2008-2009 Gophers

[Fazerfish]

Are you the only one on this forum that likes the Gophers?

I finally sat down and watched the entire game, first time I've seen anything this year. I was really impressed. They have soooo much energy, and that Iverson kid is unbelieveable for a freshman. If they play like that the whole year, I will be very entertained. I bet we can see a short run in the NCAA tourney this year, but watch out next year.... I predict final 4 in 2010, National champs in 2011, if Tubby keeps doing what he's doing.

[Cooter]

As a Badger fan I'm a bit concerned about the improving groundchucks.

[PierBridge]

Unfortunately I took the 7 1/2 points and Virginia last night!

Go Gophs!

[ozzie]

the goph definatly looked good last night...Nolen and Iverson are good players and that Johnson plays the game real well....Hoffbarber can really shoot....I like this teams chances in the next 2 years!!!

[koonie]

Gophers looked pretty good. One thing I don't get is their offense. It doesn't seem to lead to anything. Just perimiter screens and passing around the three point line.

[Dotch]

Was favorably impressed with their effort against some competition although thought they took plenty of jump shots too soon several times down the floor allowing Virginia to stay close. If they want to run with the big dogs they'll have to keep that under control. Doing that against teams like Michigan St., Wisconsin and Purdue will be disastrous. Iverson looks like the real deal and will only get better. Nolan, Johnson and Hoffarber picked up where they left off. Westbrook looks improved even though he got off to a slow start in this game. Sampson III looks like a project, lots of potential, but doesn't look like a scoring machine, yet. After watching several of the other Big 10 teams play in this ACC-Big 10 challenge, I like the Gophers chances. If they keep their defense cranked up and keep the injury bug away, they'll make it interesting against most teams in the Big 10. Should make the Big Dance, probably won't get far but who knows? Stranger things have happened.

[Scott M]

That's great analysis in a nutshell. Too many quick pull ups would be the biggest thing in need of correction from the VA game.

Iverson is looking pretty good, hopefully he helps Sampson develop his game.

Looks like a dancin' year just from the style of defensive basketball they play (much better application by this year's team than last, which may be a result of improved athleticism and quickness). But first they need to show me they can win some games in the Big Ten. Last year's team was great at losing any time it was close as they didn't have a finisher's mentality.

If the Gophers were to make the tournament as an at-large bid, (I don't see them winning the conference tournament and auto bid) they would probably be a 7-10 seed, being a major conference team. That's usually good for a tight game and maybe a win, but if you win you get waxed by a powerhouse 1 or 2 seed. But, anything is possible with defense...lots of ball to play between now and March, and it will be fun to see how things along the way.

[Dotch]

Looks like a dancin' year just from the style of defensive basketball they play (much better application by this year's team than last, which may be a result of improved athleticism and quickness). But first they need to show me they can win some games in the Big Ten. Last year's team was great at losing any time it was close as they didn't have a finisher's mentality.

...lots of ball to play between now and March, and it will be fun to see how things along the way.

Amen. Too many close but no cigars against the likes of Wisconsin and Indiana last year. Lots of cold nights ahead getting the chores done as fast as possible so we can get back in the house, warm up and watch Tubby and the boys. Wouldn't miss it for the world.

[Scott M]

Gophers turn on the D against Cornell, allowing just 14 second half points. Balanced scoring, and a good mix among players of steals, rebounds, and blocks, marks of good defense.

SDSU on Wednesday, then a finals week layoff of ten days, and then they play their first real team in Louisville. Two cupcakes follow, and then it's time for the conference schedule to start with Michigan State at home.

[NCLaker]

Thank for the update. I was disappointed they did not televise the game. Hopefully next year they will have a more challenging preconference schedule.

[Scott M]

We'll take the win. Damian Johnson sets a new career scoring high and protects the middle once again. Poor second half, but an unblemished record and streaks of potent defense mean that the Gophers should be able to stay in the game down the stretch when they tip off again in ten days against Louisville.

[mr_jman]

Not a bad game tonight, but they nearly let it slip away in the second half. Excited for the Louisville game which will be a real test to see where the team is at. One other note.... The Michigan State game has been moved from 5pm to 11am on Dec 31st so it does not interfere with the Gophers Bowl Game vs Kansas. GO GOPHERS!

[Dotch]

Thanks for the updates, both of you. Will commit it to the memory banks faulty as they may be. Tubby pretty well summed it up afterwards and apparently we saw some of the same things going on: rebounding! Especially in the second half when SDSU made a run at them, looked more like a volleyball game at times. I did appreciate the way they buckled down on D and shut them off, making a run of their own. Hoffarber being out took away part of the longball threat and it was evident several times down the floor when he likely would've canned a 3 to take the wind out of the opposition's sails. Oh well, best start since 72-73 season I believe and possibly Tubby's best start ever. Looking forward to the Louisville game to see what they're made of.

[Brade04]

My family got tickets to the Minnesota vs. Michigan State game

[Scott M]

I moved and didn't get tickets for this year, but I am hoping to make it up to the MSU game. Should be a great matchup. Strength on strength. That will be a sellout.

[fishin58]

My question is how are they not rated? They recieved a couple votes but that was it. What a crock!

[Dotch]

Just a guess here but I'd have to say their cupcake schedule to this point wasn't considered strong enough, starting off playing a Division II school and the likes of SDSU and NDSU with no Nebraska's, Marquette's, Cincinnatti's or IA St.'s in the mix this year. The Big 10 is good but not as dominant as it once was, and with Virginia and Colorado St. being their toughest opponents to date, we've only seen glimpses. We really haven't seen how good (or bad) they really are. Best to be flying under the radar at this point anyway. If they beat Louisville, then we talk.

[Big River]

as far as being rated, they might sneak in after the weekend.

[Scott M]

They haven't play ANYBODY. Virginia will be at the bottom of the ACC. If they come to play with Louisville, sneak out a win, no questions they will be in the top 25. Right now they are a little inconsistent. They need to stay up on teams. Put that Cornell first half and SDSU second half together and see what I mean.

[Scott M]

White, Williams Could Be The Start Of Something Big At Minnesota

by Matt Gagne, New York Daily News

The problem with calling yourself the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" and sharing a border with Canada: Some people might get the wild idea that kids grow up skating year-round, while game wardens take Zambonis out on patrol.

Forgive Tubby Smith for going after the hearts and minds.

When Smith left Kentucky two years ago and landed at the University of Minnesota, he inserted the Golden Gophers into the national hoops conversation by virtue of his résumé, which includes an NCAA championship, three national coach of the year awards, 17 former players who went on to the NBA and Olympic gold as an assistant at the 2000 Games in Sydney.

A day after he was named the 16th men's basketball coach in school history, letters poured into the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune rife with optimism: about filling seats at Williams Arena and putting the program back on the map; about finally overcoming a nagging inferiority complex; about not being "the cupcake on Winona State's schedule anymore."

Unlike the kind of feedback the Kentucky faithful had been offering up -- aka demands for another national title -- there was just one minor piece of advice lobbed in Smith's direction: "Any coach at Minnesota has to keep the best kids in the state playing here."

It was a fair point. After all, how can you attract top talent from across the country if the best in-state players are packing their bags and leaving home?

In seven-plus years at the helm, it was something Don Monson struggled to do after he replaced Clem Haskins in the wake of the school's notorious academic scandal. Exhibit A: Cole Aldrich, the top high school player in Minnesota two years ago, and now a sophomore at Kansas who played in every game of the Jayhawks' championship season.

Closing the borders, so to speak, was a top priority of Smith's.

"It's important to stabilize the recruiting, and to help people understand that there's a new direction and a new commitment," Smith said. "I wanted people to know I'm serious about keeping the talent here in Minnesota."

Smith put the cornerstone in place with his second recruiting class, signing the state's top two players in Royce White (Minnetonka, Minn./Hopkins) and Rodney Williams (New Hope, Minn./Robbinsdale Cooper) -- friends since fourth grade and rival forwards who rank in the top third of the ESPNU 100.

"They were about as good as we could find in the country, and they were right in our backyard," Smith said. "We focused our attention on them right when we got here. To be able to land those two players, it was critical."

All he had to do was ask.

"I always wanted to play for the Gophers, but if they didn't have a coach like Tubby Smith, I wasn't even going to consider them," said Williams, a senior at Robbinsdale Cooper who ranks 29th in the Class of 2009. "He didn't really have to do a lot of convincing. As soon as I heard he was coming, I kind of had my mind set."

"There's a misconception that people don't want to live here or be here," added White. "I like playing in front of people that I've known my whole life. It was a major bonus that Tubby came here. He definitely sealed the deal."

Just how seminal a moment was Smith's arrival?

Dave Johnson, the 56-year-old boys basketball coach at Robbinsdale Cooper who led the Hawks to a fourth-place finish in the state tournament last year, grew up playing hoops in Minneapolis and has coached in the area for more than three decades. When the university announced Smith's hiring on March 23, 2007, Johnson was certain April Fools' Day had come early.

"The state of Minnesota was in a state of shock. People picked up the paper and they didn't believe it," Johnson said. "We had to see him on the floor to believe it."

Hoops has never been a foreign concept in Minnesota, even though it is home to the Hockey Hall of Fame and the world's largest freestanding hockey stick and puck. A certain NBA franchise was named after all the lakes before it relocated to Los Angeles, and the University of Minnesota has produced 41 pros -- second-most in the Big Ten behind Indiana.

But the focus has shifted to the future, and the spotlight has already fallen on White and Williams, who will battle head-to-head when Hopkins makes the 10-minute trip to Robbinsdale Cooper on Feb. 3. The future Gophers have emerged as the early front-runners to win the coveted Mr. Basketball award.

"Any time we play each other, it's all out," said White, who averaged 21.6 points a game last year at De LaSalle High School, where he won a state title his freshman year. "After the game we're best friends, but on the court we don't look at each other as teammates. We're enemies."

While published reports have questioned the likelihood of both players being academically eligible to attend Minnesota next fall -- White transferred to Hopkins this year after being dismissed from De LaSalle last winter for what he described as an "academic mistake," and rumors surfaced that Williams was thinking about playing professionally overseas because of poor grades -- both say they're on track and pushing each other to avoid bouts of senioritis.

Theirs is a friendship based on competition, with enough history to soften the blow if one ends up getting more playing time than the other. But that doesn't mean there won't be hard feelings when it comes to settling the issue of the top bunk.

"I know it's going to be a lot of fun. He's not going to be a boring guy to live with," said Williams, who's the same height as Williams. "But he's too big. I'm not letting him get it."

The duo can rest easy knowing the burden to resurrect Gophers basketball doesn't fall entirely on their shoulders. Trevor Mbakwe, another Minnesota product who played one year at Marquette before transferring to Miami Dade Community College, is also part of Smith's second recruiting class, along with Justin Cobbs (Torrance, Calif./Bishop Montgomery).

Smith's first recruiting class also was solid, though it lacked in-state talent. He landed one of the top players out of Canada in guard Devoe Joseph, and he signed Georgia product Ralph Sampson III, the son of NBA All-Star Ralph Sampson, who passed on Kentucky and followed him north.

"People believe it's now a strong program and that it's only going to get better," says Ken Novak, the boys basketball coach at Hopkins who has coached in Minnesota for 26 years. "Tubby has legitimacy. He's been there and he's done that."

In his first season of a seven-year contract, Smith led the Gophers to a 20-14 overall record and a sixth-place finish (8-10) in the Big Ten. Through Tuesday, the Gophers were 8-0 against non-conference opponents who aren't exactly among the nation's elite.

But the wins are still breadcrumbs and baby steps along the road.

And What exactly is Smith hoping to achieve?

A random Minnesota travel guide pulled off the shelf at Barnes & Noble offers this nugget about the university: Its hockey teams "are perpetually among the best in the nation," while the basketball teams "usually put on a good show in the Big Ten Conference."

It's a nice way of saying there are better acts in town, and precisely the kind of perception Smith is out to change.

"I want to win championships, and I think we have that potential," he said. "If we do things the right way, that's a possibility in my tenure here. And I've got a few more years here, so hopefully we'll be in Final Fours and considered the type of team that can compete in that type of arena."

[WildCountry]

Go Gophs or go home

[Scott M]

A little reading to get you excited for the weekend...

*****************************************

Gophers face No. 9 Louisville, their first test

by Dave Campbell, Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)—When Lawrence Westbrook learned this summer his Minnesota team would travel to his home state for a holiday-season game against a nationally lauded opponent, he could barely believe it.

For Westbrook, the Gophers’ junior guard and scoring leader, the special weekend has arrived.

“That’s the biggest game that I’ve played so far in college,” he said, “and I think everybody would say the same thing.”

Minnesota takes a perfect record to University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona for a Saturday afternoon game against ninth-ranked Louisville. No. 20 Arizona State plays Brigham Young in the second half of the doubleheader, dubbed the Stadium Shootout, held in the same building as last season’s Super Bowl.

Westbrook, who led the country with an average of 41 points per game as a junior at Chandler High School in the Phoenix area, will be supported by “a million” friends and family members at the game. More importantly, the Gophers (9-0) will face their first test. Beating the Cardinals could be a big boost toward an NCAA tournament berth, given their otherwise-unimposing nonconference schedule.

“We’ve got a lot of games to play, but yeah it would help if we could win this game,” coach Tubby Smith said Thursday before the team departed for the desert. “It’s not how you start. It’s how you finish. We have a lot to play for. That would be an important thing, to go out and play well.”

Minnesota hasn’t won this many games in a row to start a season since going 11-0 in 1976-77, a team that finished 24-3 before the NCAA declared all those victories forfeits due to the use of an ineligible player. Entering Thursday’s games, the Gophers were one of 13 remaining unbeaten teams among the 341 schools playing Division I men’s basketball.

But they’ll have to pick up a couple of wins against higher-quality competition to get in the tournament in March. Their 20-13 mark wasn’t enough for the selection committee last time, and Minnesota has only been invited to once in the past eight years.

These nine victories, against Division II Concordia-St. Paul, Bowling Green, Georgia State, Colorado State, Eastern Washington, North Dakota State, Virginia, Cornell and South Dakota State, have given the Gophers an RPI ranking of 128 in the latest list posted on the NCAA’s Web site.

All but one of their wins were at home, and the only major conference foe (Virginia) currently has the worst overall record (4-3) in the ACC. That’s why playing Louisville is so important.

“I’m really excited. They’re a good team. We all know that. We just want to test ourselves and see how we are right now and just get better,” guard Blake Hoffarber said, adding: “There’s always room for improvement. We have a long ways to go, but I think we’re going in the right direction.”

Three of their next five games could be against ranked opponents, actually, with Michigan State and Ohio State due at Williams Arena on Dec. 31 and Jan. 3.

Hoffarber, who missed the last game because of a sprained ankle, is good to go for Saturday along with forward Paul Carter. He sat out of the previous four games due to a more severe form of the same injury.

Balance is one of Minnesota’s best attributes, with freshmen centers Colton Iverson and Ralph Sampson III among 11 players with 11 minutes per game or more. Hoffarber’s 3-point shooting (he’s 17-for-41, for 41.5 percent) will be tested against the Cardinals and their tough perimeter defense.

“I think we’re a good team regardless of whether we win or lose,” Westbrook said. “I have confidence in this team. I know what we can do. There’s going to be a winner and a loser, but I think for everybody else we have a chance to prove how good we are.”

For Smith, this will also be an opportunity to reunite with Louisville coach Rick Pitino. Both of them are former head coaches at Kentucky, where Smith also served as an assistant to Pitino with the Wildcats from 1989-91.

“We have a lot of things in common. Obviously in the business, Rick is an outstanding coach, but he’s a good person,” Smith said. “He’s one of the most caring and giving individuals I’ve ever been around. I really appreciate that.”

***********************************************

Bluegrass bond hasn't gone south

by Myron Medcalf, Star Tribune

Somewhere in rural Mississippi almost 20 years ago, Tubby Smith abruptly pulled up to a countryside stand, briefly interrupting a recruiting trip with his boss, Rick Pitino.

"You've gotta try this," Pitino remembers Smith telling him, after he handed him a bag of boiled peanuts.

Smith recalls Pitino's response: "Boiled peanuts, are you kidding me?"

Smith was a Kentucky assistant for Pitino at the time. The memory of that day still is cause for laughter.

"There we are in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of some field sitting on milk crates, eating boiled peanuts," Pitino said. "And that's about as down home as I can get."

Neither could have anticipated then the ways in which their lives would intersect. Smith's two seasons at Kentucky -- from 1989-1991 -- helped him land his first head coaching gig at Tulsa. Both coaches survived the fishbowl that is University of Kentucky basketball, and both added to the storied history of the school with NCAA national titles. They became cross-state rivals, when Pitino left the NBA for Louisville in 2001, while Smith was the head coach at Kentucky.

The competition between the two men who consider themselves longtime friends continues Saturday when the Gophers take on the No. 9 Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. And it's worth far more than peanuts to both coaches.

For Pitino, it's another opportunity for his Cardinals to brush off an early-season loss against Western Kentucky. For Smith, it's the greatest measuring stick of his Gophers career. Minnesota brings a 9-0 record into the game, but has not faced a team the caliber of Louisville.

Both coaches are uneasy about their upcoming matchup, even though it will be the 12th time the two coaches have faced each other -- Pitino has a 7-4 edge, although Smith won their last meeting, a 61-49 Kentucky victory at Louisville during the 2006-07 season.

"You have a lot of competition ... because you know someone has to win and someone has to lose," Smith said. "And when you have that much respect for someone and you care about someone, it's usually a tough feeling because you're sitting over there going, 'Man, I hope both teams play well.'"

Pitino said he's happy when any of his former assistants are successful, even if it's at his own team's expense.

"I'm a little bit different than most coaches," he said. "To me, obviously we all want to win badly, so when I lose to an assistant coach of mine that's a friend, I don't feel quite as bad because I'm happy for them."

Smith was an assistant at South Carolina when Pitino left his job coaching with the NBA New York Knicks to become head coach at Kentucky in 1989. Pitino said he found Smith after a search for an assistant coach who understood the South.

"What I did when I took the Kentucky job, I just called about eight or 10 people who I respected and said give me the top three recruiters in the South who carries himself with integrity and has a very strong work ethic," Pitino said. "And in everybody's top three was the name Tubby."

In Pitino's book, "Rebound Rules: The Art of Success 2.0," he praises his first coaching staff at Kentucky: "My staff of Ralph Willard, Herb Sendek, Tubby Smith and Billy Donovan all went on to become head coaches with tremendous results: three national championships (two for Donovan and one for Smith); at least one NCAA tournament Sweet Sixteen appearance for each coach; and a total of 1,328 collegiate victories heading into the 2008-09 season."

Being a part of that group and learning from Pitino helped set the tone for the rest of Smith's career, which included stops at Tulsa, Georgia and then a return to Kentucky. Prior to joining Pitino's staff, Smith's only head coaching experience was at the high school level.

"I always credit Rick with a big part of the success that I've had," Smith said. "I learned a lot of things in the two years I was there with coach Pitino."

Pitino left Kentucky in 1997 to move to the NBA Boston Celtics. Kentucky officials tabbed Smith as Pitino's replacement, and coaching in Pitino's shadow proved difficult despite the fact that Smith won a national title in his first year at Kentucky.

Critics said Smith only won with Pitino's players. Pitino has never wavered in his support of Smith, saying he would not have won a national title with the squad Smith coached in 1998. And when Smith was on the hot seat prior to taking the Minnesota job, Pitino publicly stated on Kentucky airwaves that losing Smith would set Kentucky back years.

"Any time you lose that type of continuity in a program, I don't care who it is, it's going to take time," Pitino said.

Smith, for his part, said Pitino could have won multiple national titles with the talent assembled in 1998. Pitino has all of the qualities of a successful basketball coach, Smith said, which is why the Gophers coach continues to admire him.

Pitino, however, has tried to warn his buddy that he might not have his Louisville team in the best shape come Saturday. The Cardinals were scheduled to take a flight to Phoenix at 1 a.m. after a game against Mississippi on Thursday night.

"I'm just hoping my team survives this trip and obviously, has their legs to play against a terrific team like Minnesota," Pitino said.

Smith knows Pitino too well to worry about the effect that a little jet lag will have on one of the toughest teams and coaches he's faced since he arrived at Minnesota in 2007.

"That's a given that his guys are going to give it everything they have," he said.

Something he started to learn 20 years ago over boiled peanuts.

[Dotch]

Watched the game last nite between Louisville and Ole Miss. If the Gophers can keep the pressure up on D, don't take the quick clangers and don't get intimidated if/when the Cards make a run, as Sid would say, they've got a shot. Ole Miss was down by 18 and came back to tie in the 2nd half. If Hoffarber is ready to go and hits his 3's, Damian Johnson plays like he's been capable of and we get some scoring inside it could be a fun game to watch. Not saying they'll win but they should be in it. A good test to see what they're made of.

[guideman]

This is deffinately the biggest game of tubbys tenure here at Minnesota. A win would mean a national ranking for his young gopher team.

Both teams play a very similar style, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Guard play will most likely deside this

contest. The gophers will have to step it up in the backcourt. The secound team point guard play will have to improve and they have to make sure our big men get their touches inside.

It should be a fun game to watch. Tubby will have them ready and the Gophers have a chance to burst on to the national stage with a big win, over a highly ranked Louisville team.

I can't wait till game time! GO Gophers!!

"Ace"

[Scott M]

18-15 11:30 left in the first. Gotta love what you are seeing from MN...forcing turnovers, sharing the ball, bench players stepping up. Our defense is better and we are deeper, but it's too close to call...Both teams could go on a run or come back from a deficit.