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 -- 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...

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,...

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 -- 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 -- 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 -- 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,...