BleedGopher
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2008
- Messages
- 61,974
- Reaction score
- 18,168
- Points
- 113
per Youngblood:
Most nights DeAndre Mathieu, usually the smallest man on the basketball court, carries the biggest burden.
Before a game, in the locker room beneath the Williams Arena court, he’ll write “33” on the side of his sneakers, down by the sole. During every national anthem, he says a prayer.
“And, right before the game starts, I beat my heart three times,” said Mathieu, who is in his first season with the Gophers. “Then I go out and get after it.”
Mathieu plays for himself, for his team. And for the best friend he ever had.
He and Phillip “Tookie” Stanford grew up together in a tough Knoxville, Tenn., neighborhood, connected like brothers. They played basketball together. They were going to get out of Knoxville together. They had plans.
But that all changed Jan. 25, 2012, when Stanford, who lost his sister and father to gun violence and his mother to cancer, took his own life.
http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/233177791.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue
Go Gophers!!
Most nights DeAndre Mathieu, usually the smallest man on the basketball court, carries the biggest burden.
Before a game, in the locker room beneath the Williams Arena court, he’ll write “33” on the side of his sneakers, down by the sole. During every national anthem, he says a prayer.
“And, right before the game starts, I beat my heart three times,” said Mathieu, who is in his first season with the Gophers. “Then I go out and get after it.”
Mathieu plays for himself, for his team. And for the best friend he ever had.
He and Phillip “Tookie” Stanford grew up together in a tough Knoxville, Tenn., neighborhood, connected like brothers. They played basketball together. They were going to get out of Knoxville together. They had plans.
But that all changed Jan. 25, 2012, when Stanford, who lost his sister and father to gun violence and his mother to cancer, took his own life.
http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/233177791.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue
Go Gophers!!
