As I walked out of Williams Arena on Wednesday night, I was thinking my first paragraph of my game review would be spent trying to convince myself that the Gophers would be ok even if Paul Carter would miss several weeks. Fortunately, I won’t have to, as what looked like a very severe ankle injury that took place when Ralph Sampson III fell into Paul Carter’s ankle is only a sprain, and Carter should probably be able to play if absolutely needed as soon as Saturday. Luckily, nothing was able to tarnish the Gophers’ dismantling of Eastern Washington.

Led by Colton Iverson’s career high (I’m not quite sure when career highs become relevant for freshman) 21 points and an err of confidence from the entire team, the Gophers defeated Eastern Washington by a score of 88-67. The team’s best game of the season came despite Lawrence Westbrook, the Gophers’ leading scorer, not playing a single minute, and their second leading scorer, Al Nolen, scoring only two points. But when five players score 11 or more points, there are plenty of people to pick up the slack.

Minnesota’s victory was their most impressive of the season by far. The offense was outstanding, and reverted the familiar stagnancy on one or two possessions. The Gophers shot 58.6% for the game, and an even more impressive 63.3% in the first half. The three point shooting was much better than against Colorado State, a respectable 43% without any poorly timed or particularly forced shots. Most impressive of all were Minnesota’s 22 assists on 34 made field goals, all while committing only 9 turnovers. The previous season high for assists was 16 against Bowling Green, and the season low for turnovers was 13 against Georgia State.

On the defensive end, the Gophers were unfortunately a bit suspect. The Gophers forced a season low number of turnovers, and gave up 53% shooting in the first half despite the Eagles losing the services of their best interior player, Brandon Moore, for most of the first half with a cut above his eyebrow that required stitches. It certainly didn’t help the Benny Valentine, an allegedly 5′7” guard who is closer to 5′3” played the best game of his life. Valentine scored a game high 29 points (on 21 shots, so it is slightly less impressive) on a series of ridiculous flailing drives, deep falling down threes, and ridiculous runners that had no business going in. Eastern Washington eventually cooled down in the second half, but it was still the second best shooting showing by a Gopher opponent this year.

As you might expect against a team that is just plain short, the Gophers out rebounded the Eagles. They pulled in ten offensive rebounds, the same number as Eastern Washington, even though the Eagles missed seven more shots, and had 5 rebound advantage on the defensive end.

When review the keys to the game, Minnesota did everything they needed to to come away with blow out win. The Gophers didn’t run, run, run, but they ran enough to keep the Eagles of balance and made good decisions on the fast break. As evidenced by the impressive assist total and low number of turnovers, the Gophers passed extremely well, and it led to plenty of points on the inside. Their free throw shooting, which had been dreadful couldn’t have been much better as they made 14 of 16.

But confidence was the deciding factor. The Gophers who have looked tentative and rattled at times as they continue to learn to play together were aggressive on both ends of the court and took the game over early on. Eastern Washington did manage a nice run in the second half getting within 10 points, were quickly repelled as the Gophers won going away. On Wednesday night we got our first glimpse of this team’s potential. In the next week, we will see if they can sustain their success.

Who did what?

• Blake Hoffarber struggled from the outside, making only 1-5 three pointers, but showing how far he has come since last year, made 4-5 two point shots. All of these came as he cut to the basket or finished on the fast break. He won’t break anyone’s ankles in the half court yet, but he is no longer a one dimensional scoring threat.
• Al Nolen got run ragged on the defensive end by Benny Valentine, but had 7 assists and no turnovers to go along with 2 points and two steals. Whether he can score and pass in the same game is still a mystery.
• Jamal Abu-Shamala continues to have his best season as Gopher, scoring 11 points on 4-5 shooting. His three point shot is there, and like Hoffarber, is much better finishing close to the basket.
• Colton Iverson was dominant. Tubby Smith mandated that the perimeter players give him the ball, and they did, and made the most of his many opportunities. He scored 20 points on 10-13 shooting. If that wasn’t enough to impress, he added 5 rebounds (4 offensive), 4 assists, a block, with no fouls and no turnovers. Don’t mess with Yankton.
• Devron Bostick may finally have his confidence back, and the Gopher might have another dangerous weapon. Bostick didn’t miss a shot, making three three-pointers along with a dunk. He also added four rebounds and two steals with only one turnover.
• Ralph Sampson III played well as well, cleaning up the garbage on the offensive end. He scored nine points, nearly all on put backs, as he collected 7 rebounds *4 offensive) and managed to stay out of foul trouble.
• Travis Busch thinks he is Michael Jordan after his first come back. With Sampson cleaning up the garbage, Busch decided it was a good opportunity to take fall away turnaround jumpers. It wasn’t pretty, but he did make 5 free throws.
• Devoe Joseph had an average game with 5 points, but added three turnovers. It would have been nice to see him have more chances with Westbrook missing the game.
• Damian Johnson is the same old Damian Johnson, and I couldn’t be happier. He scored 11 points on 5-6 shooting. He had only one rebound, but made up for that with 2 assists, 2 steals and two blocks.
• Paul Carter sprained his ankle and only played nine minutes, but he should be back soon.
• Kevin Payton, more fouls than shot attempts.

Highlights from the Big Ten Network

With about 10 minutes left in their win over Eastern Washington, Minnesota’s season almost took a turn for the terrible. Ralph Sampson took a charge, fell back against Paul Cater’s ankle, and Carter hit the deck in agony. He was down for several minutes, and was eventually carried off the court, unable to put any weight on his right ankle. It looked bad, very bad, but thankfully it was not.

According to Marcus Fuller, Carter is only day to day after what easily could have been a seson ending injury.  His injury, diagnosed as an ankle sprain of undetermined severity (so far), should allow him to be back before the Louisville game. It will also give Devron Bostick a chance to get more playing time, and more confidence.

Lawrence Westbrook dressed but did not play last night as well, due to a shin injury. He should be 100% on Saturday.

I’ll have more on last night’s game either tonight or tomorrow depending on the turkey, but until then have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Live chat? Think live blog without me chiming in with monosyllabic reactions to the game. I’ll be reacting to the game at the game, but if you want a place to discuss the tonight’s goings on, I will have a chat room up and running about 2 hours before tip off. If you have any suggestions, or something breaks, kindly leave a reply below this post, and I will try to make it better next time.

The chat is now closed. You can click here to see what you missed.

University of Minnesota Golden Gophers vs. Eastern Washington Eagles

7:30pm (CST) at Williams Arena

Radio: WCCO 830 AM

Tv: Big Ten Network

Tickets: Row 29 in the corner of the lower deck

Liveblog: More like a live chat. I’ll be at the game, but a chat room will be up and running.

Thank goodness mascots have little baring on the outcome of basketball game. If they did, the Gophers would be 0-3-1, and would have been beaten soundly by the Golden Bears (Concordia), Falcons (Bowling Green),  and the Panthers (Georgia State) while tying the Rams (Colorado State). Rams and Gophers are, of course, on the same end of the food chain. I suppose a ram could accidentally step on a Gopher, which would kill the Gopher, but could also break a rams leg, causing a long and excruciating death and then we would have a tie. If you are waiting for a non-animal opponent, fear not, because the Virginia Cavaliers ride into town in one week.

My apologies for the long and excruciating mascot discussion, but this is just another necessary but not too exciting tune up that a young team needs. At least it was hopefully not as long and excruciating as trying to follow last Saturday’s game against Colorado State without TV, radio for much the first half, or frequently updated game trackers. Minnesota picked up the win in Damian Johnson’s season debut, and he seems to have picked up right where he left off, doing all the little things it takes to win. He will make his home debut, and barring electromagnetic storms or some other freak occurrence, there will be plenty of ways to catch the game.

The Eastern Washington Eagles out of the Big Sky Conferences comes into Williams Arena with wins over UC- Irvine (who has lost to USC and Oregon),  Texas-Arlington (who played their only Division I game against the Eagles) and Idaho (who beat North Dakota State but lost to Michigan State and Gonzaga). Their lone loss came at Illinois by, which, I’m sorry to remind all of us, is better than Gophers fared in recent years. While they don’t have any big wins, they are on track for a much better season that last year when they were 11-19.

Eastern Washington is a small team that rarely runs. They have three players on their roster shorter than 6′0” including Benny Valentine who is their leading scorer. The 5′7” guard averages 18 points per game, but also almost three turnovers. With a lack of size, one would think that they would try to speed up the game as much as possible, but they don’t and this probably explains why they aren’t the best team in Spokane, Washington. They average only 66.1 possessions per game, ranking in the bottom third of the country, unfortunately in the same neighborhood as the Gophers. They also score roughly the same number of points per possession as well, but their defense ranks 140th in the country. Teams don’t necessarily shoot well against them (they have not had an opponent shoot over 50%, but they force so few turnovers they don’t need to shoot well. They may just be what the Gophers need. The Gophers were made to beat slow short teams that don’t force turnovers.

Keys for the Gophers

1. Run, run, run. Eastern Washington isn’t use to it, and Colorado State couldn’t handle it. Until the half-court offense gets going, defense is their best offense.
2. Crisp passing. Minnesota jumped out to an early lead against Bowling Green with crisp and quick passes. The best way to get the offense going is to make open shots, and crisp passing is the best way to get open
3. Make free throws. It might be about time for Tubby to ditch the no dribble rule. The Gophers made only 7-13 free throws against Colorado State, and came within 1 inch of losing.

Keys for the Eagles

1. Make every possession count. The Eagles don’t play fast, and in all likelihood will take fewer shots than the Gophers. To have a chance, they will need to shoot better than Minnesota.
2. Keep it close early. In every game except Colorado State, the Gophers have been susceptible to late game runs. Even if the Gophers are horrible in the second half, thinking more about turkey and stuffing and cranberries, it won’t matter if Minnesota is up by 20.
3. Get the Gophers in foul trouble. The best way to take away a size advantage is to get rid of the size advantage. Colton Iverson and Ralph Sampson are still very prone to foul trouble. If Travis Busch plays power forward for most of the night, it won’t matter that the Eagles have only one player 6′9” or taller that is expected to play.

Key Players for the Gophers

For the first time this season, Ralph Sampson, Colton Iverson, Paul Carter, and Damian Johnson will all be healthy and expected to play extended minutes. Iverson and Sampson played together over the summer. Carter and Johnson are both extremely long and athletic. Watch how Tubby Smith uses these players, and how they play well together. Despite the inferior competition, we should get a good idea of what to expect from these four for the rest of the season.

Key Players for the Eagles

1. Benny Valentine is the Eagles leading scorer, assister, and turner-over. Watch how he handles the bigger and stronger Gophers guards.
2. Brandon Moore is the Eagles only interior presence, but he is a presence for sure. The 6′9” 240 pound center scores 13 points per game along with 7.5 rebounds.
3. Not even ESPN knows where Milan Stanojevic is from, but like just about every European player, he loves to shoot the three, including 174 last year. Three pointers accounted for 81% of his points.

Prediction: 75-57 Gopher win

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What do you hope to see Wednesday night?