Badgers vs Gophers

[fishingMN4eyes]

Pretty sweet. I can't believe I actually made it through whole game with how frustrated I was getting. That was so much fun!

[Barony]

How many of these guys did Monson recruit? Did he (Monson) get Westbrook?

[wingnut38]

that was a great game. gophs came out early and looked like they would run away with it then all of a sudden they looked awful. sconnie went on a big run. looked like the gophs were gonna pull to within 6 at the half but a turnover in the corner sends the ball the other way and badgers hit a 3 to end the half up by 11. i thought it was over. great job by tubby to rally the troops for the second half. nice win for the gophers.

[Scott M]

How many of these guys did Monson recruit? Did he (Monson) get Westbrook?

Monson recruited Westbrook, Jon Williams, Kevin Payton, and Damian Johnson. Travis Busch transferred during Monson's tenure but did not play for him. Shamala walked on during the Monson/Molinari campaign and got a scholarship in the spring semester after getting heavy minutes. The rest were recruited by Tubby, and it's worth mentioning that the development during Tubby's appointment for both Monson and non-Monson players was vastly better than the lack of development while Monson was here. Johnson and Westbrook were polished by Smith.

[fishin58]

Comeback complete, Westbrook was awesome, Gophs should have owned sportscenter this morning. The block and then the nifty lay-up by Westbrook.

[basssmasher*]

they owned the Big 10 network last night thats for sure!

[Cooter]

I've been searching the net all morning and just can't find any Gopher images for my avatar - sorry guys...

Don't worry, I'll get something up before the afternoon.

The better team won, but shouldn't have. Badgers choked that one big time. What year are the starters for MN? They certainly have potential galore. I'm gonna try to be away from the TV come March when we play you guys at home - sure I'll be picking out another gopher avatar.

My plan right now is to try to get a policy change prohibiting any and all forms of gambling, wagering, betting, etc by then!!

A good game to watch - until the end if you're a Badger fan Might bump MN up a bit in the standings. Later!

[Scott M]

I was driving in this morning and Senile Sid was talking just gibberish. He said something to the effect that Westbrook is an NBA prospect (not true), that the wild are “unconsistent,” and his babble went on and on. Where he fell furthest from the mark was saying that this was the greatest Gopher basketball comeback ever. He’s forgetting the Indiana away game in 1997:

Heres something I found on a Gopher Hoops blog from a few years back:

The harbinger of great things to come in that 96-97 season, as Minnesota came back from an impossible deficit in the last minute of play to send the game to overtime. Todd Zolecki had the whole story in the Minnesota Daily the next day:

With just under a minute to go and Minnesota down by seven, Gophers point guard Eric Harris pulled up and hit a 3-pointer from 20 feet to bring his team to within four. On the following play, shooting guard Bobby Jackson, who finished with 26 points, fouled Indiana guard Neil Reed. As Indiana had all game, Reed sank both of his free throws; Indiana up by six. Minnesota's next trip down the court found [sam] Jacobson, who had only six points at the time, with the ball. Jacobson made another three to put the Gophers within three. On the inbounds pass, Indiana guard A.J. Guyton had the ball stripped away by [Courtney] James who got the ball to Jackson. Just like Jacobson, Jackson had seconds before he found the basket from beyond 20-feet and tied the game with 33.8 seconds left.

"This is one of the biggest wins for Coach," Lewis said about Haskins. "He's had Bobby Knight's number, and we just wanted to keep the streak going." Haskins, in true form, threw off his jacket, fell to his knees and put his head in his hands after every frustrating and emotional play of the game.

That 25-second burst laid the foundation for what would become Minnesota's first Big Ten title in nearly a quarter-century.

Apparently these games were vacated from the record book AND Skid Hartman’s mind. I still miss standing in the student section and chanting “Sid Re-Tire”

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Cooter’s a good sport so he’ll have to pick the avatar. Wisconsin will recover and become a better team for it.

[lawdog]

16-1. That's all I have to say!

[Craigums]

Im not a basketball fan but last night I decided to watch the game because I had heard they were doing well. So anyways after the first half I TURNED THE GAME OFF! Turn on ESPN this morning and couldn't believe they came back, heh to this day I have never sat through an entire basketball game but im actually kicking myself for not sitting through that one. Good job Gophers!

[fishyguy]

You know what, the state of MN will be embracing this team big time. You can bet on it. Classy coach, classy players. This is what Basketball is about!

I was tending bar last night at a joint usually very much into Wild games and the crowd was really torn between the Gopher's and the Wild. On any other night I would have 6 TV's on the Wild and 2 on other things. Last night it was split 50/50 and the Gopher's were on two of the bigger prime TV's. I normally would have been abused by the crowd for doing that but they are really starting to get into the Gophers. The level of cheering in the bar during the comeback was incredible.

[KMR85]

i am also not a basketball person, but the end of that game was awesome. i watched a little of the first half and almost fell asleep. turned on the wild to watch something a little more exciting. once that was over i flipped back to bball and watched the end of the game. even the twolves have had me watching a little lately. the only time i ever watch basketball is march madness. it seems almost every tourney game is fun to watch, but regular season is pretty boring for me. That may be due to playing hockey my whole life though. one more thing, i had put in step brothers with 6 minutes left in the game since i didn't think the comeback was gonna happen. but the wife didn't want to watch a movie, she wanted to watch the end of the game and she hates basketball. keep it up gophers, it has been better than watching the u of m hockey so far.

[Cooter]

That avatar is gonna cause deep emotional scars....I'll never be the same again

[DTro]

Nice of you to show your Gopher Pride

[Cooter]

I was gonna be mean and put up an avatar with little Calvin taking a wee-wee on the groundchuck - would have fit the agreement!

[mr_jman]

What a great game... its a win like that that suddenly makes people think this could be a truely magical season! I've been a huge gophers basketball fan ever since I was a little kid and this starts to remind me of being in 7th grade (96-97). With a win over an "easy" opponent in Northwestern, we should hit the top 15 and if we can beat Purdue at home and Indiana on the road we should crack or be on the outside of the top 10!

As for ESPN they at least covered the game! They didn't make it seem nearly as exciting as it was to watch though! But anytime something big happens in Minny I have to see how ESPN covers it!

The gopher women also deserve some props going into Ohio State in winning for the first time there also. Ohio State is the top team and the only nationally ranked team in the BIG 10 so it was a really nice win! I had a feeling after they won there game, it would be a sign of things to come for the men.... it turned out to be true!!!!!

Its also funny to see how many people are jumping on board. Usually the gopher posts on here take days to fill a page and only about 2 or 3 people write anything but after that we've hit 5 pages in under 24 hrs.

[ozzie]

yep good games for both the men and the women gophs basketball teams.........Tubby has that team believing in themselves!!

[mskyfshntchr]

The harbinger of great things to come in that 96-97 season, as Minnesota came back from an impossible deficit in the last minute of play to send the game to overtime. Todd Zolecki had the whole story in the Minnesota Daily the next day:

With just under a minute to go and Minnesota down by seven, Gophers point guard Eric Harris pulled up and hit a 3-pointer from 20 feet to bring his team to within four. On the following play, shooting guard Bobby Jackson, who finished with 26 points, fouled Indiana guard Neil Reed. As Indiana had all game, Reed sank both of his free throws; Indiana up by six. Minnesota's next trip down the court found [sam] Jacobson, who had only six points at the time, with the ball. Jacobson made another three to put the Gophers within three. On the inbounds pass, Indiana guard A.J. Guyton had the ball stripped away by [Courtney] James who got the ball to Jackson. Just like Jacobson, Jackson had seconds before he found the basket from beyond 20-feet and tied the game with 33.8 seconds left.

"This is one of the biggest wins for Coach," Lewis said about Haskins. "He's had Bobby Knight's number, and we just wanted to keep the streak going." Haskins, in true form, threw off his jacket, fell to his knees and put his head in his hands after every frustrating and emotional play of the game.

I was 19 and a freshman in college that fateful night. Fishing over my Christmas vacation on Mille Lacs with a couple of buddies. With under a minute to go and down 7, we decided enough was enough and turned on the music.

To our ABSOLUTE suprise the next morning we hear the Gophs had come back and won. We all thought we had drank too man Ice Houses and heard that wrong...

[nate larson]

Heck of a game last night! I almost gave up on them but I am glad that I didn't. I can't wait to watch their next game. Go Gophs!

P.S. Cooter, I love the avatar!

[wahoohendoo]

down by 12 with 6 plus left a very huge win on the road.

Easy northwestern team?? remember we are a mn team. lets not hope for the letdown.

[schweady]

The cute little furball will grow on you after a week, Coot!

Welcome to Gold Country.