Rolling into Nashville, Tenn., with a new defensive coordinator and a few position changes, Minnesota's football team will look very different defensively for the Dec. 31 Music City Bowl than it did during...

Minnesota strong safety Justin Fraley didn't even get to say goodbye to his defensive coordinator Friday, finding Greg Hudson's office cleared. Hudson left the team Friday to interview for an assistant...

Minnesota's basketball team now officially has a "one-man fast break." In the midst of Minnesota's late 18-0 run Saturday against Central Michigan, Gophers junior guard Vincent Grier made two high-flying...

Alabama football offensive tackle Wesley Britt's body has taken a beating this season - the 6-foot-8-inch, 300-pound senior played with the pain of a serious foot injury in Alabama's final two games against...

Like the entire Florida State men's swimming and diving team, Minnesota junior swimmer Adam Mitchell was shaved and tapered for the Georgia Invitational. Mitchell, who said he was hoping for NCAA bids...

Alabama athletics director Mal Moore accepted the Music City Bowl's invitation Saturday, setting up a New Year's Eve matchup in Nashville, Tenn., with Minnesota's football team. Moore and Alabama (6-5)...

Minnesota men's swimming and diving coach Dennis Dale said Florida State has shaved and tapered early in preparation to swim against the Gophers and the rest of the field at the Georgia Invitational in...

Smoking a cigarette and leaning over a thick math book, University janitor and student Johannse Eshete is fully at home in the Purple Onion Cafe in Dinkytown, where he's become a familiar fixture. When...

It looks very likely that Minnesota's football team will play Alabama in the Music City Bowl on Dec. 31 in Nashville, Tenn. The Peach Bowl committee voted Tuesday to take Florida over Alabama, assuming...

While flying back from Anchorage, Alaska, late Saturday night, a pilot told Minnesota Athletics Director Joel Maturi that Hawaii's football team had upset Northwestern, 49-41. Sunday morning, a few hours...

Ken Hoffman and the Motor City Bowl officials will be watching Northwestern's game Saturday in Hawaii very carefully. Hoffman, the executive director of the Motor City Bowl, said that if Northwestern wins,...

Minnesota's men's swimming and diving team nearly doubled its nearest competition after the first day of the Minnesota Invitational. But coach Dennis Dale wasn't satisfied, he said. "Our relays were subpar,"...

Senior Minnesota women's swimmer Katy Coombe thought about it for a few seconds and then concluded. "I think we'll surprise ourselves," Coombe predicted of her 200-yard freestyle relay team's debut. "But...

Attention Minnesota football fans planning on traveling to a bowl game: How does Las Vegas sound? Or maybe California? The Gophers (6-5, 3-5 Big Ten) are facing the distinct possibility they will be last...

Minnesota football coach Glen Mason stoically strolled to his traditional postgame meeting Saturday with Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz at midfield. Defeated and stunned after a 29-27 loss to No. 19 Iowa in front...

Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz doesn't pull any punches when discussing the current state of his offense. His descriptions vary from, "We are hardly a well-oiled machine right now," to "We can't find...

Along with the rest of Minnesota's football team, the last five weeks have been especially hard on Laurence Maroney and Marion Barber III. After being hailed as one of the - if not the - best running back...

It showed on the face of every Minnesota football player who was dragged into Wisconsin's media room Saturday after a humiliating 38-14 loss: Another week of soul-searching was ahead, and the Gophers were...

MADISON, Wis. - Minnesota free safety John Pawielski shoved Wisconsin's Anthony Davis out of bounds midway through the second quarter Saturday for his 10th tackle of the game. "It's not a good thing when...

MADISON, Wis. - After their worst rushing game of the season, the Gophers' nationally seventh-ranked ground attack is in jeopardy of not reaching an expected and unprecedented mark this season. Marion...

Minnesota football coach Glen Mason started rolling on one of his customary analogies Wednesday night. "When you talk to your stock broker and get a 25 percent return from your portfolio, you're not really...

There was something wrong with Darrell Reid during Minnesota's football practice Tuesday. First, he wasn't feeling very well. But more interestingly, he didn't talk much. Gophers players and coaches have...

Minnesota's football team will spend the next week of practice trying to figure out what happened in the latest dip of a rollercoaster season. The Gophers (6-3, 3-3 Big Ten) coaches and players seemed...

A week after a rejuvenating 45-0 win over Illinois, Minnesota's football team finds itself back in its comfort zone: beating up on teams it should and setting impressive offensive records along the way. In...

Ukee Dozier and Darrell Reid are senior leaders on the Gophers defense. Their similarities pretty much stop there. Dozier's approach to his leadership role doesn't have Reid's pizzazz or verbosity. But...

If you're familiar with a Minnesota goodbye, you'd know Gophers football coach Glen Mason is in a better mood than he has been the last two weekends. But even while joking Sunday with reporters in the...

First, it was a players-only meeting Sunday. Then, they gathered at the Woodbury, Minn., home of defensive coordinator Greg Hudson. The Gophers' defense, after a week of searching, evaluating and re-evaluating,...

Minnesota's football team's 45-0 blanking of Illinois is even more impressive knowing that its defense was as beat up as it has been all season. The Gophers gave up only 231 total yards and did so without...

Looking at Illinois' football team on film this week, one thing stood out for Gophers defensive tackle Anthony Montgomery. "Their running backs really run hard," he said. "It looks like they don't usually...

Minnesota's defensive linemen won't have a quarterback's picture to hang over their lockers this week. Illinois coach Ron Turner announced Monday that he will change his quarterback against Minnesota on...

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Minnesota's football team should petition the Big Ten for an automatic bye week following every Michigan game. For the second-straight year, the Gophers have seen their Rose Bowl...

M innesota football coach Glen Mason called out receiver Jared Ellerson on Tuesday - sort of. "I'm disappointed with the production we are getting out of Jared Ellerson, and that's not a reflection of...

A turning point came with 9:15 remaining in the third quarter in Saturday's Minnesota football game at Michigan. Three Wolverines defenders easily blitzed through the Gophers' line and buried Laurence...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said he was worried his fullback was being too cocky. Wolverines senior Kevin Dudley told Carr on Friday night that all the talk about Minnesota's Laurence...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - As time was running out in the first half, Michigan quarterback Chad Henne was confusedly communicating with his coaches. As time was running out in the second half, the freshman was...

Picture this - you're walking through a tunnel, and as you emerge, you find yourself in the middle of a sea of hostile, screaming, maize-and-blue-clad fans numbering approximately 110,000. Welcome to the...

Minnesota football coach Glen Mason said his team isn't going into Michigan Stadium afraid and definitely not angry. It would be only natural to have sore feelings after Michigan's 21-point fourth quarter...

Minnesota volleyball player Paula Gentil received a phone call Friday from the team trainer, Shelly Kinney. "She told me if I had any Vioxx on my shelf to throw it away," Gentil said. "I didn't know what...

It wasn't the exclamation point Minnesota's football team wanted to make before entering the Big House. Instead, the No. 18 Gophers (5-0, 2-0 Big Ten) pulled out a closer-than-expected 16-7 win over Penn...

After Minnesota's 43-17 win over Northwestern on Saturday, running back Laurence Maroney said Big Ten defenses should be scratching their heads. "They'll say 'Oh, they're winning and (Marion) Barber (III)...

Minnesota coach Glen Mason likes to knock on wood. He did it a couple times Tuesday in front of reporters at his weekly press conference. "I am a little superstitious," Mason said before he began talking...

It started with a Northwestern 97-yard kickoff touchdown return. It continued with two blocked Gophers extra points. No Big Ten special teams honors will be awarded to Minnesota's football team this week. "I...

Minnesota kicker/punter Rhys Lloyd, running to his right in soccer-style form, spiked an awkward 29-yard punt to Northwestern's 44-yard line after the Gophers' first offensive possession Saturday. Exploiting...

On Oct. 4, Northwestern's offense owned Minnesota's football team's defense for a quarter. After the first 15 minutes of the Gophers' 42-17 romp over the Wildcats in Evanston, Ill., Northwestern had a...

Minnesota football cornerback Ukee Dozier emerged from the visitor locker room at Hughes Stadium on Saturday with the same business-as-usual look he wore the Saturday before, at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. But...

FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Colorado State knew exactly what Minnesota's football team was going to do long before the team arrived at mountain-embedded Hughes Stadium. But the Rams (0-3), who join a quickly...

Sometimes after a full day of football practice and classes, watching film on opposing teams and working on his premedical homework, Dominique Sims goes for a walk. "He'll go by himself or sometimes I'll...

Minnesota's 22nd-ranked football team has shown both sides of its coin in the young 2004 season. On one side, the Gophers dominated a supposedly tough Toledo team, gaining more than 700 yards of offense...

After Minnesota's second-string defense gave up 14 points in the fourth quarter of its 63-21 win over Toledo, Gophers coaches were critical last week of their back up defenders. With heavy underdog Division...

Minnesota's offensive line, which dominated Toledo Sept. 4, struggled against Illinois State on Saturday. Coach Glen Mason said Sunday that the offensive line put forth a lot of effort but wasn't sharp. "Those...

Illinois State running back and former Minnesota tailback Demetrus Johnson has been a recluse this week. "I've been receiving phone calls ever since we got on (Minnesota's) schedule," he said. "This week,...

It appears Minnesota's football team impressed even itself Saturday against Toledo. The Gophers scored on nine of their 10 drives and racked up 704 yards - the second-highest single-game total in school...

On Sept. 19, 1904, Minnesota's football team scored 107 points against Twin Cities Central High School in its highest scoring home opener ever. The currently 25th-ranked Gophers fell short of that school...

Gophers football coach Glen Mason said the biggest question mark on Minnesota's highly regarded football team is at quarterback. Bryan Cupito, a 6-foot-1-inch redshirt sophomore from Cincinnati, Ohio,...

Minnesota football players will lumber onto the Bierman Fields today for their first practice of the 2004 season. After finishing last season with 10 wins - their most since 1905 - defensive end Darrell...

Flip Saunders was told he would fail. He said on Tuesday at the Carlson School of Management's First Tuesday luncheon that as the team's point guard from 1974-77, Minneapolis sports writers predicted he...

Only half of Carl Eller's 6-foot-5-inch 245-pound frame is visible in a 1963 photo-graph captioned "Big Carl Eller." Posed bending forward in a football stance, one cannot fully appreciate Eller's size...

Growing up in Sun Prairie, Wis., as one of eight children, former Minnesota rower Mike Wherley never traveled much farther than Illinois. But now, as an experienced member of the U.S. Olympic Rowing Team,...

When hometown hero Lindsay Whalen and the Connecticut Sun came to town last week, the Minnesota Lynx drew 16,227 fans into the Target Center. The franchise-record crowd was 10,000 fans more than Minnesota's...

Minnesota Lynx point guard Helen Darling didn't know who the 16,227 Target Center fans were cheering for Wednesday afternoon. "It was just loud," she said. "The kids were screaming, I don't know who they...

Readers of the Twin Cities' City Pages recently chose Lindsay Whalen as the 2004 "Best Local Girl Made Good." More than 14,000 fans will file into Target Center today to see just how "good" she has made. The...

Four years ago when she walked-on Minnesota's track and field team as a pole vaulter, Monica Stearns never imagined jumping over a 12-foot bar. But this past weekend, she cleared a 14-foot-1.25-inch bar...

Unlike a year ago, the 2004 National Basketball Association draft doesn't have a player being praised as the "next Michael Jordan." But it does have a bunch of teenagers who think they are. There are 31...

Adam Steele and Cassie Busse were both awarded the Big Ten Medal of Honor this past weekend for their accomplishments in athletics and academics. Steele was a member of Minnesota's runner-up 4X400-meter...

Melissa Roche went to bed early Friday night before competing in the 2004 Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minn. Roche, an All-American member of Minnesota's rowing team, went into the race only weeks after...

Adam Mitchell bent his body toward the water in lane four of the University Aquatic Center on Friday night, awaiting the first step in his journey toward the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Two minutes...

Minnesota hockey player Keith Ballard decided to forgo his senior season with the Gophers and signed a three-year contract with the National Hockey League's Phoenix Coyotes on June 8. Ballard won two NCAA...

After winning the regular season Big Ten title and the conference tournament for the first time, Minnesota's baseball team arrived in Southern California with an automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament. But...

Minnesota baseball sophomore Glen Perkins was named to the Collegiate Baseball Second-Team All-American on Friday for the second-consecutive time. The Gophers' lefthander from Stillwater, Minn., is the...

Water finally drenched Minnesota baseball coach John Anderson on Siebert Field. The Gophers beat Ohio State 7-3 Sunday afternoon at Siebert Field to win the Big Ten Tournament, marking the first time they...

Gophers first baseman Andy Hunter smashed Trey Fausnaugh's first pitch 377 feet over the right field fence to give the Gophers a comfortable 6-0 sixth-inning lead over Ohio State on Sunday. While dominant...

Coming off seasons that set new standards in Minnesota women's athletics, the Gophers' women's hockey and basketball programs announced their top assistants this week. Women's hockey coach Laura Halldorson...

Assistant coach Jim Molinari finished his first day in the Minnesota's men's basketball team office on Tuesday. "I am just trying to be a human sponge and take in as much as I can right now," Molinari...

After a close second-place finish at the Big Ten Championships, much of Minnesota's men's track team will compete in the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships next weekend in College Station, Texas. The...

It was one and done for the Minnesota men's tennis team in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Durham, N.C., last weekend. The 37th-ranked Gophers were beaten 4-0 by the 33rd-ranked Clemson, South...

Wendy Davis and Minnesota's rowing team take pride in the progress the team has made in its four years of existence. "We are now beating long-established programs," Davis said. "We have come a long way...

Clay Estes watched Andy Roddick win the 2003 U.S. Open last September with friends and teammates on Minnesota's men's tennis team. During the match he muttered, "I beat him." Estes, who was ranked one...

There was no doubt that Ohio State would have a lot to say in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals Saturday. But the Buckeyes made a louder-than-expected statement by beating Minnesota's men's tennis team...

Minnesota's women's tennis team is going back to the drawing board, but not in complete dismay. The Gophers (3-19, 1-9 Big Ten) finished their season with a 4-0 loss to Iowa in the first round of the Big...

Besides the weather, Avery Ticer likes where the Minnesota men's tennis team is standing going into its quarterfinal match against sixth-seeded Indiana this afternoon in East Lansing, Mich. "It's supposed...

It would be easy for Iowa to write off Minnesota's women's tennis team in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament today in Evanston, Ill. The 10th-seeded Gophers, (3-18, 1-9 Big Ten) after winning the...

After a lot of yelling and antagonizing, Ohio State had the final word Sunday afternoon with a 5-2 win over Minnesota's men's tennis team at the Baseline Tennis Center. No. 20 Ohio State (21-3, 9-1 Big...

Minnesota men's tennis team is rolling into its final weekend. The Gophers (12-7, 7-1 Big Ten) have won six consecutive matches and are 8-1 in their last nine duel matches. But the Gophers will face a...

Lindsay Whalen appears to be leaving her hometown haven for the East Coast. Minnesota basketball's all-time leading scorer was selected fourth overall in Saturday's WNBA draft by the Connecticut Sun. Whalen...

Angela Buergis walked off her No. 1 singles court looking confident after her final home court match. The 69th-ranked senior had the lone win in Minnesota's women's tennis team's 6-1 loss to 30th-ranked...

If one had never seen Lindsay Whalen give a press conference, it might have appeared Thursday that she was not at all excited about being a projected top-four pick in Saturday's WNBA draft. When she was...

After graduating from Gabriel Garcia Marquez High School in Quito, Ecuador, 18-year-old Andres Osorio arrived in the United States on Jan. 22 to play for Minnesota's men's tennis team. He wandered onto...

Andres Osorio had far more screams than winning points during his match at No. 3 singles in Minnesota's men's tennis team's 7-0 victory over Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon. Osorio used emotion and speed...

NEW ORLEANS - It was 40 degrees Tuesday in Storrs, Conn., but UConn is the place to be after Connecticut's women's basketball team beat Tennessee 70-61 on Tuesday night at New Orleans Arena, joining the...

NEW ORLEANS - The story was like 6-foot-2-inch Janel McCarville's deceptive ability to dunk a basketball. Culminating in a Final Four appearance in the NCAA Tournament, Minnesota's women's basketball team...

Hundreds of Minnesota women's basketball fans walked from their hotels to the New Orleans Arena for a Gophers autograph session and public practice Saturday afternoon. On the sunny, 75-degree day, Gophers...

NEW ORLEANS - Lindsay Whalen had the same look she has had all season as she reflected on Minnesota women's basketball team's 67-58 loss to Connecticut on Sunday night in New Orleans Arena. "It's been...

Seimone Augustus and Tasha Butts were both hot going into Sunday's game. But Augustus cooled off and Butts and Tennessee found another way to survive. Augustus scored 16 points, but Butts and the Volunteers...

Lindsay Whalen raised her arms in triumph Tuesday night 47.8 seconds before the final horn of Minnesota women's basketball team's 82-75 victory over top-ranked Duke. The win pushed the seventh-seeded Gophers...

Minnesota's seventh-seeded women's basketball team has bulldozed its way through the NCAA Tournament behind the blade of Janel McCarville. As two-time defending tournament champion Connecticut prepares...

Minnesota women's basketball coach Pam Borton explained Wednesday how important the Gophers' unsung heroes have been in advancing to the NCAA Tournament Final Four for the first time in school history. "Our...

NORFOLK, Va. - Following Minnesota's women's basketball team's 82-75 victory over top-seeded Duke to advance to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament on Tuesday night, Janel McCarville's big arms held...

NORFOLK, Va. - Minnesota's Lindsay Whalen and Duke's Alana Beard spent last summer forming a powerful backcourt on USA's young women's basketball national team. The two seniors combined forces to win the...

NORFOLK, Va. - On a team with a coach who stresses defense above all, Minnesota women's basketball sophomore Shannon Bolden has become one of the premier defenders playing in the NCAA Tournament. In her...

NORFOLK, Va. - With 7:38 left in Sunday's Mideast Regional semifinal game of the NCAA women's basketball tournament, Boston College 6-foot-4-inch player Kathrin Ress had the ball one-on-one against Minnesota...