Gophers set to fire Dan Monson

While Monson had to deal with a lot early with the major NCAA violations under Clem Haskins, he has been a failure in every sense of the word when it comes to leading the Gophers basketball program back to the days when a NCAA tournament bid was the minimum expectation.

The writing was on the wall when he drove what could have been the most dominant Center in the programs history Joel Pryzbilla away in the middle of his sophomore season. What’s worse was the constant acceptance of marginal transfers who originally turned there back on the program desperate to come home to close out there disappointing college basketball careers. Add to that accepting guys like Rick Rickert and Kris Humphries who only turned to the Gophers after they realized that the programs they originally committed to don't cater to guys that only want to stick around a year or two. It is really telling that Monson got more quality play out of guys with next to no talent then he did out of these two highly ranked recruits.

He may have been a good guy to fill the gap for a few years after Haskins, but by no means did he deserve anywhere close to the 8 years they gave him. Lets hope they bring in someone who really focuses on getting players committed to the program, who will only turn pro early if there talent is so extreme it becomes the most sensible option. I can't come up with anyone with local ties that excite me, but even a Trent Tucker would lead to more hope then Monson gave us.

Update Wednsday 2:48 PM: as of right now the athletic department is denying everything, of course they have not yet said they are committed to keeping him on board so I'd still say the odds are he's gone.