Joel Przybilla (AP)

Now, one year, nine fired employees and a slew of self-imposed penalties later, new coach Dan Monson is trying to pull things together and build a new program from a pile of athletic department rubble. It hasn't been easy. He's had to deal with a public, underage alcohol consumption citation for junior co-captain J.B. Bickerstaff (that's player leadership for you) and a rocky relationship with star center Joel Przybilla. When Monson suspended Przybilla for cutting class, the top scorer waved bye-bye to the Gopher program and declared for the NBA draft. Przybilla's untimely departure would have left Monson without a center -- except that junior Kyle Sanden was just finishing up a 17-game suspension for (what else?) academic ineligibility. But Sanden's return couldn't save the struggling Gophers, who finished the season with seven straight losses. Meanwhile, Haskins laughed all the way to the bank, collecting a $1.5 million contract buyout and then jetting down south, where his alma mater, Western Kentucky, had the gall to honor him as a former player and coach.

The Minnesota program is still feeling shock waves from the academic fraud scandal. Four faculty members and 17 former and current players implicated in the cheating scam still await discipline, and the entire campus is biding its time while the NCAA Committee on Infractions investigates allegations of academic impropriety, illegal payments and sexual misconduct. The Committee will meet in June to review the findings. University president Mark Yudof has already taken a tough disciplinary stand, and the school may self-impose scholarship restrictions this spring, but the prognosis for NCAA penalties still looks grim. Indiana Professor Murray Sperber, author of three books about college sports and the NCAA, predicts that Minnesota might lose TV rights for a year, miss next year's Tournament and lose some scholarships -- not to mention a likely loss of revenue and forfeiture of all those wins with ineligible players. The bottom line: the Gophers may lose the victories from their 1997 Final Four season, but they were all but untouchable in the 2000 Felonious Four championship.

University of Minnesota Basketball Page

CNN/SI Gophers Page