Patrick Reusse: U basketball has joined football's ages-old morass

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Said this on the football message board as well, but I'll repeat it here anyways.

What is this 'We' crap? Reusse certainly can't actually be serious that he considers himself to be part of Gopher Nation, or that he is, like one of us, "lamenting the condition of Gophers football." Most of the time, he is content to stomp all over it with cheap shots and low blows.

That said, for once, I might actually agree with the overall theme of the column. And also (for once), the tone isn't completely venomous. So I guess I should be glad for that. Or should I?
 


Won't click on the link to give Patty another hit, but I'm sure he knows of what he speaks when he writes "More Ass".

Work in a friggin' salad once in a while.
 

While I don't agree with his contention that an argument could be made for Jerry Kill having an easier job, this was a fair piece from Reusse. If GopherHolers would direct their venom towards the University of Minnesota for these absolutely embarrassing results in revenue sports as opposed to the sportswriter, we'd be much better off.
 

Has joined? What does he mean, "has" joined? Implying that basketball has degraded so much under Tubby that it's only now on par with football? Only within the Minnesota fanbase do people pretend that our basketball team is anything but a lower-tier Big Ten squad. The football team hasn't won the title in 45 years, and the basketball team hasn't won it in 30. And the football team was infinitely more successful than the basketball team prior to that timeframe. I'd really love to know where this pretend idea arose that Minnesota basketball is or ever was great.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Has joined? What does he mean, "has" joined? Implying that basketball has degraded so much under Tubby that it's only now on par with football? Only within the Minnesota fanbase do people pretend that our basketball team is anything but a lower-tier Big Ten squad. The football team hasn't won the title in 45 years, and the basketball team hasn't won it in 30. And the football team was infinitely more successful than the basketball team prior to that timeframe. I'd really love to know where this pretend idea arose that Minnesota basketball is or ever was great.
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Baloney DebbieDownerDoll. What is it with people like you that take such joy in denying that the Final Four run happened? There has been success here and I for one enjoyed it immensely. There is no reason our program should be in any sense a lower tier program. We dominate a state as the only D1 team and there is enough base of talent to be the core for competing well if we can add some key out of state recruits. Go ahead and bad mouth the program if you want, I hope that makes it more fun for you. That and checking punctuation should make your day.
 



bga1 said:
Baloney DebbieDownerDoll. What is it with people like you that take such joy in denying that the Final Four run happened? There has been success here and I for one enjoyed it immensely. There is no reason our program should be in any sense a lower tier program. We dominate a state as the only D1 team and there is enough base of talent to be the core for competing well if we can add some key out of state recruits. Go ahead and bad mouth the program if you want, I hope that makes it more fun for you. That and checking punctuation should make your day.
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That was one isolated year in 1997. Before that the last decent runs were in 1989 and 1990 and you could argue both of those teams upset a couple teams to move into the round of 16 and 8. Almost all the success in the BB program over the past 30 years has been tarnished by one scandal or another. Why should the MN program be an upper tier program? They have not proven to be over the past decades. Where do you think the Gopher program rates in the Big Ten? I would say 8th or 9th? Curious to others thoughts on this.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
That was one isolated year in 1997. Before that the last decent runs were in 1989 and 1990 and you could argue both of those teams upset a couple teams to move into the round of 16 and 8. Almost all the success in the BB program over the past 30 years has been tarnished by one scandal or another. Why should the MN program be an upper tier program? They have not proven to be over the past decades. Where do you think the Gopher program rates in the Big Ten? I would say 8th or 9th? Curious to others thoughts on this.
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Well on some list put together by ESPN, Gophers are the #14 program all-time, but the criteria are meaningless.
If you google espn all-time basketball programs you'll get it, I can't link it.
 

bga1 said:
Baloney DebbieDownerDoll. What is it with people like you that take such joy in denying that the Final Four run happened? There has been success here and I for one enjoyed it immensely. There is no reason our program should be in any sense a lower tier program. We dominate a state as the only D1 team and there is enough base of talent to be the core for competing well if we can add some key out of state recruits. Go ahead and bad mouth the program if you want, I hope that makes it more fun for you. That and checking punctuation should make your day.
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Baloney how? Please highlight all those years of dominance the basketball team had. The Final Four run never happened. I'd rather lose every game honestly than win by cheating. Does anyone honestly think that the Gophers could've cheated their way to the final weekend if every other team in the country was full of players who never had to go to class? I would have the cleanest house and the nicest yard in the metro if I never had to go to work.

You're right, there is no reason, in the future, why Minnesota can't be an upper-tier Big Ten team. The difference is that you're talking about shoulda-woulda-couldas and aspirations. I'm talking about facts. The facts are that Minnesota has never been a top-tier Big Ten team for any appreciable length of time. There is also no reason for that to suddenly change in the near future. I'm hoping for it like crazy, but I'm not expecting it. I'm also in no way bashing the program. Again, I'm dealing in facts. I'm sorry that the fact that Minnesota is not, and never has been, anything but a bottom-tier Big Ten squad is so terrible for you to bear.

The name-calling and insults really added to the quality of your post, though, so kudos for that.
 

While it is true that the last 15 years have been roughly equal (equally bad), 15 years does not equal 50. Further, Pat refutes his own point. Keeping 2-3 kids like Royce White, Rodney Williams and Tyus Jones in state and you have a pretty darn good basketball program. Even 2-3 Phillip Nelson's isn't enough to go to the Rose Bowl.

MN is the only Division I program in a state of 5 million people and sits in the middle of a top 15 metro area. Yes the arena is old and they need a practice facility, but it has had success at least in our memory and has the the potential to be a very good job going forward. That will sadly probably never be true for our football team.
 



gopherbadgerman said:
That was one isolated year in 1997. Before that the last decent runs were in 1989 and 1990 and you could argue both of those teams upset a couple teams to move into the round of 16 and 8. Almost all the success in the BB program over the past 30 years has been tarnished by one scandal or another. Why should the MN program be an upper tier program? They have not proven to be over the past decades. Where do you think the Gopher program rates in the Big Ten? I would say 8th or 9th? Curious to others thoughts on this.
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From 1989-1999, Minnesota made 6 NCAA's, 3 Sweet 16's, 2 Elite 8's and a Final Four. If not for getting robbed of an NCAA bid in 1996, we would have made 4 straight NCAA's. I think that level of success is attainable without the cheating. That is my hope and my expectation.

Minnesota is somewhere between the 4th and 8th best job in the B1G. Clearly now, probably no better than 7th or 8th, but on the same tier as Wisconsin, Purdue, Illinois. Going forward, it's certainly more desirable than Iowa, NW, PSU and Nebraska. I'd also argue Michigan, but that's debatable.
 

EG#9 said:
While I don't agree with his contention that an argument could be made for Jerry Kill having an easier job, this was a fair piece from Reusse. If GopherHolers would direct their venom towards the University of Minnesota for these absolutely embarrassing results in revenue sports as opposed to the sportswriter, we'd be much better off.
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Agree 100%. It's the U not Reusse that is the problem.
 

I would read Reusse if he stuck with Fulda Town Team Baseball.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Has joined? What does he mean, "has" joined? Implying that basketball has degraded so much under Tubby that it's only now on par with football? Only within the Minnesota fanbase do people pretend that our basketball team is anything but a lower-tier Big Ten squad. The football team hasn't won the title in 45 years, and the basketball team hasn't won it in 30. And the football team was infinitely more successful than the basketball team prior to that timeframe. I'd really love to know where this pretend idea arose that Minnesota basketball is or ever was great.
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Came over here to laugh at Ruppert's thread about everyone hating Wisconsin....and I ran into this post. I've read enough of your stuff dpoll to say....this is your best post ever! Nice work.
 

howeda7 said:
From 1989-1999, Minnesota made 6 NCAA's, 3 Sweet 16's, 2 Elite 8's and a Final Four. If not for getting robbed of an NCAA bid in 1996, we would have made 4 straight NCAA's. I think that level of success is attainable without the cheating. That is my hope and my expectation.

Minnesota is somewhere between the 4th and 8th best job in the B1G. Clearly now, probably no better than 7th or 8th, but on the same tier as Wisconsin, Purdue, Illinois. Going forward, it's certainly more desirable than Iowa, NW, PSU and Nebraska. I'd also argue Michigan, but that's debatable.
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I would say that is a fair expectation. But to be fair, the past 10-12 years have been pretty bad...and MN has not had that level of success without cheating.

I hope they can get to that level. I would be happy with 60% NCAA berths and multiple sweet sixteens every 3 years or so. That would put MN squarely in the middle of the pack in the B10. I disagree that MN job is as high as 4th in the B10 though - MSU, OSU, and Ind are all great jobs, and I think it is difficult to say without admitting homer glasses that MN is the next besy job by any means. I would put Ill, Wisc, Purdue all above MN for sure...but I do respect how one could make an argument. It is not a total slam dunk, IMO...
 

I watched a couple of the NCAA games yesterday, a number of people stood out,Taylor, Bergeren, Dowers and White. You need to keep the top people from Minnesota but you will be competitive if you do. Certainly not bottom of the Big Ten going 6-12. I would hope this will change in the next couple of years. Minnesota is the equal of Wisconsin and Purdue, Illinois is a better job.
 

howeda7 said:
While it is true that the last 15 years have been roughly equal (equally bad), 15 years does not equal 50. Further, Pat refutes his own point. Keeping 2-3 kids like Royce White, Rodney Williams and Tyus Jones in state and you have a pretty darn good basketball program. Even 2-3 Phillip Nelson's isn't enough to go to the Rose Bowl.

MN is the only Division I program in a state of 5 million people and sits in the middle of a top 15 metro area. Yes the arena is old and they need a practice facility, but it has had success at least in our memory and has the the potential to be a very good job going forward. That will sadly probably never be true for our football team.
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You're right, the BB team's mediocrity has been far shorter than FB, and there's better chance of success in BB here. However, consider that most kids don't really have the capacity to follow a sports team and understand what's going on until they are at least five years old at the earliest. That means that people up to 20 years old have never experienced any high level success of Gopher basketball, and that's if you include 1997.

That's literally where I was when I was growing up. My earliest memories of Gopher football are from about 1972 or 1973, just five or six years removed from a Big Ten championship. I was seven or eight. I still grew up loving the Gophers and becoming a season ticket holder in football and basketball. But most of my friends -- all of whom love sports -- mostly think of Gopher football as an afterthought and think I'm nuts to buy tickets for Gopher sports. That kind of apathy now exists in basketball for a new generation. But at least we can blame Reusse for it.
 

Dan Monson weighs in on the Minnesota job.....I thought it would probably fit here and you guys would have some interest on his take, since he's a former coach in Minneparis:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1196002/1/index.htm

Key quotes:
Then he was offered the job at Minnesota, a Big Ten school reeling from one of the worst academic-fraud scandals in NCAA history. "I turned it down five times, but they just kept offering more money, kept taking away the obstacles," Monson says. "I was in my hotel room [in Minneapolis] and looking in the mirror, and I said to myself, Maybe this is happening for a reason."
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Wow.....Minnesota was pretty desperate!

"The reality is that while Minnesota is a good job," Monson says, "there are six programs in the Big Ten that are great jobs: Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, with their superior facilities. So every year Minnesota is battling with Purdue and Iowa for seventh. If you win that battle, you are O.K. If you don't, you get fired."
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Sounds like what Tubby is finding out.
 

"Good" basketball programs would laugh at the idea of a once per generation sweet 16 run being "successful".
 

Purdue has a better program then Minnesota's . We;re equal to Iowa and ahead of psu and Nebr.
 

I agree with Gopher Bandanna Guy. I didn't mind the overall tone of Patrick's column. Thought it was pretty fair & not as acidic as we usually get from him, and Patrick even pointed out a couple things as signs of hope (Andre, BTT performances under Tubby).

Certainly I think most of us would agree that next season we don't want to see a repeat of the last 2 seasons. ... great start (especially in 2010-11) but eventually done in by a February flameout.
 

The Tubby excuse bots agreeing with Pat Ruesse, one of the great laughable moments in Hole history.
 

goldengophers said:
The Tubby excuse bots agreeing with Pat Ruesse, one of the great laughable moments in Hole history.
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The greatest post ever had to be yours on how Tubby should only be allowed to sign a 3*** after he signs a 5*****, etc. I wonder why the anti-Tubby crowd excels at attracting attention seeking idiots?
 


howieramone said:
The greatest post ever had to be yours on how Tubby should only be allowed to sign a 3*** after he signs a 5*****, etc. I wonder why the anti-Tubby crowd excels at attracting attention seeking idiots?
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Another context free and spliced comment from Howard Ramone.
 

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