Gophers/College

Tom Izzo truly appreciates his players, present and former. And vice versa. While in town on this year’s first weekend, former Michigan State Spartan Adreian Payne, now in his second season with the Minnesota Timberwolves, visited with his former coach.

There are countless, faceless people who work athletic contests: ticket takers, concessions sellers, restroom attendants and post-game arena clean-up crews. These are folks too often taken for granted by fans and others in their rush to reach their seats by game time.

Is the real concern of local White reporters like Robson that they can’t get Mitchell to meet their unrealistic expectations?

Minnesota (5-7) is among the 80 football teams picked to play in a bowl game this year. The Gophers will play Central Michigan in downtown Detroit December 28.

Did former Minnesota athletic director Norwood Teague run amok financially during his three-year tenure at the school? Who is on the hook to pay nearly $700,000 and counting to find out?

The four-team NCAA volleyball first-round bracket last weekend in Minneapolis featured a nearly all-Black but all-females-of-color team (Jackson State), and an all-White squad (Northern Iowa), along with host Minnesota and Marquette, who met in the second round, each of which had several Black players.

Facing your first round NCAA opponent — let alone the second overall seed on their home court — can be daunting. But the Jackson State Lady Tigers, the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) champs, are up for the challenge.

The third goalie in hockey sometimes looks like a third wheel. It’s mostly watching from the bench, the only action coming in practices and pre-game skatearounds. That hasn’t dampened Emma May’s enthusiasm for the game, however.

Last week Freshman guard JT Gibson helped his University of Nebraska Omaha Mavericks almost knock off the host Gophers in non-conference action.

“Senior Night” — it’s typically scheduled on the team’s final home game of the regular season.
Such an occasion took place on Thanksgiving Eve, November 25, at the Gopher volleyball team’s regular season home finale for seniors Daly Santana and Toni Alugbue at the Sports Pavilion.

The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) Director Richard Lapchick once again notes in his latest study that key leadership at Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools and conferences “was even more White and male” this fall than last fall. Nearly 90 percent of college presidents, almost 87 percent of college athletic directors, and all 10 FBS conference commissioners are White.

Both Minnesota squads opened their respective 2015-16 season Friday in a rare home doubleheader and both teams came away with a win. The women played Wofford, and the men played against University of Missouri Kansas City. Next up: the men play Sunday and the women next Friday.

Mike Sherels played for the Gophers from 2003-07 and was a two-year captain, the only Minnesota walk-on ever so named. He graduated with his business and marketing education degree in 2007 and earned his master’s degree in May 2014.

Team chemistry is not an exact science. It can’t be recruited or acquired, and it certainly isn’t a guarantee of success at any level in any sport. But when it does materialize, and flourishes, it’s beautiful.

Gopher Linebackers Coach Mike Sherels did a one-year internship at the U-M athletic department’s African American Student-Athletes mentoring program in his senior year in 2007.

It’s an old story: A young man gets his first car and then goes to work on it, making it uniquely his own.

Three of the six newcomers on the 2015 U of M volleyball team are Blacks: Toni Alugbue, Taylor Morgan and Kayla Buford join holdovers Daly Santana and Dalianliz Rosado as the most players of color in Gopher Women’s Volleyball Head Coach Hugh McCutcheon’s four-year tenure.

Many former Black University of Minnesota athletes, originally from other places, have chosen to take up their post-athletic life in the area, but when asked they rarely wax fondly about their so-called glory days. Steve Davis is one notable exception.

College football 2015 kicks off this week.

Item 1 — Minnesota Football Coach Jerry Kill last week received a $300,000 raise to boost his annual salary to over $2 million. He now joins his conference copatriots as a card-carrying member of the millionaire coaches club.