Gophers men's basketball coach Clem Haskins has long had an impeccable image as a leader of young men, a molder of virtuous character, one of the last bastions of moral purity in a college basketball...

No one has made any rules or proposed any specifics. In fact, discussions haven't even started. Still, that the NCAA has agreed to begin talks next week that could eventually lower the minimum standardized...

Women's participation in sports is at an all-time high, comprising between 35 and 38 percent of all athletic involvement. A record 27 games of the NCAA women's basketball tournament were shown on television...

Gophers men's basketball coach Clem Haskins said he doesn't want any of his scholarship players to work during the season because of their already rigorous schedule. Athletes, while they like the option...

Although it didn't solve any problems for next year, the Gophers basketball team signed a recruit Monday who could help significantly in two years. John-Blair Bickerstaff, a 6-foot-6-inch sophomore from...

After enduring an unexpectedly long wait by the telephone this weekend, former Gophers defensive end Lamanzer Williams was rewarded with one of the happiest phone calls of his life Sunday afternoon. The...

A month ago former Gophers defensive end Lamanzer Williams dropped off an instructional videotape for his old teammate, senior Rufus Smith. The tape included offensive lines and varying degrees of stripping...

Athletes tend to preach about never looking back, but at this time of the year, football players often commit that very cardinal sin. The NFL draft, which starts Saturday and runs into Sunday, has a way...

Now everyone knows the truth. It wasn't his admiration of Glen Mason or the chance to help rebuild a former power that persuaded Steve Loney to leave his alma mater, Iowa State, and take the offensive...

A few hours before the first Gophers' spring football practice, linebacker Sean Hoffman talked about how good it would be to start hitting again, a welcome release after he and his teammates spent much...

NEW YORK -- So this is the product of a failed season. The head coach, Clem Haskins, snipping the last strand of the net and placing it around his neck -- just as he did when the Gophers won the Big Ten...

NEW YORK -- It probably wasn't the type of attention the attention-starved NIT wanted, but the mere presence of the Fresno State Bulldogs in New York turned out to be almost as noteworthy as other stories,...

NEW YORK -- Maybe Eric Harris' performance in last week's National Invitation Tournament final four wasn't up to his standards. He made just five of his 21 field goal attempts in the two games, and missed...

NEW YORK -- As satisfying as the Gophers' National Invitation Tournament championship is to seniors Sam Jacobson, Eric Harris and Rob Schoenrock -- who were able to end their careers on a winning note...

In 1996, Alabama-Birmingham men's basketball coach Murry Bartow had the unenviable task of replacing a legend. His predecessor won 648 games over 34 years, including the last 18 at the helm of the Blazers...

The Western Athletic Conference already has two divisions that represent an ocean and a mountain range, and includes teams stretching from Hawaii to Oklahoma. Just maybe, if the Gophers men's basketball...

One week ago it would have been hard to predict what the Gophers men's basketball team now has: the luxury of worrying about how many home games it has left, and warm, fuzzy stories about its point guard...

CHICAGO -- Everyone remembers, as painful as it might be, the typical grade-school bully. Everyone can recall him stealing a ball from the smaller kid, then holding it above his head, raising it just...

CHICAGO -- After Michigan defeated Iowa in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten men's basketball tournament on Friday, Hawkeyes coach Tom Davis congratulated Wolverines coach Brian Ellerbe outside the interview...

The Gophers men's basketball team got the NIT berth it hoped for and expected Sunday night. Minnesota (15-15) will host Colorado State (20-8) at Williams Arena on Wednesday night. The tentative game time...

CHICAGO -- Anyone who watched the first-ever game of the first-ever Big Ten men's basketball tournament Thursday afternoon -- and judging by the vast expanse of empty seats in the cavernous United Center,...

Starting today, the Big Ten will finally get the chance to see the pre-party to the Big Dance that it's been missing all these years -- and find out whether it was worth the wait. The first-ever Big Ten...

Gophers coach Clem Haskins says senior Eric Harris is playing as well as any guard in the country right now. With names like Mike Bibby, Miles Simon, Mateen Cleaves, etc., floating around, Haskins might...

As is the custom after the last game at Williams Arena every season, the Gophers men's basketball team did a lap around the raised floor after their 59-54 win over Northwestern on Saturday, reaching down...

Most stalls in the Gophers men's basketball team's locker room don't draw the attention of cleaning crews. One stands out. Student workers have noticed that in the two-foot-wide wooden cubicle currently...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Six seconds and a two-point deficit showed on the scoreboard when Gophers forward Miles Tarver trudged to the bench after fouling out against No. 11 Purdue on Wednesday night. The...

As the regular season dissolves into next week's Big Ten tournament, the Gophers men's basketball team can be excused if it is itching to get its last two games out of the way and get to Chicago, the...

Michigan State had little time to celebrate its first win over Michigan in three years before ... well, maybe the players had too much time to celebrate. Star point guard Mateen Cleaves, 20, and forward...

When a team is forced to stitch together a suspect, patchwork lineup, you don't expect the other team is the one that will eventually unravel. But that's exactly what happened in the Gophers' 82-77 win...

Just beyond the Gophers men's basketball team's game tonight against Penn State at Williams Arena lies a much-needed week away from the rigors of the Big Ten schedule. The challenge for Minnesota will...

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- For all the optimism surrounding the Gophers' two-game winning streak, in which they made the basket look as big as a custom-made Robert Traylor hula hoop, someone still had to...

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Whenever Clem Haskins spoke to his players during a timeout Thursday night, he would have to prop himself up with a wooden cane marred by chipped brown paint, then amble a few feet...

The Gophers men's basketball team hasn't had much reason to look forward to many practices this season, particularly since they so often come after losses. Two factors, though, made the Gophers' practice...

Gophers guard Kevin Clark has scored in double figures in seven of his last eight games, but his most important contribution to the team still might be on defense. While he scored 17 points in Minnesota's...

Gophers reserve guard Russ Archambault was dismissed from the men's basketball team by coach Clem Haskins on Friday, less than a week after he decided not to transfer, his high school coach said Sunday. "He...

Long after Eric Harris, Sam Jacobson and company are done with their Gophers basketball careers, any bitterness they still harbor about the 1998 season will momentarily fade when they think about Saturday's...

No matter how divergent the fortunes of Michigan and Minnesota have been during the last two years, the two teams have still managed to create quite a rivalry -- both with actions and words. Last season,...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- A mathematical formula espoused only by winning coaches was once again raised after Wednesday night's 68-56 Illinois win over the Gophers: A team's success is inversely proportional...

Gophers coach Clem Haskins began his weekly media luncheon Tuesday by bringing to the podium Herb Isakson, longtime volunteer assistant coach for the Gophers baseball team, who is being honored with a...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- One week ago, Gophers coach Clem Haskins threatened to undress on the sidelines if officials didn't start calling more fouls against Minnesota's opponents. Barely four minutes into...

Kyle Sanden unofficially began his Gophers basketball career as a high school sophomore in 1994, when he and his Lincoln (Thief River Falls) High School teammates made the six-hour trip to Minneapolis...

All right, everyone, it's time to play Guess Who Said It? The following three quotes came from Tuesday night's Gophers-Wisconsin basketball game at Williams Arena. See if you can guess who said what: 1)...

In his first two years at Wisconsin, forward Sam Okey was among the team leaders in points, rebounds, assists and blocked shots. He was also the unquestioned team leader in run-ins with coach Dick Bennett,...

The Gophers' long-overdue first win in the Big Ten this year, 76-53 over Ohio State on Saturday, allowed for a few releases of emotion that had been dammed up during their frustrating season. The most...

It's well-documented that the Gophers men's basketball team, despite being 0-6 in the Big Ten, has had a chance to win each of its games. Minnesota's chances don't get any better than they will on Saturday....

ANN ARBOR, Mich. --Throughout much of Tuesday's game at Crisler Arena, a Michigan fan held up a yellow sign with this simple, black-lettered statement: "Free Chris Webber." The placard was a reference,...

During the opening minutes of Sunday's game at Williams Arena, the return of Sam Jacobson looked like it might be a panacea for the ills that have plagued the Gophers men's basketball team all season. Minnesota...

The Gophers are banged up, thin on experience and on the bench and reeling from four straight losses, making Iowa precisely the sort of team they don't want to play right now. The No. 13 Hawkeyes (14-2,...

Aside from the comparison that both involve sinkings of once-powerful entities, there is one other similarity between the Gophers men's basketball team and the movie "Titanic." Although occasional, entertaining...

San Francisco 49ers coach Steve Mariucci and Michigan State men's basketball coach Tom Izzo have plenty in common. They grew up together in Iron Mountain, Mich. They both attended Northern Michigan University,...

The Gophers might be playing at only a .500 clip this season, but there's one area where coach Clem Haskins' record is unblemished. Haskins has a 12-0 record as a head coach in international play, and...

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The line is razor-thin. The line is between the Gophers looking at their 0-3 Big Ten start calmly because their top two scorers have missed almost a combined two-and-a-half games,...

The Penn State basketball team is inexperienced, has dropped its first two Big Ten games and is playing without its most important player. If Minnesota wasn't suffering from the same maladies, the Lions...

EVANSTON, Ill. -- The early season tested and approved formula for beating the Gophers men's basketball team went like this: pound the ball inside, and take Sam Jacobson, Minnesota's leading scorer, out...

In a short telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, Northwestern men's basketball coach Kevin O'Neill had this to say: The Wildcats have very little depth, he wasn't surprised that they got their "asses...

They were outmuscled, outmanned, and a walk-on who poured Gatorade for the Final Four team last year played a key role. Still, save for a few bruises and cuts expected from a Big Ten opener, the Gophers...

The Big Ten schedule, which began with Friday's loss to Purdue, will ultimately determine whether the Gophers men's basketball team's season is successful. Minnesota's non-conference action over winter...

In his hilarious book, "Seasons in Hell," Mike Shropshire describes what it was like to cover the fantastically rotten Texas Rangers of the mid-1970s on a daily basis. Shropshire, working for the Fort...

Minnesota senior catcher Bryan Guse became the third Gophers player to get drafted this year when the San Francisco Giants selected him in the 23rd round Wednesday. Guse, who hit .339 this season with...

Major league baseball is a haven for those obsessed with statistics. Experts, or "seamheads," factor in batting average, on-base percentage, sunflower seeds consumed, etc., in an effort to determine who...

In the early 1920s Babe Ruth, with his prodigious home runs and personality, was well on his way to rescuing professional baseball after the 1919 Black Sox scandal had caused the sport's popularity to...

Certain parts of the 1997 season will gnaw at the Gophers baseball team for a long time: its 8-9 record in one-run games, Illinois' shocking and ill-timed sweep at Siebert Field in late April, and its...

The Gophers baseball team's elimination from the Big Ten baseball tournament became all but official after its 7-5 loss to Northwestern on Friday in the series opener. That left the last three games of...

The final out of the Gophers' 17-8 win against Northwestern on Sunday had been recorded, giving Minnesota three wins in the four-game series. As their teammates emptied from the dugout to the field, Gophers...

Only twice in Gophers baseball coach John Anderson's 16-year tenure has the team missed the Big Ten tournament. Once was last season. To avoid making it two straight absences, fifth-place Minnesota almost...

The Gophers baseball team knew going into its weekend series at Iowa that it had to win the series to have a realistic chance at catching Illinois or Purdue -- the two teams tied for third-place -- and...

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The Gophers baseball team, needing a sweep to stay in the race for the Big Ten tournament, got it this weekend against Iowa, thanks mainly to its potent offense. Minnesota closed out...

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The bench had always been foreign territory to Gophers senior Bob Keeney. He was an all-state player in baseball, basketball and football during his senior year at Burnsville High School....

Gophers senior Troy Stein was pulling on his batting gloves Wednesday afternoon in front of the first base dugout at Siebert Field. He was preparing for batting practice when Gophers assistant coach Rob...

When a team hits as poorly as Mankato State did early in Wednesday night's game at Siebert Field, someone usually questions whether it left its bats at home. In this case, it did. The Mavericks actually...

Whether Tuesday night's offensive explosion against Division II St. Cloud State has any carry-over effect for the Gophers baseball team this weekend in an important Big Ten series at Iowa remains to be...

Considering the Gophers' .344 team batting average in Big Ten games going into the weekend, the superb job Illinois pitching did (allowing just 12 runs and 25 hits) in its four-game sweep was surprising,...

By scoring only 12 runs in four losses to Illinois at Siebert Field this weekend, it's likely the biggest impact the Gophers baseball team made in its weekend of hitting futility was on the Big Ten standings. The...

Former Gophers pitcher Joe Westfall sat in the Siebert Field press box Wednesday, slightly annoyed at the way his old team was unmercifully pounding Division II Southwest State. Through three innings,...

Playing its ninth game in 10 days, including seven on the road, the last thing the Gophers baseball team probably wanted in Wednesday's game at Northern Iowa was extra innings. But that's what happened,...

The Gophers and Ohio State baseball teams are fairly evenly matched, as the two games won by both teams this weekend would indicate. One aspect of the game that figured to favor the Buckeyes was power....

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- As Minnesota's Ted Zrust prepared to pitch to Ohio State's Jason Driscoll with the Gophers' tenuous last-inning lead in peril on Saturday, the sun slipped from behind the clouds, illuminating...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- At times during the first two games of this weekend's series at Ohio State, the Gophers experienced moments of joy. The feeling at the end of both games, though, was exasperation, as...

Gophers baseball coach John Anderson once stepped off his own measurements of Ohio State's old ballpark, Trautman Field. The signs said it was 330 feet down the lines. Anderson came up with 305 and 320....

Gophers freshman outfielder Ben Birk, who had just one pitching appearance all year and a 99.00 earned run average, turned in one of the team's most effective pitching performances in a Wednesday doubleheader...

In a two-day span, the Gophers baseball team transformed a mini-slump at the plate into a full-blown offensive explosion. Robb Quinlan blasted three home runs on Tuesday against Iowa State in Ames, Iowa,...

The Gophers baseball team plays Iowa State in Ames, Iowa, at 3 p.m. today in a game that was originally scheduled for April 8. That game was postponed because of cold weather. Also, Minnesota's single,...

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- This is what two Gophers baseball players, enduring their fourth postponed or canceled game in the last week, were reduced to: Eric Welter and Ryan Beers, sitting in a hallway inside...

If players on the Gophers baseball team actually believe they're playing the worst team in the Big Ten this weekend, they're not letting on. Chances are, past history has taught them that Penn State,...

After having its five-game Big Ten winning streak snapped Saturday, the first-place Gophers baseball team thought it was heading to Iowa State for a single nine-inning, non-conference game today. But...

A few minutes after the umpires and coaches called off the second game of Saturday's doubleheader between the Gophers and Michigan because of rain, Gophers catcher Bryan Guse was asked his forecast of...

The variety of bad weather that descended upon Minneapolis this weekend might have caused the cancellation of the last two games of the Minnesota-Michigan series, but the Gophers still learned more about...

It might not be as revolutionary as the major league's adoption of interleague play, but the Big Ten is making a scheduling change of its own this year. Now, the first (Friday) and last (Sunday) games...

One of the biggest question marks concerning the Gophers entering the season was the left side of their infield. Third baseman Rob Smith graduated and shortstop Steve Huls left early for the pros after...

It's been said that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in any sport. For his entire baseball career, Gophers sophomore Robb Quinlan made it look anything but difficult. He was drafted out of...

For all the talk about how aluminum bats inflate offensive statistics in college baseball, last year's Gophers hit home runs at a rate that would have made dead-ball era teams wince. They finished with...

Baseball has an old saying that goes, "momentum is tomorrow's starting pitcher." Translated, the adage says that how a team performed yesterday has no relation to how it will perform today. A similar...

Words like "we" and "our" slipped into Jim Shikenjanski's vocabulary while talking about the Gophers basketball team, as in, "We were quite a bit better than some of the teams we played." It didn't sound...

The Gophers' last home game was a week ago, but Williams Arena (the parking lot anyway) was still filled with Gophers men's basketball fans Wednesday morning. More than 200 pompon-waving Minnesota supporters...

Northern Illinois pitching turned out to be the antidote for several struggling hitters on the Gophers baseball team this weekend. Minnesota (6-8) scored 31 runs against the Huskies in three games at...

Northern Illinois baseball coach Joe "Spanky" McFarland proved this weekend that the phrase "It's good to be king," or more precisely, "The King," isn't always true. McFarland is a self-professed "Elvis...

Ben Griffin, preparing for his fourth different school and enduring his third injury in four years, was making a visit to an academic counselor in June of 1995 when he decided to stop by the Gophers baseball...

The Gophers baseball team temporarily solved its first-inning woes Wednesday night against Iowa State, but still needed some late-inning heroics to beat the Cyclones 6-5 at the Metrodome. Senior Bob Keeney...

The Gophers softball team finished third at the Troy Cox Invitational held Feb. 27 through Mar. 2 in Las Cruces, N.M. No. 11 Minnesota went 5-3 at the tournament, behind Ohio State and New Mexico State. Junior...

For the first three innings at least, the Gophers and No. 2 UCLA were engaged in an unlikely pitching duel Sunday at the Metrodome. Gophers senior left-hander Mike Diebolt was silencing the bats of the...