Game Thread: 2021 March Madness Thread

[Wamu]

Dude, I provided the links, just because you were too lazy to check them out. lol

Look them up for yourself if you need to, Alan Rice, Norman Borlaug, Bartelma, Verne Gagne, Wally Johnson, John Grygelko, Dan Chandler, Joe Russell.

Who are your top 5 Minnesota Gophers of all time?

 

[fredsdeadfriend]

All of your gibberish has nothing to do with the fact that you can't provide any legit proof that Minnesota wrestling is one of the most influential of all time as you have claimed.

Although it is funny how you've tried, but failed, to change the subject to Miami of OH. football. And all the people you mentioned have nothing to do with the original topic. Minnesota wrestling isn't as influential as you think they are.

Dude, Minnesota is, in many ways, one of the smaller states, top half I guess, just barely, but not among the Top 20 states in population. We beat out the Dakotas, Wyoming, Nebraska, etc.. So we're NEVER going to put out the most football recruits, EVER, not even close. We do well when it comes to putting out Div 1 worthy basketball players, which is surprising seeing as how many of our best athletes concentrate on hockey, which we ARE #1 at producing. Minnesota is #1 at producing Div 1 mens AND women's hockey players. Taking that into account, how is it that we also produce as many good basketball players as we do? And then, more relevant to our conversation, Minnesota, despite not even being Top 20 in population, and being #1 at producing both mens and womens hockey players and putting out more than our fair share of top quality basketball players, we still manage to produce far more than our fair share of quality wrestlers. I've been to the Jr and Cadet National Wrestling tournament, and there were enough Minnesotans there to be very noticable.

Why is this? Why does Minnesota rank #1 at producing hockey players AND so high at producing wrestlers?

Because of the efforts of former University of Minnesota athletes who went out and built those sports up within the state, and within the US as a whole as well.

 

[fredsdeadfriend]

Who are your top 5 Minnesota Gophers of all time?

In wrestling, in sports, in influence, in accomplishments? Be more specific as there are dozens of ways I can interpret that question.

 

[Wamu]

In wrestling, in sports, in influence, in accomplishments? Be more specific as there are dozens of ways I can interpret that question.

You can't name 5 former Gophers? Winfield, McHale ring a bell? And there's only one way anyone other than you would interpret that question. You're just avoiding it.

 

[fredsdeadfriend]

You can't name 5 former Gophers? Winfield, McHale ring a bell? And there's only one way anyone other than you would interpret that question. You're just avoiding it.

I can name 500 Gophers.

I can name the Top 5 women's bb playing Gophers of all time. The Top 5 Gopher Golfers, etc.. We were talking wrestling, SO... DUH... I felt it very reasonable to ask you to clarify what you meant.

 

[fredsdeadfriend]

You can't name 5 former Gophers? Winfield, McHale ring a bell? And there's only one way anyone other than you would interpret that question. You're just avoiding it.

Why on earth would I avoid it? lol I LOVE talking about the Gophers.

 

[fredsdeadfriend]

You can't name 5 former Gophers? Winfield, McHale ring a bell? And there's only one way anyone other than you would interpret that question. You're just avoiding it.

I mean, there are SO SO SO many to choose from. Too hard to pick 5 overall. But if a gun was pointed at my head, I guess I'd go with

Herb Brooks
Dave Winfield
Bronko Nagurski
Patty Berg
Bernie Bierman.

 

[fredsdeadfriend]

You can't name 5 former Gophers? Winfield, McHale ring a bell? And there's only one way anyone other than you would interpret that question. You're just avoiding it.

You should have asked for a Top 25 or a Top 50, that would have been much easier for me to provide.

 

[fredsdeadfriend]

LM


LMFAO #1 amongst Northern programs.

Nobody is impressed your golf team is better than Wisconsin’s

Minnesota's Golf team is better than Oregon's!!! LMAO

 

[fredsdeadfriend]

I mean, there are SO SO SO many to choose from. Too hard to pick 5 overall. But if a gun was pointed at my head, I guess I'd go with

Herb Brooks
Dave Winfield
Bronko Nagurski
Patty Berg
Bernie Bierman.

And I could easily replace those 5 with the likes of Bob Johnson, Paul Molitor, Leo Nomellini, Tom Lehman and Bud Wilkinson and it would be almost just as impressive of a list.

 

[fredsdeadfriend]

And I could easily replace those 5 with the likes of Bob Johnson, Paul Molitor, Leo Nomellini, Tom Lehman and Bud Wilkinson and it would be almost just as impressive of a list.

And I haven't even felt like listing Kevin McHale yet. And when I consider the other names left off those two lists, John Roethlisberger, PJ Bogart, Sarah Bacon & Clay Strother, who combined for at least 14 Individual Natl Titles, just since 1990. Lindsey Whalen, the #1 point scorer in WNBA history or something like that? Maybe it was #1 in assists? But it was #1 all-time. Other names not on the list are John Kundla who won SIX Pro BB/NBA titles, Bud Grant of course, and the other 4 Pro FB Hall of Famers, etc..

 

[Picklerick 2.0]

And I haven't even felt like listing Kevin McHale yet. And when I consider the other names left off those two lists, John Roethlisberger, PJ Bogart, Sarah Bacon & Clay Strother, who combined for at least 14 Individual Natl Titles, just since 1990. Lindsey Whalen, the #1 point scorer in WNBA history or something like that? Maybe it was #1 in assists? But it was #1 all-time. Other names not on the list are John Kundla who won SIX Pro BB/NBA titles, Bud Grant of course, and the other 4 Pro FB Hall of Famers, etc..

I was getting ready to murder you if you kept omiting McHale, lmao.

 

[Duckboy33]

Minnesota's Golf team is better than Oregon's!!! LMAO

They might be. I can't say I follow collegiate golf well enough to tell you who has a better team. I can tell you that Oregon has a more recent national championship in golf than Minnesota. And this is a real championship, not a retroactively claimed one

 

[fredsdeadfriend]

I was getting ready to murder you if you kept omiting McHale, lmao.

lol, well, as great as McHale is, his accomplishments can't match those 10 I already listed.

 

[Picklerick 2.0]

lol, well, as great as McHale is, his accomplishments can't match those 10 I already listed.

I place basketball accomplishments ahead of other sports so my own bias was always gonna be an issue with that list, haha.

 

[fredsdeadfriend]

They might be. I can't say I follow collegiate golf well enough to tell you who has a better team. I can tell you that Oregon has a more recent national championship in golf than Minnesota. And this is a real championship, not a retroactively claimed one

Minnesota's Golf Title came in 2002, not exactly ancient history, lol.

And overall, UMn has had a 1st, a 2nd, a 3rd, a 4th, a 5th, a 6th, a 7th and four 9th place finishes. 12 Top 10 finishes overall and 25 Top 20 finishes. Can Oregon match that? And UMn also has 2 Individual Champions and an alum who once ranked #1 in the world.

 

[Golden Spur]

There goes Loyola, Beavers to the Eight.

 

[Stakesarehigh]

 

[fredsdeadfriend]

I place basketball accomplishments ahead of other sports so my own bias was always gonna be an issue with that list, haha.

Well, I can appreciate that, but when you look at what those ten did.

Brooks and Johnson both have arguments that can be made of their being the #1 American Coach in their sport, EVER.
Lehman reached #1 in the world status the year before Tiger Woods exploded onto the scene, and since has dominated the Senior Game, while Berg wasn't just the #1 female golfer in the world 3 times, but she was the named the #1 female athlete in the world 3 times.
Winfield and Molitor both rank among the absolute best in their sport, with Winfield having the bonus of once being the highest paid athlete in the world and the only person ever drafted into all 3 of the Major League sports.
Both Wilkinson and Bierman OWNED cfb for an entire decade at least, but Bierman won titles at 2 schools and needed a friggin World War to end his domination.
Both Nagurski and Nomellini kicked arse in college and pro football, both would be considered among the Top Ten of all-time early day football, and BOTH won World titles in Pro Wrestling on the side, but Nagurski has a defensive award named after him while getting into the Pro Hall as an offensive player, and is still the only player in history to make All-American at 2 different positions in the same season. He has an argument to be made for his being #1 of all-time in cfb.


So McHale was amazing, and if bb is your #1 sport, of course you would favor him. But never has he been mentioned as the best ever. Best at his position maybe, which with BB's popularity, is impressive all on it's own. So no disrespect meant, and had my list been limited to 10 MALE athletes, I might have switched out Berg for McHale, but I might have switched him out for Bud Grant? Lots of great candidates, McHale is definitely one of them.

 

[Picklerick 2.0]

I have this feeling novas gonna get rickrolled. Which probably means Baylor is done for.