The Gopher's excuse in the case of the basketball program is legit for now but it'll be short lived if it doesn't produce better results than the last go round relatively quickly. This basketball program has been snake bit for a long time and this state, not just the TC, is hungry for a consistently competitive team. The talent is here. We need to keep it here.
As far as facilities, ya, their stadium, hockey arena & practice facilities
now are without a doubt some of the best in the country. Wasn't always that way up until recently. You may not follow the women's BB program but we've had front row seats in Bugtussle. Carlie Wagner grew up about a mile across the fields from us as the crow flies. She finished up in 2018 and never got to use the new practice facility and athlete housing. She said it was amazing. One other thing as nostalgic as it may be to us old farts, Williams or The Barn may not hold the same attraction to some of the blue chip athletes. They tend to like bright shiny objects.
Steve-O alluded to it and it was Rudy Perpich who declared this the "Brainpower State". Not sure if this was before or after his chopsticks factory brainfart but I digress. It was about that time that the elitists and academics really started to look down their noses at practitioners and made requirements to get into the U more difficult. Used to be they'd take anybody. Hell, they took me! They got rid of the general college and University Without Walls curriculum where they could stash athletes and make it easy for them to stay eligible. Mychal Thompson was in the Physical Geography class I had on West Bank. Boring as hell but if you had a pulse you passed that course. I saw him in class, once. Johnny Kundla was my conditioning instructor at the old gym on St. Paul campus. Inside it looked like someplace the Mandelbaums would hang out and throw the medicine ball. Murray Warmath was still on staff over on Mpls. East Bank campus in those days. He taught a class called "Angling Moderate Intensity". A lot of the athletes took that one and spent it watching films of Murray with his fishing buddies. Good times.
My zeal for University sports has dwindled as well db. Was fun watching Carlie and even before that, we went to The Barn many times to watch their games. That program tanked & is still in recovery mode, we hope. We used to come home Friday night, do chores and tune in Gopher hockey. Rinse and repeat Saturday nite. Listening to Wooger, Motzko and Doug McCloud was so easy. They messed that up. Tough to get the games & the
Big Ten Network would rather broadcast OH St., Michigan & Notre Dame. Marriucci used to be the toughest ticket in town to come by. Now there are empty seats galore. Been a Gopher BB fan thru thick and thru thin. Recent years tho, too much turnover and I don't have the passion for it I once did. Always been more lukewarm about football altho I enjoyed getting bombed on Mad Dog at Memorial Stadium & passing girls up back in the day. When the dummies tore down the stadium & moved the games downtown to The Dome, that set my interest back for decades, aside from the brief flash in the pan that was Lou Hoax perhaps. Start beating Ohio St., Michigan, Bucky and Gunner's beloved Hawkeyes consistently and then we'll talk.