Minnesota Golden Gophers Archives

Tom Izzo: “I’m a social media basher, I hate it” “Twitter ignorance”

February 10, 2014 By paulmbanks 1 Comment

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo has been on a roll lately when it comes to press conferences. Last month at Northwestern he told us about how we’re in a “soft society.” Izzo added “everyone gets a trophy, give ’em a trophy for 23rd place.” (full harangue here).

Today, on the Big Ten coaches conference call, Tom Izzo was extremely critical of Facebook, Twitter and social media in general. Yes, he’s been derisive of these institutions in the past, but that was always more subtle. And Tom Izzo has not bashed social media on a level like this.

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Tubby Smith: candid thoughts on social media, news Industry

February 20, 2013 By paulmbanks Leave a Comment

In today’s college basketball landscape, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites are having more of an impact than ever. At Media Day, I had a rather thought-provoking and exclusive conversation with the Minnesota Golden Gophers Head Coach, the legendary Tubby Smith about all the media issues that can affect his program, the Big Ten and beyond.

“I’m not very savvy with it, but I know guys can, in the heat of battle say I’m coaching and there’s a bad call and I got a cooling off period, but because you’ve got this little thing that you can go to and share, and later you go ‘oh I really didn’t mean it that way.’ But at the heat of battle you felt that, because you haven’t had time to think about it, to get somebody else’s opinion,” Smith said about Twitter.

Interesting post titled “The NCAA and Social Media: A Ticking Time Bomb” by the blog Victory Formation. It lists the NCAA social media rules as follows:

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Filed Under: College Basketball Tagged With: College Basketball, college basketball facebook, college basketball twitter, Golden Gophers, gophers, Minnesota Golden Gophers, ncaa facebook, ncaa twitter, social media, Tubby Smith, tubby smith facebook, tubby smith golden gophers, tubby smith media, tubby smith minnesota, tubby smith social media, tubby smith twitter, tubby time, tubby time media

Northwestern upsets #12 Gophers, in front of very poor student showing

January 24, 2013 By paulmbanks Leave a Comment

Every year Northwestern Wildcats basketball beats a couple ranked teams during the Big Ten slate. So whenever they play someone good at home you want to be there so you can see a big event, right? Like when the fans stormed the court after taking down a top ten Michigan State team last year. Well the “Wildside” student section doesn’t seem to think so. They hardly showed up at all two home games ago when NU lost even uglier than it sounds, 70-51 to the Iowa Hawkeyes. And they didn’t come out last night either.

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Filed Under: College Basketball, college sports Tagged With: Bill Carmody, golden gophers basketball, gophers, gophers basketball, minnesota basketball, Minnesota Golden Gophers, northwestern basketball, northwestern hoops

Tubby Smith’s son gets DUI, Gophers place him on leave

October 21, 2012 By paulmbanks Leave a Comment

Tubby Smith’s son Saul was arrested for DUI this past weekend, and because of it the Minnesota Golden Gophers college basketball program will make sure he misses a few paychecks.

Here’s the statement from the University:

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Filed Under: College Basketball Tagged With: Golden Gophers, gophers, minnesota basketball, minnesota golden gopher basketball, Minnesota Golden Gophers, saul smith, saul smith arrest, saul smith arrested, saul smith dui, Tubby Smith

#76 Minnesota Golden Gophers College Football 77 in 77

June 11, 2012 By paulmbanks 1 Comment

In 2011, the Minnesota Golden Gophers played a very powerhouse USC team very tight, and utterly destroyed an Illini team that had completely quit on Ron Zook when they met in Minneapolis. Those were the highlights of a bad 3-9 season.

The lowlights? a loss to dreadful North Dakota State which kicked off a horrendous four game losing streak that saw the Gophers outscored 31-144. New regimes take time, so maybe year two will be better? Well, the Minnesota state legislature approved the sale of beer on game days for 2012, so at least they’ll have that.

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Filed Under: College Football Tagged With: b1g football, Big Ten Football, golden gopher football, golden gophers football, goldy gopher, gopher football, gopher football news, Minnesota Golden Gophers, um gophers

How good might Harrison Barnes be in the NBA?

April 13, 2012 By paulmbanks Leave a Comment

There wasn’t a more highly touted recruit coming out of high school, other than LeBron James, than Harrison Barnes. People thought so highly of him that college basketball tabbed him as a preseason first team All-American. But his first few months of his freshman season were anything but All-American-esque. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: College Basketball, NBA, NBA Draft Tagged With: 2012, ACC tournament, all-american, antawn jamison, basketball, bradley beal, Clemson Tigers, College Basketball, dirk nowitzki, Florida State, Golden Gophers, harrison barnes, michael kidd-gilchrist, minnesota golden gopher, Minnesota Golden Gophers, NBA Draft, NCAA tournament, paul pierce, preseason, Vince Carter

Minnesota Golden Gophers LB Gary Tinsley found dead

April 8, 2012 By paulmbanks Leave a Comment

Twenty-two year old Gary Tinsley, a recent University of Minnesota football player was found dead in his dormitory room Friday morning, April 6.

University Police Chief Greg Hestness “there was no evidence of foul play,” but that this death is suspicious, like most deaths that involve college football and college basketball players.

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Filed Under: College Football Tagged With: gary tinsley, gary tinsley dead, gary tinsley death, gary tinsley dies, gary tinsley homicide, gary tinsley suicide, golden gophers football, gophers football, gophers football news, keanon cooper, Minnesota Golden Gophers

Gophers Trevor Mbakwe gets Evan Eschmeyer style 6th year in college

March 23, 2012 By paulmbanks Leave a Comment

The NBA hoop dreams of Minnesota Golden Gophers four Trevor Mbakwe will wait another year. And that’s a probably a good thing because it gives him a chance to answer scouts questions about his after the injury.

Mbakwe has been granted a sixth year of eligibility, putting the Marquette transfer within the same category as former Northwestern center Evan Eschmeyer. It seemed like Eschmeyer was in Evanston forever during the 1990s; it was in actuality six years. Mbakwe suffered an ACL tear to his right knee against Dayton in November and was lost for the remainder of the season. He underwent surgery on Dec. 30 to repair the knee.

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Filed Under: College Basketball Tagged With: 2012 nba draft prospects, golden gophers basketball, gophers, gophers basketball, mbakwe returning, Minnesota Golden Gophers, nba draft prospects, trevor mbakwe, trevor mbakwe 6th year, trevor mbakwe eligibility, trevor mbakwe returns to minnesota

Gophers Rodney Williams: most overrated NBA Draft prospect ever?

February 23, 2012 By paulmbanks 1 Comment

Minnesota Golden Gophers forward Rodney Williams is a bonafide NBA draft prospect. Not so much this year, but for 2013 (where we have him projected as a mid-2nd rounder), and I can’t for the life of me understand why. (But I’m a NFL draftnik, not an NBA draftnik) When fighting for their NCAA Tournament lives this week, the 6-7, 205 junior forward from Minneapolis just disappeared in the 2nd halves of both games. Each of these contests saw Minnesota drop a second half lead and eventually lose.

When you lead the team in scoring, rebounding, blocks, steals, field goal percentage and minutes, you are expected to BE the leader, and THE GUY who takes over in crunch time.

In the loss at Northwestern, Williams had 7 points at halftime, but just two points and two shots in the second twenty minutes. In the 66-61 loss to Michigan State, Williams VANISHED in the second half when Minnesota Tubby Smith needed him most. And in the closing minutes with the game tied, he cost his team dearly at both ends of the floor.

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Filed Under: College Basketball Tagged With: Golden Gophers, gopher basketball, gophers, gophers basketball, Minnesota Golden Gophers, minnesota golden gophers basketball, nba draft prospects, Rodney Williams, Rodney Williams draft, rodney williams nba draft, Tubby Smith

Gophers Tubby Smith wears bow tie in honor of cancer survivors

February 23, 2012 By paulmbanks 1 Comment

If you were following Twitter during the Michigan State Spartans 66-61 victory at the Minnesota Golden Gophers contest last night, you may have noticed UM Coach Tubby Smith rocking a blue bow tie.

There was praise, but there was of course plenty of jokes and insults. There was even speculation that the blue was in reference to his old job leading the Kentucky Wildcats. I do wish more college basketball fans would simply ask a relevant question or two before passing judgment. Now when they find out what the bow tie was for, and what it represents, they might feel more like the jackasses they are for shooting their mouths off.

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Filed Under: College Basketball Tagged With: Golden Gophers, golden gophers on the line, gophers, gophers basketball, gophers on the line, Minnesota Golden Gophers, minnesota golden gophers basketball, on the line, Tubby Smith, tubby smith blue bow tie, tubby smith bow tie

Illini Outlast Gophers in Never Ending Big Ten Opener

December 27, 2011 By paulmbanks Leave a Comment

One of my all time favorite The Simpsons quotes:

“Mr. Simpson, this is the biggest case of false advertising since my suit against the film the Never Ending Story” –Lionel Hutz

The legendary lawyer played by the late, great Phil Hartman refers to a 1984 film with a running time of 94 minutes. Illinois escaping 81-72 in 2 OT over the Minnesota Golden Gophers ran about 2 hours, 40 minutes. It was a game in which no one ever seemed to want to take it, until finally, the Illini dominated the final four minutes of the final OT.

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Filed Under: College Basketball, Illinois Fighting Illini Tagged With: gophers, gophers basketball, illini basketball, illini basketball news, illini hoops news, Illinois basketball, illinois basketball news, illinois crandall head, illinois hoops news, meyers leonard, meyers leonard going pro, meyers leonard illini, meyers leonard nba, Minnesota Golden Gophers

Can Gophers Ralph Sampson III Follow Dad to the NBA?

November 26, 2011 By paulmbanks Leave a Comment

Minnesota Golden Gophers Coach Tubby Smith has seen drastic, if not dramatic improvements in the game of senior Center Ralph Sampson III.

“His consistency, his numbers have improved each year. They haven’t been leaps and bounds, but I think a lot of it has to do with Ralph getting in better shape, not that he hasn’t worked at it, but he’s had to focus on learning to breathe properly, I don’t know if he had asthma or another type of breathing disorder, but he’s got that under control better, and his stamina and strength are two issues he’s done a good job of addressing this summer and fall,” Sampson’s coach Tubby Smith said.

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