The injury Trevor Mbakwe suffered on Sunday night will apparently the end season -- and likely college career -- of the Minnesota Golden Gophers' star power forward. An MRI on Monday confirmed that the senior has torn his ACL and most reports indicate that he probably won't petition for another year of eligibility in Minnesota at the age of 24.

This isn't good news for fans of Gophers basketball, but former Gophers' beat writer Myron Medcalf (now a member of ESPN's college basketball staff) notes that it just continues a string of bad luck for the Minnesota men's basketball program.

Monday's news felt familiar for me and others who've tracked Smith's Gophers. Not the specific injury, but the damage to the program's prospects. 

When Minnesota's season was separated from its potential as Mbakwe clutched his right knee, I was shocked but not surprised, if that makes sense. I couldn't believe that the injury had occurred at this juncture of the season. 

But bad news has become the norm at Minnesota. Few teams have experienced the breadth of Minnesota's tough luck in recent years.

Medcalf cites the transfer of Royce White, the numerous issues with Al Nolen during his time at the U, several transfers and the opinion that Tubby Smith's team might actually be cursed.