Gopher Sports 2007-08 Recap

Chances are pretty good that if you read this blog then you are already aware how the football, basketball and hockey teams fared this year. (Ugly, improved, disappointing in case you didn't know). But lets take a moment to recap all of the 23 Golden Gopher sports...

Big Ten Champions
Women's Cross Country
Women's Swimming and Diving
Women's Indoor Track & Field

I guess it was a better year for the women's side of the athletic department but here is a brief sport-by-sport run down.

Fall Sports

Football (1-11) - Tim Brewster's first season was highlited by his recruiting class while we suffered through a season as bad as any in memory. The football team has received enough coverage so we'll leave well enough alone.

Volleyball (18-13) - 11-9 which was good enough to be tied for third in the Big Ten. A streaky season for the Golden Gophers who started out 12-3, went on a seven game losing streak, split their next two and then finished the conference season winning five of their last six. Minnesota was the only team in the country to face all four participants of the Final Four (Cal, Stanford and the National Champs from Penn State). Heading into next year we return two very talented freshmen (Brook Dieter and Lauren Gibbemeyer) and currently sit as the 9th winningest volleyball program in the country.

W Cross Country (finished 12th at NCAA Championships) - Big Ten Champs (five runners in top 17) and NCAA Midwest Region Champs highlited a rather successful season for the women runners. SO-Jamie Cheever was the highest finisher at the NCAA meet finishing 33rd overall. We do return six of our top seven runners so 2008 could be another highly successful season for the women long distance runners.

M Cross Country (finished 8th at NCAA Championships) - JR-Chris Rombaugh finished 29th and FR-Hassan Mean finished 43rd to lead the Gophers. Mead and Rombaugh finished 2nd and 4th respectively in the Big Ten Championships as the Gophers finished 2nd to Wisconsin. We return three of the top five runners for next year.

Women's Soccer (9-8-2) - The season was nothing special but did manage to pull off the biggest upset in the program's history when the Gopher women knocked off nationally ranked (#8) Penn State 1-0 in double OT. The team finished 6th in conference and lost to Illinois in the first round of the B10 Tourney. With their sophomore and freshmen classes ranking top 50 nationally when they were recruited, it would appear that the next couple seasons could be improved.

Winter Sports

Men's Basketball (20-14) - again well chronicled on this particular blog. Much improved, incredible recruiting class and some new coach who given time just might make a name for himself.

Women's Basketball (20-12) - 11-7 was good enough for 3rd in the Big Ten. More importantly the women earned a their 5th bid into the NCAA Tournament in coach Pam Borton's six seasons. They return their best player in cup stacking champion, PG, Emily Fox who earned First team All-Big Ten honors in her junior season.

Men's Gymnastics - finished 5th (out of 6) in Big Ten Championships. SR-Mitchel Mays claimed an individual title on the vault. Mays was actually the heavy favorite to win an NCAA title on the vault but he "landed short on his Tsukahara double pike for a score of 15.625 and an eighth-place finish."

Women's Gymnastics - finished 6th in Big Ten Championships, but managed to finish the season with a #16 national ranking. Apparently the Big Ten was loaded as seven teams finished in the top 30 (6 in top 20).

Men's Hockey (19-17-9) - a disappointing season as the Gophers began the season with hopes of a Frozen four appearance but reality brought them down to a 9-12-7 WCHA record (7th place). Freshman Goalie, Alex Kangas, went on an unbelievable run during the WCHA tournament and Minnesota fell just short of their 15th conference tournament championship. The Gophers did manage an at large bid into the NCAA's but lost in their first round match up at Boston College.

Women's Hockey (27-7-4) - a more successful regular season than the men ended in much the same fashion. After finishing 2nd in the WCHA to Wisconsin, the Gopher women advanced to the championship game but lost to Wisconsin. They did of course make the NCAA tournament and were given the opportunity to avenge their previous 3 losses to Wisconsin but once again they lost to the Badgers to end the Gopher season.

Men's Swimming and Diving (3rd in Big Ten) - continued their streak of a Big Ten top 3 finish each and every season since 1989. The men scored more points this year in the NCAAs than they did a year ago when they finished 10th, but the added points this year were enough to garner an 11th place finish.

Women's Swimming and Diving (Big Ten Champs) - setting 14 team records and five events the women swimmers (and divers) won their third conference championship. The women continued their successful season and went on to finish 13th at the NCAA meet. Jillian Tyler earned Big Ten freshman of the year.

Wrestling - The Gopher grapplers followed up their 2007 National Championship season with their worst finish in the NCAA meet since 1996 finishing 10th. Not so bad, right? But when you have standards set as high as the Gophers', who have finished top 3 in nine of the last 11 seasons, 10th isn't exactly something to write home about. Second in the Big Ten, their best wrestler returning and the nation's top recruiting class on it's way there is no reason to believe the Gophers will not be back to their usual top three finish.

Spring

Baseball (20-35) - the baseball team is likely the biggest disappointment of the Minnesota athletic department. A decent showing in the non-conference season beating Tulane, Pepperdine and Missouri (all NCAA Tourney participants) turned out to be fools gold as the Gophers struggled mightily and finished last in the Big Ten. I'm planning to cover this in more detail soon, but it was their worst season since 1950. A very young pitching staff and much of their lineup potentially returning (depending on draftee decisions) should mean the Gophers will return to the top of the Big Ten soon.

Softball (29-16) - 4th place finish in the Big Ten. This was the highest Big Ten finish since 1999 and with only four seniors on the team 2009 could be a very successful season for the softball team.

Rowing - With the finest facilities around and a breakthrough season in 207, the women's rowing team finished 4th at the Big Ten Championships and 6th in the Central Region.

Men's Tennis (7-17) - 16 of their 17 losses came to ranked opponents and this young squad finished 4-6 in the Big Ten to cap their season. They will return 3 of their top 4 singles players and should be in fine shape to return to the NCAA tournament where they have been 13 of the last 15 years.

Women's Tennis (15-11) - a winning season and much of their roster returning this may have been a learning season. #1 singles was freshman Alessandra Ferrazzi from Brescia, Italy who will anchor the team in the next few seasons. Looking at the roster you see that the women's tennis team hails from exotic locations all over the world as Italy, Russia, Brazil, Australia and Neenah, Wisconsin are all represented. Bonus points to anyone who is actually reading this and can guess which of those locations I have actually been to.

Men's Track & Field - 5th place in Big Ten Indoor and Outdoor Championships. The premier outdoor event, the 100m, was won by a Gopher for just the second time as Ibrahim Kabia established himself as the fastest man in the Big Ten (would have been 8th in SEC for those of you keeping track). Three other men won individual titles. Five Gophers will participate in the NCAA Meet (June 11-15 in Des Moines, IA). All five are underclassmen.

Women's Track & Field - This may be the most successful team in Gopher athletics this season. Big Ten Indoor Champs and 3rd place in Outdoor Championships. Eight individuals will be participating in the NCAA Meet next week.

Men's Golf - Big Ten runner ups to Michigan State with two golfers finishing in the top 10. JR-Victor Almstrom finished tied for 5th and SR-Clayton Rask finished 10th. Like several other sports this team was young and will return four of their top five golfers. Rask and Almstrom also participated in the NCAA Central Region Tournament finishing 11th and 41st respectively.

Women's Golf - While young squads has been a theme here, the women's golf team is the youngest of them all. The Gopher women finished 8th in the Big Ten (shooting their second lowest B10 score in team history) and the team was led by two freshman. Teresa Puga finished sixth individually at the Big Ten Tourney and Mary Narsizi finished 23rd. Essentially the entire roster returns (one senior who was not usually within the top 5), while this does not guarantee success they will have every opportunity to improve.

That covers all 23 sports that you can support in Gopher Athletics. As a group the University of Minnesota athletics finished 22nd nationally in the NACDA Director's Cup Standings. I do not believe that all of the spring sports are included in the most recent rankings so I would expect a little drop depending on how well our track athletes perform. A year ago we finished 20th but with the poor showing by football and baseball, coupled with slightly down years in hockey and wrestling the drop cannot be all that unexpected. How Notre Dame could even think about hiring away an athletic director from a team not in the top 20 of the Director's Cup Standings is beyond me.

Directors Cup Standings
Big Ten Teams
2	Michigan
3	Ohio State
4	Penn State
18	Wisconsin
22	Minnesota
23	Purdue
25	Michigan St.
29	Illinois
30	Indiana
32	Northwestern
50	Iowa

Take that Iowa!

Gopher Hockey - I'm on the bandwagon

I even watched parts of the game and all of the OT. I'm on the bandwagon and I even care.

Mike Hoeffel was one goal shy of a hat trick in a 2-1 OT win and G-Alex Kangas had another outstanding night in the net.

Again, I won't insult you and try to tell you anything other than we just beat the #1 team in WCHA and will skate in the championship game tomorrow.

These guys have been just 13 seconds from five straight OT games. (picture stolen from gophersports.com)

Star Tribune - recap
Pioneer Press - recap

-

Gopher Hockey is standing on their collective head!

I know nothing about hockey (I just wanted to get that out there), which is why I post very little never on Gopher hockey. But, man that Gopher hockey team is so hot right now.

I'm not going to get carried away into stats and reasons they have gone from highly anticipated to mediocre WCHA team who barely made the Final Five to the hottest team in the league.

Now I'm jumping on the bandwagon as they are in the final four of the final five.

Freshman goalie Alex Kangas has been incredible and as is the norm in hockey when your goalie is "standing on his head" your team is going to win a lot of games.

Bring on Colorado College, and Sioux Suck.

Gopher Hockey Preview

I know nothing about hockey so I recruited a friend and gopher hockey expert really big fan to give us the low down. Considering I could maybe name 5 gophers (all time, certainly not current), he is much more qualified than I am. Please welcome Wayne as he gives us the official Gopher Nation - Gopher Hockey preview (4 games into the season)...

For Hockey news and analysis on a regular basis I suggest you check out GopherPuck

Key losses - We lost 2 seniors leaders from the 06-07 season. Star goalie Kellen Briggs and defensemen Mike Vannelli. There were also a couple players that decided to forego their college careers and move on to bigger things. Jim O'Brien (would've been a sophomore this year) decided to bail out over the past summer to play with the Western Hockey League powerhouse Seattle Thunderbirds. Superstar Alex Goligoski (would've been a senior this year) also decided to leave and play for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Tyler Hirsch also left "voluntarily" due to some sketchy reasons. Some say it was related to mental issues. I think it can all be traced back to "girl problems"--it's the only possible explanation.

Key additions - The Gophers picked up a well rounded crew for the 06-07 season. Five players come from the USHL and two from the National Development Team. All seven are originally from Minnesota. Interestingly, the entire team is once again built from Minnesotans. I don't believe this is on purpose as it was in the Doug Woog days--Lucia has no qualms about recruiting talent from anywhere. From what little I've seen of the freshman class this year, I'm impressed. I'll be keeping an eye on forward Patrick White. He scored a sweet even strength goal in the third period against Michigan in the Ice Breaker tourney and appears to be a great fit with the Gopher hockey program. It looks like he's been playing with the team for several seasons. The same can be said for Stu Bickel, Drew Fisher, and Mike Hoeffel. They have good synergy out there. It's very encouraging to see. (yes, I said synergy...)

Forwards - We have a good mix of size and strength with our forwards this year. On one end of the spectrum, you have gargantuan juniors Ryan Stoa at 6-3/217,Blake Wheeler at 6-4/215, and Ryan Flynn at 6-3/210. On the other end, you have speedsters Jay Barriball at a svelte 5-9/156 and Evan Kaufmann at 5-9/167. Watch for those guys on odd man breaks. If they get a step, they'll be gone (and probably drawing a tripping or hooking penalty during the sprint for the net). Unfortunately, one of our biggest players, Stoa, is out for the season with a knee injury sustained in the second game of the season. We'll miss his size in front of the net. Blake Wheeler continues to get better as the years go on. He's a natural out there. He often looks to set up the perfect play, but, if that's not an option, he's perfectly capable of turning it into a one man show. He's a walking highlight reel.

Defensemen - We have some size and experience on defense this year. Senior Derek Peltier and junior R.J. Anderson have seen solid so far this season. We also have some fresh faces out there. Stu Bickel has the makings of a hockey great--not to mention a sweet hockey name. We have a couple more freshman who will be tested this year. Both Cade Fairchild and Kevin Wehrs are a little small so I hope they can stay with the odd man rushes and breakaways. From what I've seen so far, the Gophers have given up several so far and Frazee has had to pull off some magic as a result. I also worry that they will not be able to clear the riff-raff from in from of the net in order to give Frazee a good look at the play. It's early though...

Goalie - I've been very impressed with Jeff Frazee so far this season. He seems a lot quicker in the net and is following the play with sixth sense abilities. Maybe Robb Stauber has actually adopted him. He's improved in every aspect of his game from last year with the exception of wanting to trade in his stick and play defense. The guy has to learn to stay in the crease. He's out in the corner or behind the net more than he's in the crease it seems. He's had a few close calls, but Adam Hauser started off the same way as well and look how he ended his college career. We have 2 back-up goalies, but I'm afraid to say that I haven't paid much attention during practice to get a feel for their abilities. Brent Solie is a senior, but I swear I haven't seen that little dude out there at all. The other option is the freshman Alex Kangas. Again, no input from this guy--too new to glean anything.

Why will the Gophers win the WCHA? - The Gophers have a very good chance to take the Broadmoor Trophy (the WCHA playoff champions) as well as the McNaughton Cup (the WCHA regular season champions) this season. The talent is there as well as the leadership. However, there's seems to be a recurring theme--start slow on Friday and come out flying on Saturday. The Gophers seem to need some time to ramp up. This goes for the season as well. It could take a couple months for everyone to get on the same page. Once they do, watch out. They aren't afraid of a challenge and seem to feed off the energy of competition. The harder an opponent plays, the harder the Gophers play. Conversely, they play down to "lesser" teams. Only when times get tough will they turn it up a notch and pull out the stops.

Will then win the Frozen Four? - It's way too early to predict a NCAA championship, but as I mentioned above, there's a chance. The team looks pretty sharp so far and we have the leadership to take us through the tough times and not get presumptuous when they're on a roll.

Who is better Doug Woog or Don Lucia? - Based on NCAA championship history--Lucia. Based on partying ability--Woog. Based on hairstyle--too close to call.

Which is heavier a zamboni or a Wisconsin cheerleader? - Depends on if we're talking about propane-powered or electric...

What makes for a better hockey player a sweet mullet or missing teeth? - A sweet mullet (must have hair long enough to be seen while wearing a regulation helmet) will trump missing teeth. Missing teeth may only mean the player has been in a lot of fights or doesn't play with a full cage on his helmet.

Gopher Nation quick hitters

There has been a minor explosion of newsworthy items in Gopher Nation.

Hockey - I don't see Gopher Puck's comments on this yet but the hockey team has lost it's 3rd underclassman defenseman to the NHL. Jim O'Brien has signed with Ottawa and will play on their minor league team in Seattle. O'Brien was a forward last year as a freshman and finished with 7 goals and 8 assists. He was scheduled to move to defense for his sophomore season. I am not familiar enough with the roster or incoming recruits to know who will see an increase in their minutes.

Men's Basketball - the Big Ten schedule has been released. As many of you know the schedule is expanding from 16 to 18 games meaning there will not be just 2 teams that you will play only one time. The Gophers will miss Purdue and Iowa a 2nd time around. Not quite as nice a missing Wis, OSU or Indiana but there isn't much you can do about it. Home games against Mich, Ind and Iowa will be on ESPN. The home Ohio State game on March 1st (or 2nd) potentially could be on CBS.

Football - we all know that fall practice has begun. Brewster and crew have returned from Collegeville and have now begun two-a-days. Recruiting has been uber-interesting this summer as TBrew is trying to drastically upgrade the overall talent on the team. By all accounts there will be a handful of true freshmen who will contribute (if not start) for your 2007 Golden Gophers. HERE is a relatively current depth chart.

Volleyball - one of the many minor sports that the Gophers have excelled at in recent years. Volleyball is a West Coast sport and Minnesota (along with Penn State and Nebraska) is one of the teams east of California who can compete with anybody. The most recent recruiting class was ranked 4th in the nation, behind Stanford, Texas and USC. This marks the third time in five seasons they have had a top 5 recruiting class. Their season open Aug. 24 vs. Notre Dame as these women try to improve on their NCAA Regional appearance from last year.

Here are some general NCAA Football newsworthy items...

ESPN "expert" Picks - ESPN weighs in on conference champ predictions as well as BCS Champs. It looks like the nation is fighting for 2nd as USC was the unanimous favorite and pretty much the entire Big Ten is fighting for 2nd behind Michigan. Also noteworthy is that Bowling Green is the most common pick as MAC East Champ with Miami(Ohio), another Gopher opponent, also getting some votes as MAC-E champ.

Sunday Morning QB - with their Big Ten preview, yet another expert picking the Golden Gophers to not even finish in the top 10 of the Big Ten!



The Hawkeye Compulsion - this is a great interview, story with Ron Zook.



Michigan Sports Center says 2007 National Championship or BUST!


Buckeye Banter's Big 10 Preview - last place for the gophers, AGAIN

Gopher Nation quick hitters

It has been a slow blogging week. I'd REALLY like to put together a comprehensive football recruiting list but I haven't had the time to put that together yet. Basketball is MUCH easier as they only have a handful of scholarship offers out there. The future of Gopher Football on the other hand has 100 scholarhip offers out there (give or take a dozen). So this is a much more daunting list. To get the blog rolling again here are a few tid bits from around Gopher Nation...

Baseball Recruting - the recent Big Ten runner ups have announced the signing of lefthanded pitcher from Phil Isaksson to a letter of intent. We stole him from the Badgers (oh wait, Title IX has left them without a baseball team). Isaksson is from Eau Claire and thus far in his Sr. season he is 6-0 with a 0.29 ERA (2 ER on the season) with 80 Ks in 47 innings. For his career Isaksson is 23-2 and was third-team all state as a junior. I'm assuming he'll pitch for the Golden Gophers but he is also batting .400 with 4 HRs this season. I don't know how high school stats translate into college level success but Isaksson seems to be pretty solid, we'll find out.

Tim Brewster Football Camps - Began this this past week. These camps seem to be more and more of a recruiting tool more than anything else. Some of Coach Brewster's top recruits were amoung the 430 kids here for the camps as well as some of the coaches of other recruits came to MN for the camps. Getting the kids here as well as getting their coaches here is an opportunity for the staff to land a handful of upper-tier talent that they are coveting. Players who were here either this week or will be here this weekend for 1-day camps include...

• DE - Will Mobley from Eden Prairie, 4-star according to Rivals.
• WR - Brandon Green from Chicago
• High School coach Art Walker who is the offensive coordinator and father of WR Deion Walker. Art was here coaching the camps, Deion was not but according to Rivals Art says they will be back for an official visit.
• QB - Matt Scott from Corona, CA.
  
• QB - Darron Thomas from Aldine, TX. Thomas is a 3-star QB but has offers from the likes of Miami, LSU and Nebraska.
• OLB - Anthony Lewis (Aldine, TX) - teammate of Thomas.
  
• RB - Jonas Gray from Michigan. Gray is a big time RB who will likely be here next weekend for an unnofficial visit.

A top notch Gopher Blog, Pagin Jim Shikenjanski has a nice 2 part post giving a point / counter point on Tubby Smith. Myths and Realities of Tubby Smith and Countering Tubby's Buddy.



Kyle Okposo is returing to the frozen pond for the Gophers this winter. I'm not going to pretend I know anything about hockey but this seems to be a good thing.



I hope to get out Part 2 of my 8 part series on The NEW Golden Gopher Era. Part 2 will discuss What can we define as success for the 2007 Football season. You can read part 1 HERE.

Gopher Nation quick hitters

Hockey - last year's #1 overall NHL draft pick has decided to leave the gophers and sign with St. Louis for $850,000 in base salary. Erik Johnson is a great defenseman and will be missed as the Gophers try to repeat in the WCHA and get back to the Frozen Four. Keep an eye on GopherPuck for better insight and analysis.

Baseball - 3 tid bits

• The Golden Gopher baseball team has won 12 of their last 14 games are 22-7 overall. We are sitting behind Michigan in the conference standings and our weekend series with the Wolverines was wiped out due to weather last month. Ohio State was considered one of the teams to beat in the Big 10 this year but they are currently struggling to 4-6 in conference play.
  
• Former head coach and namesake of their on campus stadium, Dick Siebert was voted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame. I don't think many realize how big Siebert was. While coaching the golden gophers for 31 seasons he won 11 conference titles and 3 nation championships. Very impressive.
  
• CSTV.com has ranked Minnesota as #6 in their MID-MAJOR poll. This might be the only sport where the Big-10 is considered a Mid-Major.

Basketball - 2 tid bits.

• Our opponent for the Big Ten / ACC Challenge is a road game to Florida State. The Seminoles lose their best player this year but return basically the rest of their roster. In 2006-07 they finished with 22 wins, an NIT bid and notched wins over the likes of Duke and Florida. Should be a good challenge for what we hope is an improved Golden Gopher squad.
  
• The Big Ten is officially adding 2 conference games to the schedule. All teams will now play an 18 game in conference schedule beginning next season. This should boost the strength of schedule for all Big 10 teams as they can drop a couple of the weak schools on their schedule. I am a fan of the 18 game schedule, but we'll evaluate this decision this time next year.
  

Recruiting News

Basketball - ESPN has added a name to the 2007 recruit's considering MN! Getting a good (not great) player added to this freshman class would be a nice step for Tubby. I think with the Monson staff we would have seen a very average JUCO transfer. If Tubby can bring in 1 guy that he can develop that is a simple step in the right direction.

• Terrence Roderick - SF/SG, Allentown, PA - Roderick is a 6'6" combo SG/SF. ESPN lists MN as #2 on his list behind UAB. UAB wouldn't seem like a destination that would be more desirable than a Big Ten school, but the Blazers are coached by Mike Davis who is a very good recruiter. Behind MN at #3 is Iowa. Roderick averaged just over 22 ppg.
• Jai Lucas - PG - things are looking bleak on the Lucas front. Charlie Walters reports that Lucas has narrowed his search to Florida and Kentucky. I was hoping for at least a quick visit to the MN campus and a chance for Tubby to sell the program to Lucas. But that is looking less and less likely.

Hockey - I know very little about hockey but I'll give you what I see.

• Stu Bickel - Defenseman - 6'4", 215 lbs. Stu played high school hockey at Minnetonka and Eden Prairie. After graduation he has played 2 seasons with Souix Falls of hte USHL. Here is the story.
  

Gopher Nation quick hitters

Well Gopher Nation has been dominated lately by basketball for obvious reasons. Let's throw out some quick hitters regarding the less covered sports for Gopher Nation...

Gopher Hockey - WCHA regular season and tournament champs. #1 seed in NCAA tournament but the Gophers were upset by UND in the 2nd round, 3-2. From what I have read (as I know very little about hockey) the Gophers had been struggling as of late. But they were able to pull it together and beat UND in OT of the WCHA Finals. Unfortunately the Souix outskated the Gophers in the NCAAs and ended Minnesota's chances at another National Championship. The Gophs had only 2 Srs on the team and 1 of the underclassmen considering pro has decided to stay with the program; 2 key decisions still loom. So things look to be shaping up nicely for a run at the NCAA Championship in 2007-08.

Gopher Wrestling - this is a bit late but a big contratulations to the Gohper Wrestlers for winning their 3rd NCAA Championship this decade. The team claimed 1 individual Champion in Cole Konrad (HWT), 5 All-Americans and their 6th Big 10 title in the last 9 years. Great season for the grapplers and things look up as Konrad is the lone Sr. on this year's squad.

Gopher Baseball - is off to a hot start. The unranked Gophers are sitting at 14-5 as they head into the Big 10 season and have big wins over #18 Mississippi, #10 Pepperdine, #7 Arkansas and a 2 game sweep AT UC-Santa Barbara. Those are big time wins and losses to these highly ranked teams account for 4 of their 5 losses. Big Ten Hardball wonders why the Gophers are not ranked and I can't help but wonder the same. It appears this group is playing well and should be near the top of the Big 10 when all is said and done.

Gopher Men's Swimming and Diving - 2007 Big 10 Champs and 10th place at NCAA Championshiops. 12 Individual Gophers earned All-American honors. The team was lead by Jr. David Plummer as he put the team on his back(stroke) by finishing 5th in the 200 M backstroke earning enough points to move up to 10th place.