Reid Travis picks Stanford

Ouch! The Minnesota Gophers and new coach Richard Pitino were never given much of a chance to recruit the Big Three 2014s of Tyus Jones, Rashad Vaughn and Reid Travis. But rumors swirled--in fact, we were guaranteed by one source--that Travis would pick Minnesota when he announced his decision today.

That made it all the tougher to hear that Travis will be going to Stanford. He liked their academics or some stoopid thing like that.

There is little or no chance that Jones or Vaughn will pick the Gophers.

Richard & Tubby & Teague & the Gopher Men

Not 30 minutes after I wrote the following I learned that Norwood Teague has hired Richard Pitino as the Gophers new men's basketball coach. All I will add right now is to say, read this before you bad-mouth the choice.

http://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2013/3/11/4090004/richard-pitino-fiu-coaching-record-sub-belt-championship

I'm more than willing to give the kid a shot. It looks to me like the kid has some upside. Otherwise, I think what I've already written says what I wanted to say.

----------

I am on record saying that the Gopher men, given a variety of systemic and historic forces, are in need of a miracle worker. Am I saying things are bad? Yeah, things are bad. 1 NCAA tournament win in 16 years (or perhaps you prefer 22 years). No Big 10 title since 1982. Local talent that up until 2014, at least, doesn't appear to be able to support a winner.

(8 of 13 Mr. Minnesota Basketballs this century have gone to Minnesota. The losses hurt our feelings at the time [Isaiah Dahlman] and/or hurt the program longer term [Jordan Taylor]. But Boone, Humphries, Rickert, Tollackson, Hoffarber and Joe Coleman were otherwise pretty much as good as it gets--not to mention Dan Coleman, Dan Hagen, Lawrence McKenzie, Al Nolan among others--and it wasn't good enough by a long shot.)

6 years ago we thought Tubby was a miracle worker. It turned out, not. So why not roll the dice, I thought?

Well, why not? If you can't get a miracle worker, that's why not. Or, more to the point, if you can't get somebody who looks like a miracle worker. The irony is that Tim Brewster looked a little bit like a miracle worker, while Jerry Kill looked like and looks like, well, Tubby Smith. A grinder who will probably make the program better but seems unlikely to make it great. But, of course, the guy who promised to make it great proved to be a snake oil salesman who was low on snakes at the time.

So, is there a miracle worker out there? Is the even a guy who looks like and smells like a miracle worker? Who the hell knows. Not me. But if you're gonna hire another grinder, ya shoulda kept Tubby. OK? Ya shoulda kept Tubby if you can't get Shaka or Flip or Fred or Brad or the next generation of potential miracle workers.

But that's hindsight. I said, roll the dice, and Norwood Teague rolled the dice. I agree with Amelia Rayno. Whatever Teague's personal vision was or is, he did what we wanted. It's beyond hypocrisy to jump off the bandwagon now.

But let's be honest. The coach that Teague hires won't be a miracle worker unless he, miraculously, gets Tyus Jones and/or Reid Travis and/or Rashad Vaughn to come to Minnesota. That will be a miracle and, if it happens, it will beget other miracles, just like Lindsay Whalen resurrected a woman's program that was in vastly worse shape in 2000 than the men's program has ever been.

But if, as seems more likely, the new coach cannot inveigle his way into Tyus' or Reid's or Rashad's heart in 90 days, what then? Then...then...support your coach. Support your AD. Support your only local D1 university. He/they did what you asked. You and I, we own the consequences. Man up.

2012-2013 College Recap

Almost lost amid the excitement of the girls and boys high school tournaments the past 2 weeks was the  continuation of college playoff action from D1 through the junior colleges. I'll start with something you didn't know.

Junior Colleges

The Anoka-Ramsey and Northland Community College women played in the NJCAA D3 tournament at Rochester. ARC lost in the 1st round to Montgomery College, MD 84-77, then won 2 games to finish in 5th place. Kelli Schramm, from Mounds View, earned all-tournament honors.

Northland also lost in the 1st round to Roxbury CC, MA 72-65, and finished 7th.

Rochester CTC played in the men's tournament in New York and lost all 3 games to finish 8th. Justyn Galloway, from Kenosha, WI, won all-tournament honors.

D3

The St. Thomas men and women are both done for the year.

The men got to the D3 semi-finals before losing to Mary Hardin-Baylor 74-67. St. Thomas led 54-40 at 10:22 of the 2nd half before ripped off a 23-8 run to take the lead at 63-62. St. Thomas led 67-66 with 36 seconds left but Hardin-Baylor hit 8 FT down the stretch.

The Tommies, rated #1 going into the post-season, finish at 30-2. Mary Hardin-Baylor plays Amherst for the national title next week.

The women got to the Sweet 16 before losing to Hope 71-61. The unranked Tommies led #2-ranked Hope 32-31 at the half and 50-49 at 8:44, but Hope put a 12-2 run on the Tommies to pull away. Hope shot 57 percent, St. Thomas just 42. The Tommies finished 24-6.

D2

The Winona State men are the last Minnesota basketball team still standing, well, this side of the Minnesota Timberwolves. They will meet #1 rated West Liberty on Thursday afternoon of this week in the Elite Eight. The Warriors defeated Mankato State 76-73 at Mankato to advance to this round of play. If Winona wins on Thursday, the semi-final is Saturday. The national championship will be played on Sunday, April 7.

Senior post Clayton Vette leads Winona with 21 ppg and 8 rebounds. Xavier Humphrey adds 11 points and 2 assists, Grant Johnson 11 points, and Taylor Cameron 10 points, 5 boards and 3 assists.

Winona is rated just #28 in the final D2 poll, but defeated #6 Mankato to advance.

Gopher Men

The men defeated UCLA 83-63 in the NCAA tournament, then lost to Florida 78-64 to finish 21-13 incluring 8-10 in the Big 10. And coach Tubby Smith was fired.

Gopher Women

Then there's the Gopher women who lost to Ball State at home in the NIT 54-51 to finish 18-14 including 7-9 in the Big 10. And coach Pam Borton was not fired.

Coaches Corner

In 6 years as Gopher coach Tubby Smith won 124 games while losing 81 (.610). In the Big 10 he went 46-62 (.426). In 10 years as Gopher coach, Coach Borton has won 189 games while losing 132 (.589). During the past 6 years she is 102-90 (.537). In the Big 10 for the past 6 years she is 45-57 (.441).

Top College Players

C- Clayton Vette, Winona State men
C- Tommy Hannon, St. Thomas men
F- Taylor Hall, Bethel men
G- Andre Hollins, Minnesota Gopher men
G- Rachel Banham, Minnesota Gopher women

2nd Team

C- Assem Marei, Mankato State men
F- Ali Wilkinson, Mankato State women
F- Annika Whiting, Concordia (St. Paul) women
G- John Nance, St. Thomas men
G- Rachel Hanson, Concordia (St. Paul) women

College Coach of the Year

1. Mike Boschee, Bemidji State men
2. Mike Leaf, Winona State men
3. John Tauer, St. Thomas men
4. Mandy Pearson, St. Mary's women
5. Ruth Sinn, St. Thomas women

The Big Game Feb. 26: Minnesota Gopher men 77 Indiana Hoosiers 73

For the 4th time in history, the Gopher men have beaten a #1-rated opponent at Williams Arena. The 1st was defending national champ Kentucky in 1951. The 2nd was Indiana the following year. Illinois was the 3rd in 1998. And now Indiana is the 1st to lose at the Barn twice as the #1 team in the nation.

The Gophers made just 7-of-14 FT inside of 2:30 and so failed to give themselves and their fans a little more breathing room. Instead the game was clinched finally only on an Andre Hollins FT at :03.

Minnesota led early 8-2 and 16-10, but Indiana ripped off a 13-2 run to lead 23-18 at 8:55 of the 1st. The Gophers tied it up at 27 at 7:03 on a Maverick Ahanmisi 3, but trailed 34-30 at the half. The Hoosiers had their largest lead, 44-36 at 15:42 of the 2nd.

That's when Minnesota prevented the loss, outscoring Indiana 15-2 to go ahead 51-48 at 8:51. Ahanmisi's 2nd huge 3 started the run. What then to think of Eliot Eliason's 3 straight buckets, 1 of them starting a 2 + 1, over the next 2 minutes. Then two Andre Ingram FTs tied it up, and an Andre Hollins 3 put the Gophers ahead.

4 minutes later Indiana re-took the lead at 59-58. Now Minnesota ran off a 10-2 streak on an Austin Hollins 2 + 1, an Andre 3, a lay-up by Rodney Williams and a fastbreak dunk by Joe Coleman. 68-61. 2:31 to go. Indiana stayed close the rest of the way but never caught up. In fact, it was never a 1 possession game with the Hoosiers in possession.

The numbers were pretty close except for 1. Minnesota made 5 more FG on 11 more attempts thanks to 23 offensive rebounds. The 2nd chance points were 23-8. Mbakwe and Austin had 10 of the 23 offensive boards. Mbakwe also led with 21 points.

Player of the Day: Trevor Mbakwe
Coach of the Day: Tubby Smith

The Big Game Feb. 17--Iowa Hawkeyes Men 64 Minnesota Gophers 28

The 1920 Gophers were rebuilding after winning the Big 10 and the mythical national championship in 1919. They were a disappointing 2-7 going into a match-up with the 1st place Chicago Maroons, who became the 1st team ever to score 50 points against the Gophers. Only 1 team, Schenectady, NY, Company E in 1905, had ever scored as many as 40, so the 58-16 shellacking by the Maroons was by far the worst loss the Gophers had ever experienced.

It would be 20 years before any team would score 60 against the Gophers. Minnesota was just 3 years removed from a Big 10 title in 1937 and was a respectable 5-5 in the Big 10 heading to Champaign, IL, to meet a so-so Illini team (that finished 7-5 in the conference). The Gophers were clicking on zero cylinders that night, however, and lost 60-31.

It would take just 4 years for a team to score 70 versus Minnesota. That was the Great Lakes Naval Training Center who clobbered the (eventual) 2-10 Gophers 73-43. 2 years Northwestern was the 1st college team to score 70 and the (eventual) 8-4 Wildcats inexplicably defeated the (eventual) 7-5 Gophers 72-49. Must'a been playin' that 1-3-1....

Purdue was the 1st to cross the 80-point threshhold in 1951 but that game ended up close at Purdue 81 Minnesota 78. 2 years later the Gophers gave up 80 4 times, winning 1 of them and losing 2 others by 2 points each. SMU was the 1st to score 100 in a 100-80 win over Minnesota in 1963. (The Gophers had scored 100 for the 1st time way back in 1955 in a 102-88 win over Purdue.)

Through it all that 42-point loss to Chicago remained the worst ever. Houston came close in 1967, beating the Gophers 103-65, as did New Mexico at 102-68 in 1974. 1986 for the 1st time saw 2 30-point losses at Michigan and at Indiana. There were several more 30 point losses in Clem Haskins' 1st 3 years as coach, then finally a new record 46-point loss (96-50) at Indiana in 1992. And there were a couple more 30 point losses in 2000 and 2001.

All of this is by way of trying to find anything similar to the 64-28 hurt that the Iowa Hawkeyes put on the Minnesota Gophers today. This is of course unlike all the games mentioned above in that 64-28 is a partial score. The Gophers raced to a 23-8 lead, then collapsed, getting out-scored 64-28 in the final 32 minutes of the game. Not only did they go from 23-8 ahead to lose, they trailed at the half. But I don't have access to records for in-game runs, either pro or con, so I've got to compare it to full game embarrassments of the past.

And only twice have they ever been out-scored by more than a point a minute for a full game. But now Iowa has done it, albeit for just 32 minutes. Full game or 32 minutes, I don't care, this has got to be one of the worst performances in the 118 year history of Golden Gopher basketball. If anyone has any clue how such a thing could happen, let Tubby know.

The Big Game Feb. 14--Minnesota Gopher men 58 Wisconsin 53 OT

The Minnesota Gopher men scored the final 6 points of regulation to tie Wisconsin 49-49, then dominated in OT for a 58-53 win.

Trailing 49-43 at the 5 minute mark, the Gophers got a layup from Andre Hollins, a Rodney Williams dunk, and a Joe Coleman layup at just 17 seconds to tie. Meanwhile Ryan Evans, just a 40 percent FT shooter for Wisconsin, missed 5 straight throws. Then Andre Hollins hit a 3 and then 4 FT in OT, to give Minnesota sole possession of 6th place in the Big 10 at 6-6. Andre finished with 21 points, 3 assists and 3 steals to win Player of the Day honors.

Meanwhile, Thief River Falls girls defeated Crookston 66-56 to win Coach of the Day honors for Jeff Loe.

The Not-So-Big Games Feb. 10--Gophers Scrambled

The Minnesota Gopher men and women both laid an egg today, and Illinois cheerfully scrambled 'em both. That makes a dozen extra large eggs laid by the 2 teams in the past month--6 apiece in their last 8 games--leaving a pair of once promising seasons in a scramble, er, shambles.

The women, once 13-4, are now 4-7 in the Big 10, 2-6 in their last 8 games, and 15-10 overall.

The men, once 15-1, are now 5-6 in the Big 10, 2-6 in their last 8 games, and 17-7 overall.

Look at their remaining schedules and the way they've been playing, you'd have to agree that an NCAA tournament bid seems unlikely, not only for the women but even for the once #8 rated men.

Who would have thought that Norwood Teague' 1st big coaching challenges would not include football?

I can't think of a player or coach of the day, can you?

The Big Game Feb. 3--Minnesota Gopher men 62 Iowa 59

The Gopher men were lucky to escape Iowa at the Barn. Trailing 59-55 at the 2 minute mark, Minnesota got a layup by Joe Coleman and then a big 3 from Austin Hollins to lead 60-59 with just 11.6 seconds remaining. He then stripped Mike Gesell, and Andre Hollins hit a pair of throws for a 3 point lead. Gesell's tying attempt came off the front rim at the final buzzer.

Minnesota outshot the Hawkeyes 45 percent to 36, but Iowa made 7 3s to 4 for the Gophers and also had more points in the paint 18-12. Neither team led by more than 4 in the 2nd half.

Austin finished with 17 points, Andre with 15, Coleman 12 and Rodney Williams 10.

Player of the Day: Austin Hollins. Team of the Day: Concordia (Moorhead) women won at St. Mary's 64-54 to stay in 1st place in the MIAC at 16-2. Coach of the Day: Jessica Rahman, Concordia (Moorhead) women.

The Big Game Jan. 29--Minnesota Gopher men 84 Nebraska 65

Coming off a 4 game losing streak, the Minnesota Gophers took their frustrations out on lowly (2-6, now 2-7) Nebraska, aggressively attacking the rim for dunk after dunk after dunk and an 84-65 rout of the Cornhuskers. Sure, Nebraska didn't put up much of a fight, but the Gophers can't help their opponent's faults. They can only exploit them. And they did. The Gophers did what they had to do and they did it well.

Rodney Williams set the tone with a dunk off the opening tip, with an assist to Austin Hollins. Rodney followed that with a pair of throws off of an offensive board and another dunk off of another offensive board for a quick 7-0 lead. Four more layups followed by Rodney, Trevor Mbakwe, Mbakwe again and Austin Hollins. By now it was 19-8. But then came 2 more dunks by Trevor and Rodney, and another lay-up by Austin.

Finally Minnesota hit its 1st bucket other than layups and dunks. That was a jumper by Rodney at 12: 14 that gave Minnesota a 23-8 lead. The lead varied from 7 to 14 points, and it was 44-35 at the half.

The Gophers mostly extended their lead in the 2nd half. Only once, at 48-40, did Nebraska shorten the lead. But at 48-40, Andre Hollins hit 3-for-3 FT, then a jumper, and Austin Hollins and Joe Coleman each scored a pair of buckets to make it 63-47 at 11:03. The lead hit 20 at 71-51 at 5:56 after buckets by Maverick Ahanmisi, Oto Osenieks and Julian Welch. The much-maligned Gopher bench actually extended the lead from 14 to 20 points during that stretch.

Nebraska tried to make a game of it mostly on the incredible shooting of Ray Gallegos, who hit 6-of-10 3s and 6-of-7 2s for 30 points. The Huskers only other consistent weapon was post Brandon Uble, but he was way out-numbered in the paint and the Gophers' onslaught against the rim got him into foul trouble and he committed his 5th with more than 7 minutes remaining. He finished with 13 points but just 1 rebound.

Both teams shot 54 percent but Minnesota got off 15 more FGs and 8 more FT attempts. The Gophers forced a number of Nebraska turnovers off of a full court man defense, but it was on the glass that Minnesota really dominated, 38-23. On the Gophers' offensive glass, Minnesota grabbed 18 caroms to just 16 defensive boards for Nebraska. On the other end Minnesota's edge was 20-7. As a result, the Gophers scored 22 2nd chance points to just 3 for the Huskers.

Rodney Williams scored 23 points with 6 boards, Andre Hollins scored 14, and Austin Hollins scored 11 with 5 assists. Ahanmisi was the Gophers' best player off the bench with 9.

Next, another eminently winnable home game vs. Iowa before its on the road against to East Lansing.

The Not So Big Game Jan. 23--Northwestern men 55 Minnesota Gophers 48

!@#$%^&*>?

Player of the Day: Scott Theisen, Carleton men, 22 points, 12 boards, 10 assists as the Knights knocked off Concordia (Moorhead) 75-72, and Jamie Stefely, St. Mary's women, 22 points and 9 boards as the Cardinals handed the St. Thomas women their 2nd straight defeat, 62-56. Coach of the Day: Jessica Rahman, Concordia (Moorhead) women, now in 1st place in the MIAC.

The Big Game Jan. 17--Michigan men 83 Minnesota Gophers 75

For the second time in as many games, the Minnesota Gopher men dug themselves a nice, deep hole that, despite a furious 2nd half rally, they were unable to find a way out of. (Pardon my grammar.) Michigan led by as many as 19 points in the 2nd half (56-37 at 13:36 and 58-39 at 12:31).

A 16-6 run, with Austin Hollins scoring 9 points and Andre 5, got Minnesota within single digits as early as 8:13. But they didn't get any closer than that until 77-70 at 2:43 on a pair of Rodney Williams buckets. But that's as close as they would get. The final was 83-75.

Austin Hollins led the Gophers with 21 points, 6 boards and 4 steals. Trevor Mbakwe scored 13 with 10 boards and 5 blocked shots.

Turnovers again were a problem. The margin was just 15 for Minnesota and 12 for Michigan, but ours hurt more, to the tune of a 24-15 Wolverines margin on points off of those turnovers.

Player of the Day: Austin Hollins 21 points 6 boards 4 steals

Coach of the Day: Ashlee Zupancich coached North Woods (located in Cook, MN) to a 52-50 upset of #1A Mountain Iron-Buhl.

The Big Game Jan. 12--Indiana 88 Minnesota Gopher men 81

Wow. Indiana put on a shooting clinic in the 1st half, making 14-of-21 2s (67 percent) and 7-of-11 3s (64 percent) en route to a 52-29 half-time lead. The Gophers also hurt themselves with 12 turnovers, and Indiana scored 19 points off those turnovers while Minnesota only scored 4 points off of Indiana turnovers. Each team had 6 offensive boards but Indiana out-scored the Gophers on 2nd chance points 10-5 just because of their stratospheric shooting percentage.

But, wow, again, but this time it was Minnesota putting on a show in the 2nd half, out-scoring the Hoosiers 52-36 and slowly crawling back into the game. They didn't get within 10 until 77-68 on 2-of-3 FT by Austin Hollins at 2:48. A minute later if was 79-71 when the 1st of 2 really BIG plays involving offensive rebounds occurred.

#1--Joe Coleman stole the ball in the backcourt and drove for a layup but missed. Rodney Williams trailed the play, grabbed the offensive board but he also missed on his putback dunk attempt. Instead of being within 6, the Gophers quickly trailed by 10 as Indiana hit a pair of FT at 1:10.

Still Minnesota came on as Andre Hollins hit a 3, Austin hit a 3, Trevor Mbakwe hit a pair of throws, and Andre hit 2-of-3 throws to get within 84-81 with 19 ticks left on the clock.

#2--Minnesota put the Hoosiers' Jordan Hulls on the line. He obligingly missed both throws. A Gopher rebound would have given Minnesota 15 seconds to set up a game-tying 3. Instead, Hulls rebounded his own miss and was fouled again. This time he made both throw.

Minnesota misfired on a 3 and Indiana made 2 more throws at :04.

Statistically the difference was Indiana's 40 trips to the FT line versus Minnesota's 15, and the Hoosiers' 19-of-34 (56 percent) shooting on 2s compared to the Gophers 18-of-39 (46 percent). Both teams ended up similarly re. 3-pointers, Indiana hitting 42 percent (mostly in the 1st half) and Minnesota 41 (mostly in the 2nd). Indiana dominated the possession game (offensive rebounds minus turnovers) in the 1st half, the Gophers did the same in the 2nd.

Player of the Day: Anders Broman, Lakeview Christian 57 points. Coach of the Day: Mike Durbin, St. Ben's. The Bennies gave the St. Thomas women their 1st conference loss, 66-62.

The Big Game, January 9--Minnesota Gopher men 84 Illinois 67

These Gophers are starting to look like something special. They took the lead for good at #11 Illinois at 19-18 and led 34-30 at the half. The lead hit double figures at 42-32 but Illinois roared back to within 2 at 44-42. 4 minutes later it was 58-47 and the closest the Illini got after that was 9 as the Gophers made 15-of-16 2nd half FT.

Player of the Day: Joe Coleman scored 29 points, 25 in the 2nd half. Trevor Mbakwe scored 19 with 11 boards, and Andre Hollins had 22 with 6 assists. Coach of the Day: Ruth Sinn, St. Thomas women, who routed Gustavus in St. Peter 65-43 in the battle of MIAC unbeatens.

Patty Reusse is one wild and crazy guy

OK, so put yourself in Patty Reusse's shoes. Or better yet, put yourself in Patty's seats at center court at Williams Arena Sunday evening. No, he's not covering the Minnesota Gopher men's basketball game. Patty doesn't cover sports anymore, that would be beneath his status as the dean of all of the sports reporters that he admires. No, Amelia Rayno can cover Gopher basketball. Patty has a higher calling. He's observing the proceedings so that he can come up with really snarky stuff to write about the Gophers and coach Tubby Smith in a future column.

And keep in mind, Patty hates Tubby Smith. Of all the despicable, sociopath personalities in sports, running around with guns and deliberately trying to injure fellows on the other side of the ball, of all the panoply of freaks and wierdos in the sports world today, Patty designated Tubby Smith last Thanksgiving as the one sportsman most deserving of being held up to ridicule as Patty's Turkey of the Year.

So, now, put yourself in Patty's...whatever. The Gophers and Northwestern got off to a slow start, shall we say, and after one half of fairly inept basketball, the Gophers lead 17-14. Well, Patty is beside himself. He can't wait for a future column to say the snarkiest things he can possibly contrive about Gopher basketball. He's got to do it right now.

But you gotta hand it to him, what a sense of humor! He looks around Williams Arena and sees Gopher recruits (and nationally recruited) Tyus Jones and Rashad Vaughn sitting behind the Gopher bench, and so Patty tweets this great one-liner. You could almost hear the laughter breaking out all over the Twin Cities and Williams Arena (OK<, not) when Patty's legion of fans read, "Tyus Jones and Rashad Vaughn both announced at halftime that the University of Minnesota is off their lists."

Tyus Jones immediately tweets Reusse back saying, "Reusse you have incorrect information sir."

Now, any self-respecting person not absolutely and utterly filled up with himself would have said, "Tyus, my bad, it was meant as a joke. If you took it seriously, then it was a bad joke. I apologize." But no, Mr. Full-of-Himself tweeted back, "Thank god, you weren't watching."

A few minutes later, Reusse tweeted, "Dear Gopher fans: Shut up and sit on your hands. You're embarrassing yourselves cheering this travesty."

Ha, ha. What a kidder.

What a !@#$%^& freak! He doesn't condescend to report sports new anymore, and now he's above even commenting on it, no, he's gotta be the guy who is creating the news. If people took his advice, he could write that Gopher fans weren't cheering, that they didn't support Tubby and our Gophers. And of course the coup de grace that would just absolutely make Patty's day, month, year would be for the Gophers to lose out on 2 of the most highly recruited Minnesotans ever. This pretty obviously is the storyline Patty is hoping to report.

Instead, the Gophers put on a show during the 2nd half, scoring 52 points. Austin Hollins proved to be Patty's public enemy number one by hitting 5 straight 3-points over a 3 1/2 minute period to thrill Gopher fans and put the Wildcats out of their misery. But they say that misery loves company, and the Wildcats obviously had company in the person of Patty Reusse, who had to have been just heartbroken to see the Gophers spoil his preferred story line.

But wait. Who says it's spoiled? Patty is going to write it anyway. It's only a question of when. What a !@#$%^& freak!

The Big Game Sunday, January 6, 2013

That was unexpected. What is that?

A win by the Gopher women at rebuilding Wisconsin--now without their best player, Taylor Wurtz, who is out for the season with an injury? No, that much was expected. But, a road win or a win anywhere and against anybody in which Rachel Banham scored zero FG? Not expected, but that's what happened.

And a win by the Gopher men over Northwestern at the Barn? That is always expected. But a win in which the Gophers scored 17 points in the 1st half? Not so much. But the Gophers charged out from a 17-14 half-time lead to 42-23 and ultimately to a 69-51 win. Austin Hollins led Gophers' scorers with 19 points. 12 Gophers saw playing time and all 12 got into the scoring column.

As for the women, Mikaela Riche and Kayla Hirt picked up some of the slack with 14 and 12 points, and Banham made 9-of-10 FT, 8 of the makes in the 2nd half. The final was 60-55.

Player of the Day: Austin Hollins. Coach of the Day: Tubby Smith.

Gopher and T-Wolves Depth Charts after Bahamas Cancun, 5 straight losses (T-Wolves)

The Men

C- Eliason 15 minutes Walker 9 Ingram 10 Mbakwe 6

PF- R. Williams 28 Mbakwe 12

SF- J. Coleman 27 Oto 9 Austin 1 Welch 1 Halvorson 2

PG- Andre Hollins 28 Welch 12

SG- Austin Hollins 28 Ahanmisi 12

Changes: Oto's playing time is dropping with his shooting pct., now at 25 percent.


The Women

C- Riche 29 Loberg 7 Kellogg 5

PF- Kellogg 23 Hirt 18

SF- Noga 33 Bailey 8

PG- Banham 32 Mullaney 9

SG- Bailey 16 Mullaney 12 Cotton 13

Changes: Mullaney's playing time has doubled, in a manner of speaking. She missed most of the 1st 2 games, now she's playing 21 minutes. The time has come out of Leah Cotton's hide, down from 18 to 13 minutes.

T-Wolves

What with all the injuries, this is pretty close to the actual minutes played divided into 12 games.

C- Pekovich 25 Stiemsma 13 Love 10

PF- D. Williams 19 Cunningham 23 Kirilenko 6

SF- Kirilenko 30 Budinger 6 Howard 5 Amundson 7

PF- Ridnour 32 Barea 12 Shved 4

OG- Roy 10 Shved 19 Lee 14 Budinger 5

But in the past 3 games, since Love, Barea and Pekovich all returned from injury, and Roy and Budinger are out:

C- Pekovich 31 Love 14 Stiemsma 3

PF- Love 21 Cunningham 19 Amundson 4 D. Williams 4

SF- Kirilenko 35 Howard 13

PG- Ridnour 25 Barea 23

SG- Lee 20 Shved 20 Howard 4 Ridnour 4

The big loser is D. Williams, who did not leave the Wolves bench in Love's 1st 2 games back. Cunningham backed up Love with 22, 19 and 15 minutes. In last night's loss to Golden State,  Cunningham played 15 minutes, Williams played 11. Each was +2, Williams scored 10 points, Cunningham 6, they had just 1 rebound between them in 26 minutes (!), Cunningham had 2 steals, Williams 2 blocks.

Gopher Men and Women Return Home 6-1

The Gopher men and women won tough, hard-fought wins vs. BCS opponents today to go 2-1 down south, and now they return home with a respectable 6-1 record.

Minnesota men 66 Stanford 63

Tubby Smith, fresh off his turkey of the year award from the ever-charming Patrick Reusse, found this week that 1) his men can't compete with Duke, but 2) they can win when Andre Hollins scores 41 points, and 3) when he doesn't.

Hollins followed the 3rd highest individual effort in school history with an 8 point, 1-for-8 performance. But with the chips down and 0:00.4 left on the clock, Dre drained 3 FT to break a 63-all tie.

Minnesota trailed most of the 1st half, including 28-22 at 7:00, but a Trevor Mbakwe lay-up at 0:49 tied it up at 32. A 13-5 run to start the 2nd half (23-9 since that 28-22 deficit) made it 45-37 Gophers. But Stanford quickly tied it at 47 at 9:46. Neither team led by more than 4 the rest of the way and there were 4 ties T 56, 58, 61 and 63.

The Gophers out-shot Stanford 44-36 percent, but Stanford won the possession game with 3 more offensive boards and 5 fewer turnovers. Trevor Mbakwe had the best game of his current comeback from injury and legal troubles with 19 points and 12 boards, including 8 of Minnesota's last 12 points. Rodney Williams added 12 points and Joe Coleman 11, but Minnesota made hard work of it with just 7 assists on 19 buckets. Stanford had 14 for 21. Each team had just 12 points in the paint.

Minnesota women 59 Missouri 54

The women trailed Mizzou most of the way, including 7-0 and 28-23 at the half. Minnesota finally caught up at 32-all at 13:56 on a pair of Banham FT and they took their 1st lead at 36-34 on a (guess who) Banham fast break layup. Still, Missouri fought back to lead 51-47 at 4:22.

But Kayla Hirt scored 5 buckets down the stretch--that's right Kayla Hirt, 5 buckets in 4 minutes--the 5th for a 57-54 lead at 0:50.

Minnesota shot 50 percent, Missouri 36, but the Mizzou made 9 3-pointers, the Gophers none, zero, zilch, nada.

Banham scored 20 with 6 assists, Hirt scored 14. And, along with Hirt, Shane Mullaney also continued her emergence. playing 25 minutes, scoring 7 points on 3-of-4 shooting with 4 assists. Leah Cotton, with 5 minutes and no points, lost most of her minutes to Mullaney.

That's Better

I mean the Gopher men 84 Memphis 75.

And I mean the Gopher women 80 James Madison 62.

Both lost yesterday and both regained their self-respect today.

Men 84 Memphis 75

For the men, Andre Hollins exploded with a 41-point effort on 7-of-11 2s and 5-for-5 3-points, plus 12-of-13 FT. Hollins fell just 1 point short of the school record held jointly (I think) by Eric Magdanz and Ollie Shannon. (News reports for today's game mention Shannon but not Magdanz.)

Memphis took a 6-0 lead. The Gophers caught up at 17-all, the took a 6-point lead by finishing an 11-1 run. Memphis took the lead 4 times thereafter at 29-28, 37-35, 38-37 and 68-67. Every time the Gophers responded with a 5 or 6-0 run to lead 33-29, 48-38 and 73-68. Of those 18 crucial points, Andre hit a 2 and a pair of 3s while Rodney Williams had a pair of buckets.

After Andre, Rodney scored 13, while Trevor Mbakwe and Rodney led with 8 and 6 boards, and Austin Hollins and Joe Coleman led with 5 and 4 assists. Austin added 6 steals and Rodney 3 blocks.

Women 80 James Madison 62

For the women, Banham and Kionna Kellogg, who frankly has been struggling a bit of late, combined for 40 points. Kellogg added 12 boards and Banham 5 assists.

Like the men, the women fell behind early, 6-2, and only caught up at 14-all. But late in the 1st half it was 41-22 Minnesota. J Mad got back within 9 with 10:22 remaining, but Sari Noga hit a 3, Rachel Banham got a steal and a breakaway 2. A few minutes later it was 68-56.

After shooting 31 percent last night, the Gopher women shot 53 percent today, and they hammered J Mad on the boards 51-37. There were still too many turnovers, 20, to just 13 for J Mad.

Shayne Mullaney continued her climb up the Gophers depth chart. She was the 1st Gopher off the bench today and finished with the 5th most minutes at 28. She finished with 4 points, 5 boards, 2 assists, a steal and 1 turnover.

Gophers Bomb

The Minnesota  Gophers didn't show much down south yesterday, as both the men and the women got out-shot, basically.

But while Duke 89 Minnesota 71 sounds like a thrashing, take a closer look at the stat sheet. The Gophers out-rebounded #5 Duke, for example, 35-32. More than that, there were 38 rebounds taken off the Minnesota glass. 22 were taken by Duke, 16 by the Gophers (42 percent). Off the Duke glass, we took 19 boards, they took 10 (36 percent).

The fact that we missed somewhere in the neighborhood of 38 shots while they lost 29 is of course not insignificant. But look at the 2-pointers: We shot 46 percent, they shot 49. Duke out-scored Minnesota 21-19 from the FT line but, hey, we got to the line more than they did and we shot 76 percent.

But from 3-point-land: Minnesota 4-of-16 (25 percent), Duke 8-of-10 (80 percent). 12 of their 18 point margin is accounted for by 3s, and they shot 6 fewer than we did. I guess my point is, well, first, we played 'em to a standstill in every other facet of the game. And, two, while 4-of-16 is probably a realistic barometer of our 3-point shooting ability, 8-of-10 is nobody's barometer, not Duke, not anybody. The Gophers may get beat with the long ball all year long, but not by 80 percent, and not by the #5 team in the nation.

Turnovers, by the way, were 15-15.

The Gopher women, on the other hand, stunk. We shot 31 percent against a 1-3 team (they shot 40, you can and should win when the opponent shoots 40). We made 2-o-f-14 3s.

But it gets worse. 20 turnovers, 7 by Micaela Riche. Sure, Richmond had 23, but we had 14 steals, they had 8. Meaning that we had 12 unforced errors, they had 9. And, they out-scored us 21-16 off turnovers. We scored 16 off of 23, they converted 21 off of 20.

And they out-scored us 6-4 on 2nd chancers and why not. We got out-rebounded 43-34. Our bench got out-scored 24-7. They had 14 assists, we had 8.

Minnesota led 28-23 and 30-25 in the 2nd half, and after that made 6-of-26 shots with 12 turnovers.

Rachel Banham, Riche and Mikayla Bailey scored 32 points on 13-of-29 shooting, which is of course not great. But everybody else shot 4-for-26 or about 16 percent.

Minnesota Gopher Depth Charts

The Men (4-0)

Center--Eliot Eliason 17 minutes Ingram 10 minutes Mo Walker 8 minutes Mbakwe 5 minutes

Power Forward--Rodney Williams 28 minutes Mbakwe 11 minutes

Small Forward--Joe Coleman 26 Oto Osenieks 17

Point Guard--Andre Hollins 26 Julian Welch 14

Off Guard--Austin Hollins 27 Maverick Ahanmisi 13

The Women (4-0)

Center--Riche 30 minutes Loberg 10

Power Forward--Kellogg 27 Kayla Hirt 13

Small Forward--Noga 35 Hirt 7

Point Guard--Banham 31 Mullaney 18 (2 games)

Off Guard--Bailey 24 Cotton 18