Despite beings arguably the best player on the Gopher roster last year, Lawrence Westbrook some how flew under the radar. Even though he started every game, was the team’s 4th leading scorer, 3rd in assists, second in steals, and 4th in rebounds, a certain member of the media predicted he would transfer because he couldn’t cut at the Big Ten level.  Well, that guy who could not cut it is now one of the only “knowns” coming into this season. He is Minnesota’s leading returning scorer and assister, and will be crucial to the team’s success.

The legend of Lawrence Westbrook should be well known by now. In highschool, he put up ungodly numbers, averaging over 40 points per game to lead the country in scoring. After a year at prep school in Massachusetts, he came to Minnesota and all but disappeared. Whether there was a personality issue, or Dan Monson simply was a poor judge of talent (ha!), Westbrook never just got his chance. He played in only 21 minutes, and the most he played all season, 21 minutes against Montana, did more to emphasize that he did not fit than it to lift his confidence. But then Tubby came to town, and the rest is history.

What we like

What don’t we like? He was the best perimeter defender, best penetrator, most intense player on court, and he did every game. And any guy who is maybe 6 feet tall on stilts who finds a way to average more than three rebounds per game will help a team find a way to win.

What needs to improve

Last year, Lawrence Westbrook did everything he needed to do. But this is not last year. The Gophers need more than Westbrook putting his pedal to metal. This year the Gophers will need steady leadership. With no clear back-up point, he may be called on to fill this duty. Westbrook also will need to cut down on unforced errors, while somehow still maintaining his intensity.

What to expect

Lawrence Westbrook’s breakout season became even more impressive after the season, when it became known that he was nursing several injuries. He eventually had off season surgery to fix a broken hand. With a year under his belt and a hand that actually works, Westbrook should be the top scorer this year. He won’t score  40, but he should average at least 15 points per game.  He should also play point guard much more than last year, and in more than just emergency situations. Hopefully, with interior players that should average more than 2 rebounds per game, he won’t need to pick up the slack in that area.

Its summer, its Minnesota, regardless or the hail, the rain, the tornadoes, and inevitable mosquito induced mayhem, it is better to be outside than in front of a computer. Though I am barely able to muster enough anguish and regret, I do apologize for the lack of updates, though nothing newsworthy has really taken place.

To make up for it, and in the spirit of the political season, and in the spirit of that, I present to you all the news you may or may not care about, but you may have missed. But unlike a certain document dump, I’ll give you more than an hour to sort through it all.

It may not be the Friday before a holiday weekend, but it is a slow day at work. 

Now with categories!

 Recruiting

From what I saw of this afternoon’s win over Northwestern, the Gophers dominated. Lawrence Westbrook aggressively pushed the ball up the court, got to the free throw line, hit a plethora and hit a plethora of mid-range jumpers. Dan Coleman played solidly on both ends of the court and made his free throws. As a team the Gophers shot moderately well, and held NU to long stretches without a point thanks to an aggressive zone defense. And who can complain about a 21-8 run.

Of course, I missed the first half, and prefer to think that it never happened. For Minnesota to have a chance tomorrow, they’ll have to forget about it too.

I don’t know how to read the Gophers performance against the Wildcats in relation to how it will affect their performance against the Hoosiers Friday night. On the one hand, maybe they will realize how lucky they were to escape with a win, and it will light a fire, or at the very least start some smoldering. On the other hand, the Gophers expended a lot more energy that they should have needed to just to beat the worst major conference basketball team, maybe ever.

The Gophers  have outplayed Indiana for the vast majority of the two games they have played. Minnesota is fragile, but Indiana looks like “the glass man” from Amelie, or maybe they are already broken.  It may not matter though, especially if Spencer Tollackson misses tomorrow’s game. He can’t jump, shoot, or really do anything against D.J. White and certain other extremely wide and jiggly Hoosier big men, but he can take up space and fouls. Even with a healthy Tollackson Minnesota has looked silly in late game situations. Minnesota’s rebounding woes have continues unabated, and will tomorrow too.

Of all the upper-tier Big Ten teams, Indiana is probably the most ripe for an upset, but of all the lower-tier teams, Minnesota is the most ripe to blown out.

Prediction: Indiana 70 Minnesota 65

It only took four years, or in the cases of Dan Coleman and Lawrence McKenzie, 5 years to learn how to win a big game. But when the final horn sounded on Saturday at The Barn, just about everyone was willing to overlook the previous missed opportunities and enjoy Minnesota first semi-surprising win of the year.

In a lot of ways, Senior Day mimicked the careers of Minnesota’s seniors. Ryan Saunders didn’t play, Spencer Tollackson got himself into foul trouble and barely impacted the game, Dan Coleman had decent numbers (13 points, 5 rebounds ) but you would be hard pressed to find anyone that remembers how those came about, and Lawrence McKenzie essentially took the first half off, only to explode for 20 in the second half.

The first half resembled the junior years of the soon to be departing upperclassman. Both teams struggled to find any sort of offensive flow. Minnesota was content to throw long passes out of bounds, to stand as still as possible against Ohio State’s zone, and actually make a few free throws. For their part, the Buckeyes were content to miss plenty of shots, and run away from the ball every time Minnesota missed a shot. Thanks to their offensive rebounding advantage and 8-10 free throw shooting, the Gophers went into half time up one. Yes, the Gophers failed to hold an opponent scoreless in the final 5 seconds of the first half again.

In the second half, Ohio State used their full court press off of every made basket, and it was the best thing to happen to the Gophers all day. Though they didn’t always break it with ease, many times they turned the ball over or barely made it across the mid-court before a 10-second call, Minnesota scored much more easily when the Buckeyes pressed.  By pressing, Ohio State gave up the zone that had held the Gophers to 30% shooting and made them look simply silly a few weeks ago in Columbus.

Lawrence McKenzie and Lawrence Westbrook took advantage of what was soon a roomy perimeter. In fact, between the 17:14 and 4:49 mark of the second half, only the Lawrence’s scored. Before the Lawrence streak began Minnesota was up  31-28, and when it ended the Gophers led 58-46.

Ohio State continued their shooting struggles in the second half, even from 3 inches away, which is about how far Kosta Koufos was away from the basket when he was rejected by the front of the rim. Koufos finished with 17 points, but the blown dunk and numerous air balls, despite the 5 or 6 inch height advantage, was certainly not the performance of a future first round draft pick. Jamar Butler, who torched the Gophers in the first meeting between these teams, and has played nearly every minute since,  is dead on his feet. He played tired, and made only 4-13 shots and committed 3 turnovers.

The last four years of Minnesota basketball have been tough to swallow. Many players have left the program, and not much needs to be said about last year. But the seniors stuck it out, didn’t do anything off the court to embarass themselves or the team, and at the very least gave next year’s talented class something to build off of. In these days of player arrests and cheating scandals, these are not small feats.

Who did what:

•  Jamal Abu-Shamala started both halves, and promptly sat on the bench for the rest of each half. He scored two points in 7 minutes.
• Dan Coleman had a quiet 13 points and 5 rebounds.
• Spencer Tollackson struggled, with shooting and fouls particularly, and finished with 5 points and 5 rebounds.
• Lawrence Westbrook had what must be his 10th career high of the season. He sparked the Gopher second half surge and had 16 points and 6 rebounds, a team high for the 5′10″ guard.
• Lawrence McKenzie was horrible in the first half and brilliant in the second half. He scored 20 second half points after a turnover plagued first 20 minutes. Like the rest of the Gophers, he made his free throws (7-7 for him, 22-25 for the team).
• Blake Hoffarber missed a lot (4-13) but his willingness to shoot over the zone may have been what caused the Buckeyes to try to press the Gophers. He only had 10 points, but may have played a much bigger role in the game. I guess only Thad knows.
• Al Nolen played solid defense and made his free throws.
• Damian Johnson decided he doesn’t need to shoot to change a game, and he was right. He had 5 rebounds, 3 offensive, and played great defense as always.
• Jonathan Williams pulled down 3 offensive rebounds, but also turned the ball over 3 times.
• Kevin Payton barely played.
• Travis Busch played the last minute of the game.

Every basketball prediction should come with a built in caveat or two. If a player is unstoppable, like Lawrence McKenzie was the other night, no amount of analysis of the factors that can determine the outcome of a game really matter. Another caveat, on display yesterday afternoon, is that if a team that is shooting 42% from the floor and 34% from the behind the three point line shoots 64% from the floor and 67% (6-9) from the three in the first half, the final score will be much different than it should have been.

In more of testament to Penn State’s true colors shining through, and less to Minnesota playing a better second half, Minnesota was able to overcome the Nittany Lions’ hot shooting to win rather comfortably by the score of 75-68.

The Gophers won by only seven points, but in a game reminiscent of Minnesota’s home loss to Michigan State, the outcome never felt in doubt. There simply was no way Penn State could continue their hot shooting, and despite hitting seemingly every shot, they were never able to build an insurmountable lead.

Penn State hit 12 of their first 16 shots, including several long two pointers, and 6-8 three pointers, but at the 6 minute mark, when Penn State finally started missing, they were only up by ten points despite the Gophers only shooting 7-22 at the time, including a stretch of 11 misses in a row. Penn State may have been unable to put the game out of reach if not for Jonathan Williams. For the second game in a row the Junior center closed a gaping whole, this time ending the Gophers shooting woes by making consecutive baskets, including a mid-range jumper that was previously out of his range.

Over the last 6 minutes of the half, with the Nittany Lions reverting their true selves, Minnesota made up what had grown to a 13 point deficit, by holding Penn State to only six more points in the half. During their run, Minnesota benefited from 3’s by Blake Hoffarber, Damian Johnson, and Lawrence McKenzie. Unfortunately, in what has become a recurring theme, Penn State was able to score just as the half expired.

The second half began as the first half ended, with another Gopher run. Minnesota scored the first 11 points of the half, eventually securing their own thirteen point lead. Penn state made a furious run towards the end, aided by Danny Morissey’s hot shooting and a bone headed play by Dan Coleman (not as bone headed though as Penn State continually running away from Gophers, both at the top of the key and under the basket) in which he simply ran over a three point shooter.

Who did what?

• Dan Coleman showed more life that he has in the last several games combined. Unfortunately, the team may benefit more form a subdued Coleman. He missed several wide open lay ups and top ins. He scored 10 points, but needed 12 shots to get there (he made 4). He added 7 rebounds (4 offensive, all missed tip ins) and came away with 2 blocks.
• Spencer Tollackson didn’t exactly dominate the paint, but he didn’t miss either. He finished with 9 points on 4-4 shooting, but was once again out rebounded by much shorter players. At least he didn’t overtly celebrate minor accomplishments.
• Lawrence Westbook tied his career high with 15 points. On a day when the rest of the Gophers shot a combined 10-22 from the line, Westbrook made all 6 of his free throw attempts, including two in the final minute. His behind the back pass to Spencer Tollackson should be on youtube soon if it isn’t already.
• Needless to say, Lawrence McKenzie is human. He scored 11 points on 3-12 shooting. Despite beating his man off the dribble at will, he insisted on shooting three pointers (3-9).
• Al Nolen continues to develop in the best pure point guard the Gophers have had recently. He scored 7 points, made his free throws, and had 4 assists with only one turnover.
• Damian Johnson’s spectacular games may be over for a while. He scored 5 points with only two rebounds.
• Jonathan Williams may be doing more to get fans excited about next year than the incoming recruiting class (which will need his solid play as they learn the Big Ten game). He scored 8 points, had a thunderous momentum changing dunk. For a team that always struggled with rebounding, he was solid with 5 including 3 on the offensive end.
• Blake Hoffarber loves playing unathletic teams. He scored 10 points on 3-5 shooting (all from 3).
• Jamal Abu-Shamala had an assist in limited playing time.
• Kevin Payton continues to get minutes. In 10 minutes of work he had two assists and a steal, with no other numbers in the box score.

Highlights from the Big Ten Network: