal, and added it without taking away anything inside or becoming one of those 6-11 dandies who flit about the three-point line all game, he's going to be unstoppable.

-  There's a reason Cliff Lee has such a reputation as an incredible playoff pitcher.

-  Also Chris Johnson sucks.