Sophomore middle blocker Lauren Gibbemeyer sat down with me this week and was willing to chat about everything from music to ketchup to scooters. Gibbemeyer has been busy leading the Gophers in most major stat categories this season, but took the time to talk. So in advance, thank you Lauren for putting up with us. Name: Lauren Gibbemeyer Class: Sophomore Position: Middle Blocker Number: 5 Full Bio: Gophersports Full Bio Mark Heise: Lauren to start things off, I can’t help but notice both you and Jessica Granquist seem to know your warmup music pretty well. Both of you can be seen singing along during warmups. Which of you knows the music better? Lauren Gibbemeyer: That’s a good question… I don’t really know, I think I probably do. I’m kind of a freak when it comes to knowing songs, I’ll listen to a song and I’ll know all the words. MH: Sounds good, we’ll ask Jessica the same question later this year, and see if she agrees. Moving on, let’s talk about classes. Do you have a favorite/least favorite this year? LG: I really like my Psychology of Sport class, my least favorite class would be Stats MH: Stats 1001? LG: 3021 MH: I hear you take notes with different colored pens… LG: I used to. I did this summer. I used to write with markers because I liked to make my notes exciting. I get bored when I take notes, so I’d change it up. MH: You also like to try the Sudoku puzzles now and then. Do you read the Daily for anything other than Sudoku? LG: I’m horrible at Sudoku. Me and (Krista Chin) work on it once in a while during class, but I’m pretty bad. And that’s probably the only reason I pick up the Daily, sadly. MH: That’s ok, although you might like to try the crosswords. Washington Avenue Bridge: Do you have to cross it? Are you scared of it? LG: I don’t have to cross it, I guess I’ve been over it, but I don’t think about it. I try not to think about it. MH: I’m absolutely terrified of it. LG: Are you? MH: Yes. You have a new living situation this year; you’re in a house with five other girls. What’s that like? LG: It’s kind of hard to tell, we haven’t really been home that much. So far I love it, it’s fun being with people you haven’t lived with before, and it’s a good mix and we work well together, so far there haven’t been any problems. MH: I have an older sister, so I Know about the challenges of sharing the bathroom with ONE girl. You’re doing that with five. Does anyone ever make it to class on time? LG: We have two bathrooms, Brook Dieter, Hailey Cowles and I share one of them, and Brook gets up the earliest, so she’ll shower in the morning, I usually shower at night, and Hailey usually showers at the Sports Pavilion. We manage it pretty well. MH: When’s the last time you sat down and watched cartoons? LG: Oh gosh, I have no idea. A long long time ago. My cable router doesn’t fit across my room to my TV so I haven’t really watched TV too much. MH: You’ve missed out on all TV? LG: Well I’ll watch Big Ten Network and things like that a couple of times in our living room, but I usually watch movies. MH: Do you ever watch one of your taped games that show on BTN? LG: Yeah. I think it’s hilarious to see what the commentators say about us and all of that stuff. So yeah, I’ll watch and see how awkward we look at the openings. MH: Tubby’s Tip-Off is coming up LG: Yeah, the Midnight Madness thing or whatever. MH: Yeah, except it’s not at midnight. LG: It isn’t? I swear I heard something like that. MH: In a lot of places it’s called Midnight Madness, but they’re doing it earlier LG: Oh ok… MH: So the question is, are you planning to attend that? LG: We were talking about it, I think we probably will. MH: Do you watch the guys games? LG: Yeah we do. We get to more of those than we do football or anything else. MH: One of the players on the team, Travis Busch, he and Zach Eisendrath from Gophersports have an online TV-blog called The What Else? Show where they sit online and just talk about things that they’ve seen recently or things they’re thinking of, current event-type things. The question this year is, if you had a show like this, what would you call it, and what would it be about? LG: Oh my gosh, I have no idea… It’d probably be “What goes on in the girl’s sports locker rooms” and I’d interview different sports teams and they’d tell stories about what goes on. MH: First guest on the show? LG: Probably the Gophers women’s basketball team MH: Ok. Favorite business on campus? LG: Chipotle. MH: What do you get? LG: Chicken Burrito. MH: What’s the strangest food you put ketchup on? LG: I really don’t like ketchup, but probably like a baked potato or something. MH: really? LG: It’s like French fries, kind of… it works. MH: sure… ok so new topic, I hear your scooter sucks. LG: NO! My scooter’s better! It’s fixed now, it used to suck. In the beginning the idler was step too low, so every time I would stop it would die. But the guy came and fixed it, and now it works perfect. MH: ok… LG: Who’s telling you these things? MH: That was from Krista Chin. LG: Jerk! (laughs) no, but it’s better now. MH: ok. Last question; who would you like to nominate for Off Topic next week, and what question would you like to ask? LG: I’d probably interview… um… I don’t know! What kind of question does it have to be? MH: Anything. LG: (After deliberating for a while) I seriously have no idea what I’d want to ask. But I nominate Brook for this. MH: She’ll appreciate that. Thanks for reading, and for you loyal readers, here’s some bonus material snatched off of the Women’s basketball media day! With Emily Fox: MH: How many times are we going to see you walk around campus in a boot this year? Fox: Hopefully never! I’m recovering, and everything feels good right now. Hopefully I can stay healthy! MH: Have you seen the most recent episode of The What Else? Show, and if so, do you have a comment on the write-in question regarding you and your team’s outlook this season? EF: I haven’t watched it yet, but I plan on watching it. MH: Here’s the question, from a fan. “Last season, I went to 11 women’s basketball games and they won all 11. What will Emily Fox do if I don’t make it this year?” EF: What’d he say to that? Or is that question to me? MH: Well it gets answered, but let’s ask you. EF: Well I’d say he definitely brought some good luck, but I think we’ll be fine. With Zoe Harper MH: The volleyball girls played some basketball with you guys this summer, and Christine Tan wore your jersey. Describe how that looked. Harper: It definitely went down to her knees, it was really long. It looked like it was about 10 sizes too big for her, but it was a lot of fun. With Brittany McCoy: MH: Talk about your upcoming Hoopla event, introducing the team to the fans this season. McCoy: We’re excited, they’re doing something different this year, and I’m not sure what that means. We’re in the dark about that. Usually we come out to music and I don’t think we’re doing that this year. I’m kind of anxious to hear what we have planned. MH: Will you be participating in the dunk contest? McCoy: I think I will.