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[Oildog]

The U Baseball team is pretty good in the Big 10 but its not as strong as a National conference compared to Southern schools.

U Hockey still gets most of the best in State. They aren't getting better and thats a coach problem.

[QuantumIguana]

Tubby Smith hasn't "failed miserably". He took a disaster of a team, and had 20 win seasons in his first three seasons, and two consecutive NCAA appearances. Yes, this is a down season. But it's a 17-15 season, and that isn't THAT bad.

If Mason was so great, why has no one hired him? Surely some other school could have profited from the U's mistake, right? Brewster was the wrong hire, but that doesn't mean that firing Mason was the wrong move. No one ever said that the new stadium was a cure-all, but the revenue situation at the dome was disastrous.

And Minnesota baseball has done quite well.

[Ghengis]

Originally Posted by Oildog

The U Baseball team is pretty good in the Big 10 but its not as strong as a National conference compared to Southern schools.

U Hockey still gets most of the best in State. They aren't getting better and thats a coach problem.

There was a time that the U got all the best in the state. Forget the national rankings, they have now reached the point of being irrelevant in even the WCHA.

The Gophers placed just one player of the 18 players picked for the 1st - 3rd all WCHA Teams for 2010/2011 (same as St Cloud and Mn State), UMD had four players picked.

The Ciskie Blog: All-WCHA Teams Announced

Don't know if Lucia deserves all the blame but it should start with him.

from What's Wrong with Minnesota Gophers Hockey? - The Daily Gopher ...

Minnesota had one of the first cases with forward Kyle Okposo, who was drafted 7th overall by the New York Islanders in the 2006 draft. Okposo scored 40 points as a freshman at Minnesota in 2006-07, but played only 18 games as a sophomore before the Islanders signed him before Christmas of 2007. The news was a shocker to the college hockey world, as teams generally never pull a player from his college team midseason. That was bad enough, and the reason given made it worse: according to a Strib story published Dec. 20, 2007 when Okposo turned pro, Islanders GM Garth Snow claimed he pulled the youngster out of the Gopher program because he didn't think Lucia was developing him well enough.

and

There have been some other reports since then that NHL brass don't think Lucia develops his players well enough for the next level. In an excellent and thorough piece this past summer written for Let's Play Hockey, Kevin Kurtt chronicles the state of the program and looks at all of the early departures the Gophers have suffered under Lucia (31 have left the program early, with 19 of them turning pro). In it, Kurtt references a Strib article from 2009 that quotes then chief scout of the Minnesota Wild saying similar disparaging things about Lucia's program and the way he develops kids for the pros.

[knke0204]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

Tubby Smith hasn't "failed miserably". He took a disaster of a team, and had 20 win seasons in his first three seasons, and two consecutive NCAA appearances. Yes, this is a down season. But it's a 17-15 season, and that isn't THAT bad.

IfMason was so great, why has no one hired him? Surely some other school could have profited from the U's mistake, right? Brewster was the wrong hire, but that doesn't mean that firing Mason was the wrong move. No one ever said that the new stadium was a cure-all, but the revenue situation at the dome was disastrous.

And Minnesota baseball has done quite well.

Show me a banner and I'll shut up... the Big 10 sent 7 teams to the tournament... and... the Gophers are sitting at home... Tubby has a ring, something that very few active coaches have, and finishing 8 out of 11 in the BigTen is a laughable. Tubby has had a handful of recruits flake - Devoe Joseph, (Lost his brother Corey after a verbal committment), Royce White, Paul Carter, etc.

Keep your cheesy Minnesota excuses to yourself.. "Hey, 17-15 isn't that bad" .. um yea it is...

Dude, Mason was given a severance package, he probably is just enjoying his free time, collecting U of M checks and lauging at Brewster

[knke0204]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

The Gophers had a long period of time when there wasn't much serious local competition.

Now, prospective players from in-state can attend St. Cloud, or UMD, or Bemidji, or Mankato, and still have good exposure and possibly a shot at a national championship. The U of M isn't the automatic solution any longer.

Because of the above, I can understand the slight decline in that single sport.

I don't really think the SCSU's and Bemidji's of the world are attracting any top recruits before the Gophers, kids in MN grow up dreaming of playing in Maroon and Gold.

I think the problem is what Ghengis alluded too. too many top recruits are leaving the program early for greener pastures, which only makes sense.

Coach K and Duke had this problem in the early 00s-mid 00s, where they were recruiting the top recruits in the Nation, many of which would leave the school after 1-2 years. He since has started recruiting palyers that are not the best talent, but have a committment to winning the college way and staying to get a degree.

[Ghengis]

I don't believe the Gophers are getting the top recruits anymore. Their reputation as a program that is not developing players likely has festered for some time and the good players are going elsewhere. Other schools in the WCHA have players that leave early and yet thump the Gophers with alarming regularity lately. This myth of a super-program is being exposed for what it is.