Bad Luck

If the four-leaf clover and the horseshoe are symbols of good luck, what are symbols of bad luck? A Gopher, perhaps? Surely, its colors are maroon and gold.

I speak, of course, of the loss of Trevor Mbakwe to a knee injury for the rest of the 2011-2012 season. As Mike Max said, the worst thing that could happen to this program has happened. The Gophers will be without their best player--their only serious contender for all-anything honors in the post-season--the rest of the way. And, not only that, but he plays the position vacated by Colt Iverson, 3-year letterman, sometimes starter, who transferred out of the program during the past off-season.

That leaves two inexperienced players, redshirt freshman Oto Osieniks and JC transfer Andre Ingram, to fill in for Mbakwe. It says here that Ingram, the more physical of the two, gets the start but that Oto, the more skillful, gets the bulk of the minutes. If the Gophers are lucky, the two will combine for about half of Mbakwe's production, while their own back-ups will replace their time and production with virtual zeroes in the average box score.

The analogy to last year's loss of senior point guard Al Nolen to injury is only to clear. Nolen may not have been the Gophers best or MV player, but he was their leader. And not only was he lost for most of the Big 10 season but the fellow who would have stepped into his shoes, Devoe Joseph, had transferred out shortly before Nolen's injury. Once rated as high as #15, the Gophers crawled home with 1 win in their final dozen games.

Mbakwe's injury also brings to mind the injury to all-American Lou Hudson in 1966. The Gophers had finished 3rd and 2nd in Hudson's first and second years, and Hudson was named consensus all-American in 1965.

Then in his senior year (1965-66), swing man Don Yates was declared ineligible. Terry Kunze, who was on academic suspension and could have come back as of January '66, decided not to. Then in game #4 Hudson broke his right wrist. Hudson missed 4 weeks, then came back with his right hand in a cast. Archie Clark stepped up to become the Gophers top scorer but the team finished 7-7 in the Big 10.