Tubby will contend when recruits arrive

While many Gophers basketball fans are expecting miracles from Tubby Smith, my guess is that it will take another recruiting class after next year's before the new coach will be competing for Big Ten titles and a position in the NCAA tournament.

Those fans who walked out of Williams Arena with 5 minutes to play Tuesday, when the Gophers were dominated by an Illinois team that hadn't won a road game since Nov. 16, will need to be patient.

Smith will lose three seniors this year -- Dan Coleman, Spencer Tollackson and Larry McKenzie, all with a minimum of three years or more Big Ten experience.

They are players who have gone through the weight program and have played a lot of conference basketball.

They will be missed.

It is possible next year's team might not be as good as the current edition, which hasn't had a signature victory.

Smith is particularly proud of his first recruiting class because the players all come from winning programs.

As for this season's team, former Purdue coach Gene Keady, a color analyst for the Big Ten network, put it best when he said about the Illinois loss: "This was a shocker. I thought Tubby had a good chance to make it to the NCAA, but this one hurt."

Tubby isn't giving up on the chances to get an NCAA berth even though the Gophers might need to win five of the next seven games to qualify.

Want Doty out Can you believe that Atlanta quarterback Michael Vick, who recently was sent to prison for his role in a dog-fighting operation, will be able to collect more than $16 million in bonus money from his contract?

For more than 15 years, the chambers of U.S. District Judge David Doty in Minneapolis has been the scene of many legal disagreements between the NFL owners and their players union.

But Doty ruled that Vick was entitled to retain $16.5 of the $20 million in bonus money he earned while playing for Atlanta from 2004-07 even though the quarterback is in prison. So on Thursday the owners filed a motion to reverse Doty's decision and also to get the judge disqualified from the case, saying his public comments show he is biased against the NFL.

So look for the NFL and the players association to be back in court again soon.

Udeze out for year The word on Kenechi Udeze, the Vikings defensive end who is being treated in the Fairview Southdale Hospital for leukemia and has been there since the problem was discovered, is that he is making some progress through chemotherapy treatments.

Apparently the former Southern California football star was in Idaho when he started to fall ill and flew in here for an examination and the problem was discovered. There is no chance of him playing football this season but a good chance for recovery.

Randy Taylor, director of football operations for the Gophers football team, has resigned because Taylor's wife has health problems, according to coach Tim Brewster. He said Taylor is returning to his job in California with an NFL independent scouting services.

Eric Decker, who has the potential to be an All-America wide receiver for the Gophers, has received permission from Brewster to miss spring football practice so the major league prospect can concentrate on playing baseball for the Gophers. Decker's sister Sarah, like her brother an outstanding athlete, recently graduated from Columbia.

"We are still looking at building a 12-month indoor golf facility once University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks decides what his plan is for the golf course," James said. Some of the administration would like to eliminate the golf course and put some school buildings on the land. ... The Gophers recently signed their first top-50 golf prospect, Derek Chang from Atlanta. Dave Haley, the state junior champion from Hudson, Ohio, also signed with the Gophers.

Ryan Wittman, son of Timberwolves coach Randy Wittman, is leading his Cornell basketball team in scoring, averaging 15.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 33 minutes of action. Wittman scored a season-high 25 points in the 87-74 victory over Penn on Feb. 9. Cornell is in first place in the Ivy League. ... Noah Dahlman, who played at Braham with his brother, Isaiah, is a freshman at Wofford College in South Carolina. He is averaging 6.5 points and 5.7 rebounds in more than 20 minutes of play.

After Jim Zorn, who was named Washington Redskins coach last weekend, was hired as a Gophers assistant coach in 1995-96, the school created a new rule for the hiring of coaches. When Zorn was hired he didn't have a college degree. After that all new coaches had to have a degree. While on Jim Wacker's staff, Zorn did a great job here developing quarterback Cory Sauter into one the best passing quarterbacks in recent Gophers history. Zorn left here to become an assistant with the Seattle Seahawks.