The Spamtowners could not contain Matthew Hurt (37 pts, 16 reb, 6 assists) as they fell 73-63 at JM and had to settle for a share of the league title instead of the outright. JM is ranked 6th in 4A, Austin 2nd in 3A. That makes a home-and-home split for the season between the two.
Hurt is a big-time national recruit, allegedly with offers from Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona, Florida, etc. At 6'9" and 200+ lbs, he's a load on the floor, apparently (Bootsy? Have you seen him play?)
Austin, on the other hand, is a run-and-gun group, led by Duoth Gach, a high-flying 6'5" wing. I can only imagine how good the Packers would have been this year had his brother Both not transferred to some Arizona prep school.
Hurt's brother plays for the Gophers. Before the injuries and suspensions, the only reason he got run was to lure his brother to the team.
He is about 2 seasons away from being the Minnesota career leader in pussy singles.
Loons start their second season tonight, but got to wait until 930 for the game to start.
Not much defense happening in the Gopher women's game. 51-50 at the half.
77-75 Gophers after three.
On the cusp of big foul trouble for OSU. They have no depth.
Gopher starting big is..not good. Her backup seems more effective and athletic.
Gophers men's hockey on the verge of getting knocked out of the first round of the B1G tourney. They're down 2-0 in today's game after losing Game 1 of 3 yesterday. Pairwise rankings have them tied for 11th before today (maybe before the weekend), so hard to see them getting into the NCAA tourney if they don't go deep in the conference tourney. How much longer can Lucia keep riding those back-to-back national titles to protect his job?
16 teams in the NCAA tourney and Gophers are now at 13. So, they still have a decent shot to get in.
They get to hand pick from the most fertile recruiting ground in the country each and every year, yet have the 4th best Minnesotan college team. I have a theory on why the Gophers have struggled lately, and it is based upon watching a ton of college and high school hockey over the years. They Gophers get primarily blue chip recruits who are not only the best player on their high school team, but often a top 5 player in the state. Their locker room is full of guys who are used to playing first line, and in the spot light. But, on one team, only 3 players are first line. Hockey is so about everyone understanding and executing their role. 3rd and 4th lines are often grinders whose jobs are to just stop the other team from doing any damage while the top 2 lines are resting. The Gophers are littered with guys who want the spotlight and struggle to accept what may be a diminished role in their eyes. The Gophers also tend to be younger than most college teams. A lot of SCSU or Mankato players had to prove themselves in juniors for a couple years out of high school before playing DI hockey. As a result, most other teams are older, more experienced and stronger than the Gophers.
Hockey is one college sport where recruiting is not as important as many other sports. At this point, I wonder where the tipping point is in which the top recruits stop coming to the U of M and look elsewhere. Until that happens, I don't see the U making a coaching change.
They get to hand pick from the most fertile recruiting ground in the country each and every year, yet have the 4th best Minnesotan college team.
uhh, doesn't that claim (4th-best in the state) imply that they don't get to hand-pick? That there is strong competition for the talent?
I have a hard time getting too worked up about a program that is merely on a down-swing. Are his players getting arrested? Are they cheating their way through school (or just not attending classes and flunking out)? Seems like he can still recruit good talent. So, how has the game passed him by?
I guess my point is that they always have the best recruiting class out of the Minnesota DI programs (and often the country), yet underachieve. Part of it is that the talent pool in MN and around the country continues to get deeper and deeper, but I know it is frustrating for many Gopher fans that they struggle.
I am not calling for his head, as I am a SCSU alum and fan. I just find in rewarding that simply recruiting the best doesn't mean success in the season. SCSU, UMD and Mankato State have done a great job recruiting not only talent, but also guys who have the right make up to win.
The whole thing went to hell when Big Ten Hockey became a thing (I have no evidence, but it feels right to blame Jim Delany's money grabbing schemes )
Agree with you on this one. Big Ten really messed up a great thing college hockey had going. I guess the one silver lining, nationally, may be that it helped get Ohio State and Penn State hockey on the map. In the end it might increase interest in college hockey on the national level with a few more big school participants.
More regionally, it screwed up the WCHA which was pretty awesome. The NCHC is now the premier conference and is pretty deep top to bottom. The Big 10 has a long way to go. I do feel bad for Bemidji State who had just gone DI and gained admittance to a great WCHA conference, only to see the Gophers and Badgers leave. This led to the formation of the NCHC and SCSU and UND jumped ship. Bemidji ended up in a watered down conference after spending a lot of money to get to the DI level.
David Ogden Stiers has passed away at 75.
After the boy watched it too many times, I was shocked to find out he was the voice of Jumba Jookiba.
He had a brilliant guest starring role on the Star Trek Next Generation episode called "Half a Life"
Yes. That was a great episode. The actress that eventually became Ensign Roe played his daughter.
He did a lot of voice work. He was the clock Cogsworth on the animated Beauty and the Beast. I think he was also in Pocahontas.
Speaking of which, he was a guest on Frasier for one episode, playing his dead mother's former assistant. That was an all-star cast for voice actors with Stiers, Kelsey Grammer, David Hyde Pierce and John Mahoney all have done a lot of voice work and have very distinctive voices.
He was TWO characters in Pocahontas, pretty disparate ones, too. The song "Mine Mine Mine" was all his to run with.
JM puts Big Hurt on Packer boys.
The Spamtowners could not contain Matthew Hurt (37 pts, 16 reb, 6 assists) as they fell 73-63 at JM and had to settle for a share of the league title instead of the outright. JM is ranked 6th in 4A, Austin 2nd in 3A. That makes a home-and-home split for the season between the two.
Hurt is a big-time national recruit, allegedly with offers from Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona, Florida, etc. At 6'9" and 200+ lbs, he's a load on the floor, apparently (Bootsy? Have you seen him play?)
Austin, on the other hand, is a run-and-gun group, led by Duoth Gach, a high-flying 6'5" wing. I can only imagine how good the Packers would have been this year had his brother Both not transferred to some Arizona prep school.
Hurt's brother plays for the Gophers. Before the injuries and suspensions, the only reason he got run was to lure his brother to the team.
Some Mauer love.
He is about 2 seasons away from being the Minnesota career leader in pussy singles.
Loons start their second season tonight, but got to wait until 930 for the game to start.
Not much defense happening in the Gopher women's game. 51-50 at the half.
77-75 Gophers after three.
On the cusp of big foul trouble for OSU. They have no depth.
Gopher starting big is..not good. Her backup seems more effective and athletic.
Gophers men's hockey on the verge of getting knocked out of the first round of the B1G tourney. They're down 2-0 in today's game after losing Game 1 of 3 yesterday. Pairwise rankings have them tied for 11th before today (maybe before the weekend), so hard to see them getting into the NCAA tourney if they don't go deep in the conference tourney. How much longer can Lucia keep riding those back-to-back national titles to protect his job?
16 teams in the NCAA tourney and Gophers are now at 13. So, they still have a decent shot to get in.
They get to hand pick from the most fertile recruiting ground in the country each and every year, yet have the 4th best Minnesotan college team. I have a theory on why the Gophers have struggled lately, and it is based upon watching a ton of college and high school hockey over the years. They Gophers get primarily blue chip recruits who are not only the best player on their high school team, but often a top 5 player in the state. Their locker room is full of guys who are used to playing first line, and in the spot light. But, on one team, only 3 players are first line. Hockey is so about everyone understanding and executing their role. 3rd and 4th lines are often grinders whose jobs are to just stop the other team from doing any damage while the top 2 lines are resting. The Gophers are littered with guys who want the spotlight and struggle to accept what may be a diminished role in their eyes. The Gophers also tend to be younger than most college teams. A lot of SCSU or Mankato players had to prove themselves in juniors for a couple years out of high school before playing DI hockey. As a result, most other teams are older, more experienced and stronger than the Gophers.
Hockey is one college sport where recruiting is not as important as many other sports. At this point, I wonder where the tipping point is in which the top recruits stop coming to the U of M and look elsewhere. Until that happens, I don't see the U making a coaching change.
uhh, doesn't that claim (4th-best in the state) imply that they don't get to hand-pick? That there is strong competition for the talent?
I have a hard time getting too worked up about a program that is merely on a down-swing. Are his players getting arrested? Are they cheating their way through school (or just not attending classes and flunking out)? Seems like he can still recruit good talent. So, how has the game passed him by?
I guess my point is that they always have the best recruiting class out of the Minnesota DI programs (and often the country), yet underachieve. Part of it is that the talent pool in MN and around the country continues to get deeper and deeper, but I know it is frustrating for many Gopher fans that they struggle.
I am not calling for his head, as I am a SCSU alum and fan. I just find in rewarding that simply recruiting the best doesn't mean success in the season. SCSU, UMD and Mankato State have done a great job recruiting not only talent, but also guys who have the right make up to win.
The whole thing went to hell when Big Ten Hockey became a thing (I have no evidence, but it feels right to blame Jim Delany's money grabbing schemes )
Agree with you on this one. Big Ten really messed up a great thing college hockey had going. I guess the one silver lining, nationally, may be that it helped get Ohio State and Penn State hockey on the map. In the end it might increase interest in college hockey on the national level with a few more big school participants.
More regionally, it screwed up the WCHA which was pretty awesome. The NCHC is now the premier conference and is pretty deep top to bottom. The Big 10 has a long way to go. I do feel bad for Bemidji State who had just gone DI and gained admittance to a great WCHA conference, only to see the Gophers and Badgers leave. This led to the formation of the NCHC and SCSU and UND jumped ship. Bemidji ended up in a watered down conference after spending a lot of money to get to the DI level.
David Ogden Stiers has passed away at 75.
After the boy watched it too many times, I was shocked to find out he was the voice of Jumba Jookiba.
He had a brilliant guest starring role on the Star Trek Next Generation episode called "Half a Life"
Yes. That was a great episode. The actress that eventually became Ensign Roe played his daughter.
He did a lot of voice work. He was the clock Cogsworth on the animated Beauty and the Beast. I think he was also in Pocahontas.
Speaking of which, he was a guest on Frasier for one episode, playing his dead mother's former assistant. That was an all-star cast for voice actors with Stiers, Kelsey Grammer, David Hyde Pierce and John Mahoney all have done a lot of voice work and have very distinctive voices.
He was TWO characters in Pocahontas, pretty disparate ones, too. The song "Mine Mine Mine" was all his to run with.