Saturday, December 02, 2006

I'll Have the Molinari with Club Sauce

Dan Monson, famous for putting Gonzaga hoops on the map, has resigned as the University of Minnesota men's basketball coach.

He inherited a pretty untenable situation:
1. A successful program, that had seen the Final Four
2. Allegations that the former coach (Clem Haskins) had cheated to win, via having a secretary write his player's papers.
3. NCAA sanctions.

However, Dan was given 8 years to turn around the program, and he is saying that's a bit of a success, in that his program no longer cheats. That's the very definition of a minor victory, I'd say.

Despite recruiting some pretty decent talent (Vincent Grier) and having a hell of a track record as a coach at Gonzaga, Monson never crawled above mediocrity for his program and the U of M. Attendance has been down dramatically at the Barn, which used to be one of the noisiest arenas in the Big Ten. And they lost to fucking Marist. Marist! And they may lose to Northwestern this year.

Jim Molinari takes over for the interim. U of M hoops are a long way away from the Salad Days of Bobby Jackson, Sam Jacobson, and Miles Tarver.

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