Less than 72 hours after Doug Woog ended his 14-year tenure as Gophers men's hockey coach, the University introduced his replacement. After meeting with the search committee on Thursday night, Don Lucia...

With the spotlights glaring and tape recorders rolling, Doug Woog hesitated for a moment before joining men's athletics director Mark Dienhart at the table where he would announce his retirement as Gophers...

Doug Woog made a habit of beating up on the WCHA, posting a career winning percentage of more than .600 against every other team currently in the league. But rather than root for Woog's resignation, which...

High-strung University student Ronny Sassbottom had been saying something like this might happen for a long time, but it wasn't until the Thursday preceding a previous Friday that his warnings were finally...

When a long-hitting 19-year-old stepped out of the Australian outback to win the NCAA championship in May, less than five months after arriving in the United States, the short list college golf's best...

Gophers defenseman Ben Clymer, who would have entered this season as one of college hockey's top players at his position, informed the Minnesota coaching staff last week that he would forego his remaining...

Minnesota running back Byron Evans is accused of assaulting a former girlfriend, his second arrest in four months. Evans, 22, a redshirt junior from Texas City, Texas, pleaded innocent last month in Hennepin...

CHICAGO -- Thanks to the Big Ten's convoluted scheduling process, Wisconsin running back Ron Dayne and Ohio State linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer -- two of the nation's premier players at their respective...

Gophers forward Quincy Lewis and Connecticut guard Khalid El-Amin of Minneapolis were among the 12 players named Thursday to the USA Basketball Goodwill Games team. Lewis is one of four Big Ten players...

After the Gophers men's hockey team suffered a sub-par season, coach Doug Woog headed into the off-season hoping his golf game might not do the same. He was wrong. Woog the golfer continues to wallow...

Aggressive hockey is back in Minneapolis. Fueled by the sensual tones of Barry White and pre-game meals of lettuce and unsweetened tea, the Ice Pimps have lit a fire under the rear end of the University...

This won't do much to quiet those Tiger Woods comparisons. Long-hitting Gophers golfer James McLean, a 19-year-old freshman from Wahgunjah, Australia, who's been in the United States for just five months,...

It was 69 years in coming, but former Minneapolis Lakers great Vern Mikkelsen finally got his chance. He made the most of it. Mikkelsen and former Gophers and Lakers coach John Kundla visited with a group...

What began as a fledgling club program 30 years ago is now a full-fledged member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. Despite rumors in recent weeks that Mankato State's bid for WCHA membership...

After a storied college and professional hockey playing career, John Mariucci took over as coach of the Gophers hockey team in 1952. He helped turn an average program into a perennial national contender,...

As their new coach walked through the door and into the locker room in the basement of the Sports Pavilion, a month of anticipation boiled over into a frenzy of excitement. Finally, members of the Gophers...

Former Gophers women's basketball player Lynda Hass said "personality conflicts" with the coaching staff led to her decision to ask women's athletics director Chris Voelz for a release from her scholarship. "Things...

DULUTH, Minn. -- Sounding hoarse and looking spent, Gophers men's hockey coach Doug Woog hesitated for a long moment before saying that no, he'd never been through a loss like this. "I'm thinking," Woog...

When the Gophers men's hockey team last went on the road for the first round of the playoffs, senior co-captain Casey Hankinson couldn't walk across the living room, much less streak down a sheet of ice. That...

It's not quite a tournament on the scale of the NCAA men's basketball free-for-all, but the WCHA postseason begins on Friday with five best-of-three series. The top five teams in regular season play --...

and Tim Klobuchar CHICAGO -- The Gophers-Northwestern game that opened the inaugural Big Ten tournament didn't exactly get the conference's new baby off to a rousing start. There were more empty seats...

CHICAGO -- The first game of the inaugural Big Ten Tournament served not only to kick off what could become an early March tradition, but also to debut the Sam and Quincy Show, with your hosts, Sam Jacobson...

For the first time in 12 years, Mariucci Arena will not be the site of a postseason series. And while that will surely leave some egos bruised, the pocketbooks of both the Minnesota athletics department...

Those who didn't get the chance to see it on any of the multiple airings of ESPN's SportsCenter on Sunday night and Monday morning missed a doozy. Dave Spehar's first-period goal on Friday against Colorado...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- In 1806, when Zebulon Pike attempted to reach the mountain peak that would later bear his name, he said, "It can't be done." The Gophers men's hockey team must know how ol' Zeb...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- His four goals and an assist against Colorado College on Saturday may not have earned Gophers junior Wyatt Smith the win he wanted, but they did get him a longer shower. Smith...

A season ago, the Gophers men's hockey team returned home from its series with Colorado College with a win and a tie. Those three points propelled Minnesota to a final-weekend showdown with Wisconsin,...

North Dakota effectively locked up its second straight WCHA title over the weekend, sweeping at Denver while second-place Wisconsin and St. Cloud State were both swept. UND now has an eight-point lead...

His senior season has been well below expectations, but in recent weeks Gophers goaltender Steve DeBus has begun to make the best of a bad situation. Against Wisconsin early this month, he limited the...

Start with figure skating, then throw out the sequined outfits, the triple lutzes and the teary adolescents, and there you have it: This weekend in Gophers men's hockey. Minnesota's opponent, Alaska-Anchorage,...

If you're looking for a fun way to get a Gophers men's hockey player to demonstrate his checking technique, mention that he's the one of the few players to avoid the injury bug. Then turn, face the wall...

Alaska-Anchorage coach Dean Talafous has heard it all before. During his first head coaching stint, at Division III Wisconsin-River Falls in the mid-80s, fans criticized Talafous for coaching a slow-down,...

With little more than a month remaining in the 1996-97 season, the Wisconsin men's hockey team was tied for second place. But an onslaught of injuries caught up with the Badgers, and they didn't win a...

It may go down as one of the more embarrassing losses in recent Gophers history, during a season in which there have been several. But after surrendering a three-goal first-period lead by allowing North...

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Steve DeBus didn't deserve his fate this weekend. The Gophers men's hockey team lost a pair of games at North Dakota, an outcome that's become something of a tradition over the past...

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- If it had any hope of earning a split in a weekend series with North Dakota, the Gophers men's hockey team knew it had to avoid the same sorry start that decided the opener, a 4-2...

The Gophers' Dave Spehar, then with Duluth East, was the sniper -- shrewd and swift. Apple Valley goaltender Karl Goehring, now a freshman at North Dakota, was small of stature, but positively Herculean...

The Gophers men's hockey team did North Dakota a big favor last weekend by sweeping Wisconsin and knocking it out of first place. But the Sioux aren't likely to return that favor and allow themselves...

Gophers goaltender Steve DeBus received his second Defensive Player of the Week award of the season on Monday in return for his stellar weekend against Wisconsin. He stopped 54 of 55 shots in the Gophers'...

This was no Thrilla in Manila, no Rumble in the Jungle. No butterflies were afloat and no bees were a-stinging. But the Gophers men's hockey team did play a decent Muhammad Ali to Wisconsin's Joe Frazier...

History can be the most formidable of foes. Wisconsin learned that lesson -- again -- this weekend, as the Gophers men's hockey team swept the series soundly and surely, winning 4-1 and 7-0 and pushing...

The Gophers men's hockey team is reeling. Minnesota is 17 points behind first-place Wisconsin in the WCHA, coming off a sweep by Michigan Tech and playing without its captain. And here's coach Doug Woog,...

While North Dakota was busy beating up on Mankato State, Wisconsin kept up with its winning ways over the weekend. The Badgers swept Alaska-Anchorage, winning 2-1 and 3-1, to take over sole possession...

The rivalry between the Gophers men's hockey team and Michigan Tech is nearly 70 years old, but it's hard to believe a couple of old acquaintances could stay angry for so long. The Huskies whipped Minnesota...

HOUGHTON, Mich. -- For a few short days in late January, the Gophers men's hockey team was back. The we're-better-than-our-record refrain was beginning to sound reasonable. Goals were coming in bunches....

HOUGHTON, Mich. -- It's Winter Carnival time at Michigan Tech, which means behemoth ice sculptures fill the front yards of the school's fraternities and sororities in celebration of the majesty of the...

Getting hit upside the head by a flying puck might sting a little, and a skate blade cut across the jugular will probably bleed. But these examples pale in comparison to the understatement that the race...

Casey Hankinson is in bad shape, but my, what a humanitarian. The Gophers men's hockey captain was slowed by a hip pointer and a nasty case of the flu last week. And the sprained left thumb he suffered...

Las Vegas bookmakers have been known to offer their clients some rather inane wagers during Super Bowl week -- the over-under on the number of trips Packers nose tackle Gilbert Brown would make to the...

If only we could get inside the mind of Minnesota-Duluth men's hockey coach Mike Sertich and wander around for awhile. Perhaps then we could see what he meant when he derided the Gophers' "arrogance"...

As if sitting dead last in the WCHA wasn't bad enough, the Gophers men's hockey team continues to find itself on luck's bad side. Sure, they could use a break. But they could probably use a ride to the...

It's too early to talk about March Madness, but maybe January gee-whiz! would be more appropriate. The race for the McNaughton Cup -- given to the winner of the WCHA regular season championship -- is...

Few things are as satisfying as spending a nippy January evening in an easy chair, immersed in a good book and the warmth of a nearby fire. Just make sure the broadcast of the Gophers men's hockey game...

On first glance, it just looks ... strange. Gophers goaltender Erik Day's make-like-a-statue habit when the puck is out of play brings to mind the royal guards at Buckingham Palace in London -- staring...

In any other season, the Gophers men's hockey team would likely look at a series with the last-place team in the WCHA as a mere speed bump in the road to the postseason. Not so fast. The Gophers themselves...

The problems encountered by the Gophers men's hockey team this season have been as numerous as they have been untimely. But with a handful of players returning to the lineup this weekend against Denver,...

On March 9, 1996, entering the final game of his high school career at Duluth East, Gophers sophomore Dave Spehar -- then the defending state scoring champion -- found himself five points behind the season-long...

Although St. Cloud State was picked to finish seventh in the WHCA this season, its league-leading performance so far is for real. The Huskies, ranked No. 7 in the nation, are 10-1-1 since Nov. 1, including...

For the better part of the early season, nary a Gophers men's hockey player could find the net with a compass and a map. Goals were few and far between, and even though the team was playing fundamentally...

It may be too early to call Mankato State a rival on par with Minnesota-Duluth or St. Cloud State, but the Mavericks served notice over the weekend of their intentions to play with the big boys in the...

Eleven years ago, the Gophers men's basketball program was reeling. Three players had been arrested and charged with raping a woman while on the road in Wisconsin, which led to Coach Jim Dutcher's resignation. The...

She's been on the job for nearly two months, but new Gophers women's basketball coach Cheryl Littlejohn is still trying to catch her breath. The early part of her tenure has been spent shuttling back...

On the outskirts of professional tennis -- far away from the glitz and glamour and Grand Slams -- lie the satellite circuits. And while it's not pretty out there, it's where a career in the pros begins. Success...

and Chris Vetter The University will receive $3 million in its 1998-99 biennial budget, earmarked specifically to finance the construction of a women's hockey facility, but what that facility will look...

As Gophers freshman Nora Sauska began to climb the national tennis rankings, losing only once in her first 22 matches and reaching the top 40 by mid-season, she seemed like a sure bet to take her place...

More than a few jaws dropped and plenty of eyebrows rose on May 6, when the Cleveland Rockers -- one of eight teams in the upstart Women's NBA -- announced that former Gophers coach Linda Hill-MacDonald...

Everyone knows about the neighbor who drops by unexpectedly, looking to borrow a pair of hedge clippers, but then announces he's staying for dinner. His appearance is unwelcome and annoying, but he can't...

The Gophers women's tennis season came to an abrupt end Friday, losing 5-2 to Indiana in the first round of the NCAA Midwest regional tournament. And while coach Martin Novak said he was satisfied with...

The Gophers women's tennis team will head to South Bend, Ind., the home of Notre Dame and the fabled Golden Dome, this weekend for the NCAA Midwest Regional tournament. And the Gophers (11-6) are looking...

When asked to describe Gophers men's tennis captain Ben Gabler, Coach David Geatz put it simply: He's a great guy who had a bad year. Gabler's senior season has been hard to figure. After scoring at least...

It's doubtful that the following debate would ever find its way inside the fences of a tennis court, but it could be said that playing the piano and mastering the game of tennis have much in common. When...

After the Gophers men's tennis team suffered through a season that coach David Geatz described with variations on the theme of "horrible," the odds of getting the opportunity to defend its regional championship...

The Gophers women's tennis team continued its evolution into one of the elite teams in the Big Ten on Tuesday, receiving a second-straight bid to play in the NCAA regional tournament next weekend. Although...

With a week-old win over first-round opponent Northwestern in its hip pocket, the fourth-seeded Gophers women's tennis team looked like a solid pick to advance to the semi-finals of the Big Ten tournament...

Don't expect to hear stories of Gophers men's tennis coach David Geatz whooping it up at the Bierman building in celebration of his team's third-place finish in the Big Ten tournament. The Gophers have...

Ross Loel, who helped the men's tennis team win four straight Big Ten championships from 1992-95, stopped by to check in on his former team last week. When he was around, Loel asked to see the bracket...

Gophers men's tennis coach David Geatz has played up the doubles performance of his team all season long. "We just don't lose the doubles point," he said earlier this season. "That's a huge advantage...

Gophers men's tennis coach David Geatz must have a little bit of Al Capone running through his veins. In his pursuit of Tom Chicoine, Geatz stopped just short of ordering a pair of cement shoes for the...

The Gophers women's tennis team, losers of four straight matches after winning their first nine of the season, headed into a pair of tough weekend matches in search of a boost. In a way, they got it....

After spending most of her first meeting with the local news media explaining the many reasons why she took the job as Gophers women's head basketball coach, Cheryl Littlejohn confessed there's just one...

Gophers freshman women's tennis player Nora Sauska turns 21 today, and she has plenty to celebrate. But don't expect her to live it up the way some of her American counterparts often do, by swilling a...

With the stretch run of the Big Ten men's tennis season in full swing, Gophers coach David Geatz knew the team needed more production from the singles spots to meet its goal of sweeping the rest of the...

The season is more than two-thirds complete, but as far as Gophers women's tennis coach Martin Novak is concerned, things are just getting started. After going undefeated through their first nine matches...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Its maroon-and-gold hues have faded a bit and the band around the neck is tattered, but Wallace "Wally" Kenssey, after all these years, still wears his Minnesota sweatshirt with pride. Kenssey...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- With the first 32 games of the NCAA tournament in the books, one thing has been made irrefutably clear. It's not just who will play in the Sweet 16 next weekend, and it's not that...

Ending months of speculation, Linda Hill-MacDonald resigned as Gophers women's basketball coach on Friday, effective immediately. Hill-MacDonald and women's athletics director Chris Voelz issued a joint...

Since the NCAA tournament expanded to include 64 teams in 1985, a No. 1 seed has never lost to a No. 16 seed. That bodes well for the Gophers, who earned a first-ever top seed in the tournament on Sunday...

With a pair of games left in the regular season -- and the Big Ten title securely in hand -- Gophers coach Clem Haskins sought to shore up one of his team's enduring weaknesses: rebounding. He knew that...

Coaching changes are nothing new, of course, in any sport at nearly every level. But in the ranks of Big Ten women's basketball, turnover has become the name of the game. So if Gophers women's basketball...

The Gophers' Angie Iverson walked all over the competition for much of the season, leading the Big Ten in rebounding and finishing fourth in scoring. Her individual numbers made a case for being named...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Coach Linda Hill-MacDonald's 95-year-old grandmother has spent the better part of the last two seasons praying to St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless causes, for help in curing what...

The Gophers women's basketball team will likely be pushed aside during the hubbub surrounding its male Big Ten-champion counterparts. It has been that way for the last two years, as the team has floundered...

It's not an easy time to be a member of the Gophers women's basketball team. Another losing streak -- now up to five in a row -- is off and running as the team heads to the Big Ten tournament this weekend....

It's doubtful that the Gophers women's basketball team ever expected to go into the Big Ten tournament, which begins this weekend, as a favorite. Then again, maybe they did. "I didn't know where'd we...

Finally -- and perhaps mercifully -- the Gophers women's basketball team's regular season has come to an end. But wait. Mercy has no place in a pair of 30-point shellackings, like those suffered by Minnesota...

Just like a group of antsy kids in the back of a rambling station wagon, the Gophers women's basketball team must be asking themselves an age-old question: Are we there yet? Not quite, kids, but the end...

The Gophers women's basketball team seems to practice and play hard, but week after week -- with a rare exception -- the results are the same. A casual look at the score of Sunday's game with Indiana,...

Near the midpoint of the second half of Sunday's game, Gophers women's basketball coach Linda Hill-MacDonald called a timeout with her team trailing Indiana by 26. Then she stepped away from the huddle...

On its first road trip of the Big Ten season in early January, the Gophers women's basketball team traveled to Indiana in search of a rare win. It nearly got one. The Hoosiers took an early 23-9 lead...

For the last two weeks, Gophers center Angie Iverson has made a legitimate claim to the Big Ten Player of the Week award. And for the second straight week, Iverson was overlooked in favor of other players...