Well, what can you say for a team that finished 1-11 and 0-8 in the conference? Well, not a whole heckuvalot other than “It has to get better!” And Gopher fans—it will. With a great recruiting class coming in under the lead of second-year coach Tim Brewster, there’s no reason to believe that the Golden Gophers are not unlike Illinois, who came back from the depths under Ron Zook and now are near the upper echelon of the league. Maybe they are about 2-3 years off, but there is indeed hope up north. Read the rest of this entry »

If you watch the Big Ten Network for just random games, or just love to watch the Big Ten in general, the network certainly loves you! However, for those of you that are rock-chalk solid as just watching one team and one team only (and of course the other team that plays), the BTN is putting together 24 hours of highlight for each school in the Big Ten set to start airing next week. It’s a good way to celebrate all of the 2007-08 things that happened to your school’s team in a very condensed way! Read the rest of this entry »

Women’s volleyball has always had a strong following in the Big Ten, dating back to the early 80s when Illinois really broke onto the national scene normally dominated by California teams. Since that time, the programs throughout the conference have grown in size and stature amongst the masses, and when Penn State joined the Big Ten, not only did they bring one of the most storied football programs, they also brought a great tradition in volleyball (both men’s and women’s). Read the rest of this entry »

Ya gotta love college spirit, don’t ya? This weekend, the Minnesota Golden Gophers athletic department will host the “Golden Goldys” which rewards the best individual student-athletes and teams from the University of Minnesota for the Spring 2007 teams through the Winter 2008 teams. The event will be hosted by former standout Ben Utecht and his lovely wife Karyn. It’s a formal event, no less, including a “maroon” carpet. (What else?) Read the rest of this entry »

Purdue and Maryland have not met for over 11 years in women’s basketball, but throughout that course of time, both programs have remained strong and in the national spotlights. With the 2008 ACC/Big 10 challenge match ups released today, they will get a chance to see who’s program has come along the most as they square off in one of the marquee matchups of the annual head-to-head competition. Both teams figure to finish in the top three of their conference and preseason wise should be pretty high up there in the national rankings as well, so if you get a chance, don’t miss this game. Read the rest of this entry »

Ahhh, the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Such history.

Such a ridiculous pairing of two conferences.

Sorry guys, but this is heads and above my least favorite thing that the Big 10 does. Not because I feel like they shouldn’t play against tough teams, but the fact that this is a “match up” of two conferences battling against each other, there’s never much to the overall scheme of things–the ACC usually kicks the crap out of the Big 10, much in part because normally the Big 10 has 1-3 very good teams, while the ACC generally has a deeper conference that can compete from top to bottom, which makes all the difference in the world when you consider the cavernous difference from top to bottom in Big 10 basketball.

So, enough of my soapboxing, here are the games:

Monday, Dec. 1: Wisconsin at Virginia Tech

Wednesday, Dec. 3: North Carolina vs. Michigan State (from Ford Field), Indiana at Wake Forest, Michigan at Maryland, Florida State at Northwestern, Penn State at Georgia Tech 

Actually, I am not reaaaaaaally going to complain too much about these games, even though the Penn State-Georgia Tech and the Illinois-Clemson games are mismatches overall. But the Duke-Purdue and MSU-North Carolina matchups will be awesome.

Minnesota’s football program hasn’t exactly had many credentials to support a great turnaround. But here they are, after a dismal season, and yet they had one of the best recruiting classes in the Big 10–and even the nation. How can this be? Well, much like Ron Zook did for Illinois’ program last year and is continuing to build on, Tim Brewster (who ironically played college ball at Illinois) has given the players a reason to believe and make the Golden Gopher program back to the upper echelon of the Big 10. Read the rest of this entry »

The Men’s Gymnastic Finals are taking place in Palo Alto, California at the home of #1 Stanford. However, even with that huge advantage, the Final has a distinct Big 10 flavor, with six teams out of twelve at the meet.

The teams invited are Penn State (ranked #3), Illinois (#5), Michigan (#6), Ohio State (#7), Minnesota (#8),  and Iowa (#9). So…..there’s a great chance that the Big 10 could be bringing home the trophy if they can overcome that huge home advantage that Stanford has.

From each pre-qualifying session the top three teams and the top three all-around competitors not on one of the qualifying teams, plus the top three individuals on each event not already qualified on a team or as an all-around competitor, will advance to the Team and All-Around Finals session, which will take place Friday, April 18, at 7 p.m. PDT.

Good luck guys!

…And heeeeeeeeeere’s the pitch…

Northwestern’s Lauren Delaney, you could say, was in a zone. Over the weekend, she simply was on fire–and so were her pitches. Not only did she compile a 1.02 ERA and a whopping 31 strikeouts in 20 innings of work, she also showed pinpoint control by only walking two–an average of 1 per inning. But the biggest statistic that the sophomore was able to put up was 4: that’s the number of wins she had in as many games that she pitched.

Read the rest of this entry »

Frankly, I am shocked that I am even writing this post. The last second shot heard round the world that propelled Minnesota into the semifinal matchup against the hot-shooting Illinois Fighting Illini, who have upset two teams in the process, is one that is about as far-flung as far as predictable as it is one of these teams winning it all. But the thing is–one of them could actually do it–considering how they’ve held their composure throughout the pressure-packed tournament.

Illinois has relied upon their offense, something they haven’t had much of during the regular season. While their free throw shooting improved in th efirst game versus Penn St., the game against Purdue was deplorable, as they went 8-20 for a measly 40%. If they want to beat Minnesota, they absolutely must shoot better from the charity stripe.  They also had 21 turnovers, a number that must improve against a tenacious Minnesota press defense. What has kept them in the games has been great field goal defense (both Purdue and Penn St. shot less than 40% from the field and the Illini have been stellar from the three point line, going 15-35 overall.

Minnesota has really just been a team that has played up to the level of their competition and been at the right place at the right time. They were essentially given the game by Indiana–no disrespect to Blake Hoffarber and his miracle shot–but if Indiana’s two big guns Eric Gordon and D.J. White make their free throws in the last minute–they missed 5 in that time frame–this post is about the Illini facing the Hoosiers and the whole Gordon story resurfacing. But they didn’t do that–and so the Golden Gophers have a chance to get to the finals for the first time ever in the Big 10 tournament.

This game is a head scratcher overall–while my head tells me that Minnesota, with more quality wins and more depth and the better coaching should win, but the fact that Illinois has really gutted things out and beaten teams a lot more soundly, in my opinion, than Minnesota has, that the Illini have more momentum, despite the miracle shot.

While many will give the Gophers the nod, I think that Demetri McCamey and the Illini continue their hot shooting and success in the Big 10 tournament and eek by a sound Minnesota team, 65-60.