UCONN fired football coach Bob Diaco today. They could've made the move a month ago, but waited until now.

He was 11-26 in three seasons. 3-9 this year.

thank God you gotta real brotha in ya life. Went shopping yesterday at a high end shop got followed around but it's all good. Enjoy your turkey! Make sure you get some dark meat in rememberance of 55.

And always remember....it's hard out hea! Imma boutu make the HOOD great again.

The Wild are on fire! 10 in a row now after beating Montreal and the Rangers on back to back nights on the road. Hope they don't get to January and go into their typical tailspin.

Depressing question that needs to be asked given the latest debacle :
Green probably gone now. We have
Croft Who else ?

Guess who my daughter found at Sea World today!

Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season to everyone! Save travels to all of those heading to San Diego.

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It's been a brutal couple weeks at the end of a tough year of Gopher fandom. Here's hoping that 2017 is the year things turn around for Gopher football in a big way.

Cheers, fellow GIers!

Link: JUCO WR Terry Wright talks Gopher interest, top three

Terry Wright and Isaac Zico (story on Zico here) are the JUCO receivers who have heard the most from Minnesota recently. Both I think would fit what this offense and complement the current wide receivers nicely.

Maybe it's obvious to most here, but I haven't seem much...if anything...in the local press from media hacks about the obvious revival of the men's bb program under Richard.

Nice W/L "A" start at 12-1 with some decent non-con competition. Fans seem to be coming back to the barn and Pitino's recruiting is obviously paying off.

Would nice to see more Minny high school hot shots on the roster, but if they don't want to be at the U, screw them and bring in high-end talent from the east coast etc as he has been doing...works for me...and clearly the level of program performance has benefited enormously. These guys are fun to watch again!

Big test Tuesday vs MSU...seems like the young GGs have a real shot at their first BIG W.

Wishing you @EJ Stevens all of the best this time of the year

Wishing you all the best this holiday season @Connor Stevens

Guys, its been great talking football and hoops this past year.. Lots of good input and information.. Thank you, MJH, for keeping the quality of this site very high in the transition.. I anticipate it will be as good or better in this coming year.

Anyways, I sincerely wish all of you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas!!

Wish you all a Merry Christmas! Those traveling to the bowl game, have a safe trip to San Diego. Bring home a victory. Ski U Mah. Go Gophers!

To everyone on this site.

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Got out of a final to see that Alexandria quarterback Jaran Roste of Alexandria committed. He's 6'4", 220 and is a good athlete that plays basketball too.

He completed 169 of 290 passes (58.3%) for 25 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He also ran for 652 yards and 18 touchdowns.

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There's a lot of people being really negative about Coyle...

I don't think he necessarily handled the situation perfectly, but what did you guys want him to say? The student privacy laws aren't BS...he has to abide by those especially in something like a sexual assault case. I do understand and wish he could be more transparent with players and parents but with all eyes on him he couldn't do that.

He did personally accuse any of the players. Suspending them while under investigation isn't against precedent, it's what's normally done. Claeys said he was at the meeting when the decision was made to suspend them.

He didn't write the EOAA report but it's a University committee so he has to acknowledge it. But I don't think he's approved the University suspensions that the EOAA recommended.

He didn't position himself entirely against the players, and I don't think it sends a good message to take a 100% stand behind your players when there's room for doubt on all accounts in a sexual assault case.

I don't mean to troll. Genuinely curious what people wanted him to say/do and what you want him to say/do moving forward. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Go Gophers!

Santee (SC) Lake Marion defensive tackle Jabari Ellis was a name that I mentioned in several war rooms last year. He didn't sign with anyone last year and is at now Georgia Military College (a JUCO) and graduating December 2017. Phelps called him tonight, and Ellis tells me that the two talked about taking an official visit in the spring.

Ellis had offers at one point from Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, Miami, South Carolina State, Toledo, and Western Carolina in high school. He says he's hearing from Minnesota, South Carolina, and Miami now but has no offers.

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Myrick back as the kick returner with KiAnte Hardin out. Eric Carter's listed as the punt returner. That's interesting and I think he's a good fit there.

Coney Durr is listed as the starting cornerback, and Amoako is listed as backing up both corners.

Elmore is again listed as starting over DeLattiboudere.

His mom is all-time MN high school track star Heather Van Norman, who won 100/200/400 all 4 years at.Windom high school, and went on to be a 6-time All- American at LSU.

In honor of a man near and dear to our hearts I unilaterally crown Wren the 2016 Pivot Man of the Year and since gif are his favorite I propose of Gif A Thon in his honor so I'll start...

Click the link and read that fücking bullshit. I don't even know what to say beyond that.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/23/healt...ersy-irpt-trnd1118PMStoryLink&linkId=32722262

Scoggins: After events of past week, it's tough to see how Gophers keep Claeys
There are qualities about Claeys that I admire and respect, but his program is in chaos right now and the anger coming from Gophers fans can't be ignored.
DECEMBER 19, 2016 — 8:32PM
Video (02:25) : Gophers coach Tracy Claeys addresses the media after Sunday's practice.
JOE CHRISTENSEN
http://www.startribune.com/after-ev...gophers-keep-tracy-claeys/407529336/#comments
CHIP SCOGGINS


One week ago Monday, I walked out of a lengthy interview with Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle feeling reasonably confident that Tracy Claeys will remain his football coach.

Coyle wouldn’t discuss Claeys’ contract situation and gave a measured evaluation of his football coach’s job performance, but nothing in his comments suggested that Claeys would not return next season.

A day later, the football program got tossed upside down by a public-relations tsunami that has brought national embarrassment.

Now I’m not sure how Claeys can survive past the Holiday Bowl.


His return likely hinges on whether Coyle and his boss, university President Eric Kaler, believe this storm eventually blows over and public outrage subsides.



RICHARD TSONG-TAATARII, STAR TRIBUNE
Tracy Claeys addressed the media Sunday evening about his status as coach of the Gophers football team.


Fans showed increasing pushback toward the program and rising ticket prices this season. Average home attendance dipped to its lowest level in 14 years.

College administrators often talk about their “brand” in schmoozing donors and corporate sponsors. The image of Gophers football is not appealing right now. The stain from this painful episode will be permanent.

Seven months into his job, Coyle faces a critical decision in assessing how to proceed with his top revenue-generating program.

There are qualities about Claeys that I admire and respect, but his program is in chaos right now and the anger coming from Gophers fans can’t be ignored.


Anyone still believe that Claeys will receive a contract extension after the bowl game?

I argued on behalf of retaining Claeys immediately after the season, while acknowledging that an 8-4 record felt like a missed opportunity. The arguments were based purely on football matters.

The conversation changed to more serious tones last week, with the suspension of 10 players following a school investigation of a sexual assault allegation. Last week changed everything, and school officials are left to determine whether Claeys can effectively lead, knowing the level of disgust that now exists among those financially and emotionally invested in the program.

Claeys was put in a difficult spot the moment his players called him into a meeting Thursday and informed him of their plans to boycott the Holiday Bowl in protest over the suspensions.

It seems he had two choices: risk of losing his team, or risk losing his job.


Kaler had showed so little respect for Claeys that he told select boosters in an e-mail that it was Claeys’ decision to suspend his players when, in fact, the decision was made above him.

On the other side, the players were so incensed by what they perceived as a lack of due process that they went through with plans to boycott, despite knowing it put Claeys’ job in jeopardy.

Claeys ultimately sided with his players and then doubled down with a regrettable tweet that incited outrage once the school’s investigation report became public a day later.

I have a hard time believing that Claeys would fire off such an insensitive, indefensible remark with full knowledge of the details in that report.

Claeys admitted Sunday that he should have chosen different words to convey his message, but the damage was done. Now, his job status is tenuous.


Coyle was not available for comment Monday, so his thoughts remain unknown. Coyle offered Claeys a vote of confidence after the season by issuing a statement that read: “He is our head football coach … he has my full support.”

Coyle, however, wasn’t exactly effusive in praise of Claeys during a 30-minute interview last Monday. Asked how he would frame this season, Coyle called it “a learning experience” for Claeys.

Claeys has only two seasons remaining on his contract, which if he is retained would be a unique circumstance for a major-college football coach. I asked Coyle if he prefers that his football coach has more years on his contract.

“I never talk contracts,” he said.

I mentioned reports that he will extend Claeys.


“Again, we don’t make comments when we deal with contract extensions,” he said. “But I support Tracy like I support all of our coaches.”

Has that changed? We could find out before the new year.

Claeys wasn’t the only person in a leadership capacity that made mistakes in dealing with this crisis. The head coach, however, bears ultimate responsibility with his program.

Here’s the next step: Coyle and Kaler must decide, if they haven’t already, whether Gophers football can win back support and trust with Claeys in charge.

Richard Pitino

• We need to improve turnovers.
• There's times during the game when I say "wow we're pretty good" and there are times when I say "wow we're pretty young." I think we have a good blend of some talent and we're really young still.
• I think it will be easier for Reggie going against bigger guys, to be quite honest.
• We still want to play fast. It's a different type of fast. We're not doing as much 2-2-1 like we did with the first two teams here.
• I keep telling Nate he can be one of the best guards in the Big Ten. His confidence is starting to come on. Nate's been professional, worked his butt off, I don't have a whole lot of complaints from him.
• Nate, Reggie, and Dupree are all playing at a really high level.
• When you win, confidence is built. When you're losing, it's hard. People get on you and you get down on yourself. This year, all the guys like each other and everything's great. We need to be prepared for the adversity moving forward.
• We used some wacky lineups and I think that hurt us defensively a little bit. We were switching because of their lineup. That's not necessarily what we'll do in the Big Ten.
• I feel great about everything right now, but I know it's about to get really, really tough.
• I kind of think we play positionless. The 1s, 2s, and 3s are all similar and the 4s and 5s are similar.
• When you have injuries like Michigan State has had, that hurts. People say injuries don't matter but they do when you lose a lottery pick like Miles Bridges.
• Our guys worked really hard to get back off the court and on the court. We took our lumps in the offseason, which we deserved, but we worked back.

Dupree McBrayer

• Having Akeem has helped. He's taught me things.

Akeem Springs

• I'm the new guy but you can still tell there's a growth from this team.
• We're coming out fast no matter who the opponent is.
• Arkansas State is a tough team. They played good games against good talent. They have a funny team where everyone is a guard and everyone can score.
• Pulling out the games against Arkansas, St. John's, and Vanderbilt kind of showed us that maybe we can be as good as we think we are.
• We know every possession is going to count going forward. We're excited for that.

You can read the preview here.

Arkansas State is a solid mid-major that beat Georgetown earlier this year. They're a top 150 team with good guard and wing play. Devin Carter is their best player and a fantastic shooter. They lack size so this could be another game where the Gophers really make an effort to get the bigs touches on the block.