By: Jack Satzinger

The 2014 NFL Draft starts Thursday night. For all the prospects, the long waiting game will come to an end at some point in the next three days.

While the cream of the crop will be selected in the first round Thursday night, most players will go in the later rounds Friday and Saturday.

This year, the Big Ten has a bulk of players — anywhere from surefire first-round picks to third-day gems — who could make an NFL roster.

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By: Dane Mizutani

Brock Vereen hasn’t watched much ESPN over the last few months.

He’s caught a few games of the NBA playoffs and an MLB game here and there, but he has spent most of his time fixated on Netflix and video games.

A standout defensive back for Minnesota during the past four seasons, Vereen has made a point to avoid all the hype surrounding the 2014 NFL Draft — a three-day event that kicks off Thursday night.

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By: Jack Satzinger

Giovan Jenkins still remembers the first time he laid his eyes on Ra’Shede Hageman.

Hageman towered over other kids as an eighth-grader, and his athletic potential was evident, whether he was dunking a ball on the basketball court or catching a pass on the football field.

“He was definitely bigger than everybody else,” said Jenkins, head football coach at Washburn High School. “He even stood out among our … 10th graders at that point.”

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By: Megan Ryan

A trio of men lingered around the University of Minnesota’s outdated Bierman Track and Field Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.

To the untrained eye, they looked like three rather unassuming college students.

But to the Gophers men’s track and field team, they might as well be the Holy Trinity.

John Simons, the long and lean distance runner; Jon Lehman, the big and strong thrower; and Zach Siegmeier, the quick and stocky pole vaulter, have been Minnesota’s men’s track and field team’s most reliable performers all season.

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By: Vanessa Nyarko

The founding director of the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, an internationally renowned researcher, recently announced he’ll leave his post in August.

Jonathan Foley’s students and colleagues say he helped transform the environmental research and teaching center into what it is today, but they stress that the institute will remain sustainable even after he leaves.

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By: Jeff Hargarten

After setting up dozens of booths at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Friday morning, Matt Thompson and Terry Bick sat back, had a beer and counted the number of Indiana Jones impersonators passing by.

The first-ever Wizard World Minneapolis Comic Con, true to form, provided a space for devotees of everything from Star Trek to Power Rangers to mingle and meet their heroes — including William Shatner, Nathan Fillion, Lou Ferrigno and outgoing “Doctor Who” stars Matt Smith and Karen Gillan.

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By: Roy Aker

The amount of state funding the University of Minnesota will receive for construction projects is becoming clearer as the legislative session nears its end.

The state Senate released its recommendations Monday, allocating more than $125 million for four University projects and building maintenance and upkeep throughout the five-campus system. The proposal cuts the University’s request short, but school leaders plan to use the final weeks of the session to push for more bonding dollars.

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By: Kia Farhang

Two University of Minnesota students were robbed at knifepoint early Monday just outside the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood, according to Minneapolis police.

The incident is one of a few high-profile crimes to take place near campus in the last couple of weeks.

The women, who are roommates, were walking home from downtown Minneapolis at about 12:15 a.m. when a masked man began following them, Minneapolis police Sgt. Jesse Garcia said.

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By: Samuel Gordon

For graduating seniors, this past year was a revelation — a loud and collective exhale of “about time,” four years overdue.

For freshmen finishing their first year on campus, it was a precedent that’ll be difficult to eclipse moving forward.

And for every student on campus, it was a heck of a year to be a Gophers fan — the best in recent memory.

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By: Megan Ryan

A University alumnus may have been wearing green instead of the usual maroon and gold at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational over the weekend, but his experience with the Gophers helped propel him to the second-fastest time in the 5,000-meter run this year.

As a professional with the Oregon Track Club Elite, Hassan Mead ran 13:02.80 in the 5,000-meter run in Palo Alto, Calif., six-hundredths of a second behind the first-place finisher. Mead finished more than five seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

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