University of Minnesota Golden Gophers vs. Colorado State Rams

9:00 pm (CST) at Moby Arena (Fort Collins, Colorado)

Radio: WCCO 830 AM

Tv: The MTN (looks bleak for folks in Minnesota)

Liveblog: Yes, a very special radio only version (I’ll be complaining about “two-timing”)

Not particularly challenging non-conference schedules aren’t all bad. They give lesser-known programs a chance at the more established programs, and give those smaller programs something to get excited about, and in Fort Collins, they are excited.

That is right. Free T-shirts, free tickets, and hopefully free admission to the Damian Johnson show. After missing the entire season so far with a knee injury and that a broken hand, Damian Johnson, Minnesota’s mister versatility is scheduled to make his season debut, and not a moment too soon.

Although the Gophers are so far undefeated, they have done nothing so far to soothe the existential dread that any Minnesota fan of any sports deals with almost daily. Yes we beat Georgia State and Bowling Green, but we did not do so convincingly. Despite building early leads in seemingly easily in both games, the Gophers were outscored in the second halves. The fast-paced tempo that was the standard of last year’s non-conference season has only made brief cameos, and Minnesota’s half-court offense  fluctuated between mediocre and stagnant. We know that Lawrence Westbrook and Al Nolen can drive to the basket with five seconds on the shot clock when they absolutely need to, but we also know Minnesota will need to do a lot better, especially against better competition and especially on the road.

Saturday marks Minnesota’s first road game, and it should also be their first test of the season. Colorado State is in the running for one of the most improved teams of the early season. Of course, after last season, there was only room for improvement. Minnesota easily beat the Rams at Williams Arena by a score of 91-74 as Blake Hoffarber enjoyed something of a coming out party as he scored 21 points. That Rams team only returned one starter and five total players. Two of those players left after an incident involving a hand gun and a players head. This year, there was no such drama and Tim Miles has the team heading in the right direction.

Last season, the Rams were thoroughly embarrassed by Montana, losing 75-39. This season, the Rams beat the Grizzlies 85-55. The Grizzlies probably are worse this year, but a 66 point turn around in one year? I don’t care how much worse Montana is this season, the Rams are much, much better. Even with all of Indiana’s problems this season, I don’t expect we will be talking about a 50 point Gopher win.

The Rams come into Saturday’s game, 2-0 with their other win over Northern Colorado 85-74. The rams play a slightly slightly faster pace than the Gophers, averaging 71 possessions per game compared to the Gophers 65 possessions per game. However, while the Gophers have been anything but efficient on offense, Colorado State has turned themselves into something of offensive juggernaut. The Rams score 119 points per 100 possessions. The Gophers come in only at 98. The Rams have also cut down on their turnovers, averaging only 11 per game. The Gophers have been lucky to not turn the ball over that often per half.

Keys for the Gophers

1. Commit less than 13 turnovers. This might as well be the key for the season, especially with such an inexperience team. Thirteen turnovers marked their lowest turnover total of the season, and was the main reason why they were able to hold off Georgia State, despite shooting only 42% from the floor. With a low turnover total, they’ll be able to survive even if the offense isn’t there.
2. Boards before blocks The Rams have four players 6′9” tall or taller. The block won’t come easy, and if the Gophers try for them, they’ll miss the block and the eventual rebound. With Johnson playing, the Gophers have no reason to get out rebounded.
3. Run with the Rams. Even though the Gophers are used to a slower paced game, they have the athleticism to run. And really, anything to keep the Gophers out of a half court offense is a plus.

Keys for the Rams

1. Make Minnesota work on offense. The slower the game, the better chance the Rams have.
2. Dump it down low. Colton Iverson and Ralph Sampson III have both been susceptible, like many freshman, to stupid fouls. Limiting their minutes would be big.
3. Get the crowd into the game, or at least get a crowd to the game. Five Gophers will be playing their first college road game. The CSU athletic department is trying to generate some hype. If the crowd is big and rocking, the Gophers could get rattled. Caveat: the Rams best attendance came against in state rival Northern Colorado when only 3,136 people showed up. Moby Arena seats almost 9,000.

Key Players for the Gophers

1. Damian Johnson makes his season debut. If he plays his normal minutes, he should get his usual 10 points, 5 rebounds, and 10 others (blocks, steals, assists). More importantly, he should provide a big boost to the Gophers energy level, and create some scary situations for Ram ball handlers.
2. Blake Hoffarber couldn’t miss last year. If he gets hot, Minnesota’s interior players should have a lot of room to work.
3. Devoe Joseph is slowly heading into Kevin Payton territory. Watch to see if he finds his shot.

Key Players for the Huskies

1. Andy Ogide, a 6′9” transfer from Ole Miss is averaging 16 points and 11 rebounds per game while shooting over 70% from the floor.
2. Marcus Walker is the Rams’ Lawrence Westbrook. He’s small but can put up big numbers. He leads the Rams in scoring, and scored an eye-popping 43 last year against Tennessee State
3. Jesse Carr is a floppy haired freshman point guard, who will have his hands full facing Al Nolen.

Prediction: 65- 61 Gopher win

Your Prediction:

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What are your thoughts on Saturday’s game?

Here we come NIT! In their first measuring stick game since a loss to Florida State, the Gophers learned that they just can’t compete against quick, athletic teams. In my preview of last night’s game, I wrote that good coaching and preparation should have enabled the Gophers to overcome the weaknesses that Florida State so often exploited. Unfortunately, UNLV watched the FSU game film more than the Gophers, and the Rebels looked just like the Seminoles as they won 81-64.

In a fast paced, loosely officiated game, the Gophers couldn’t keep up with UNLV’s star guard Wink Adams, who scored 20 points and added 7 assists without turning the ball over. Matt Shaw added 14 points and 10 rebounds, as the Gophers were dominated inside and out.

UNLV’s guards used their height advantage to shoot and pass over the shorter Gopher defenders, the Rebels shot 11-22 from the three point line and recorded 19 assists on their 25 made field goals. When they weren’t hitting from long distance or dishing assists, UNLV was getting to the free throw line, where they barely missed. They made 20-24 from the line.

The Gophers simply struggled. Lawrence McKenzie scored 8 points on 2-11 shooting (a disturbing 0-6 from inside the three point line). Spencer Tollackson shot the ball only 4 times, and missed 5-7 free throws. Dan Coleman scored 10 and pulled down 8 rebounds, but it wasn’t close to enough to make up for the poor performances by the other seniors. Tubby Smith once again called out the seniors on their poor performances, and McKenzie and Coleman left their all tournament team medals on the table, signaling that they understand that beating up on bad teams only to get beat themselves isn’t good enough any more.

At least we know what to expect now. Minnesota can’t beat athletic teams. If Minnesota was in a more athletic conference, they would be in big trouble, and the losses to these athletic teams would signal the beginning of a downward spiral that could put an NIT trip in doubt. Fortunately, the Big Ten is not an athletic conference, and Minnesota should be able to beat one of the “Big Three” at home, handle the rest of the conference at The Barn, pick off the lower teams on the road, and finish around .500 in the Big Ten.

Unrealistic expectations, both positive and negative, have accompanied each loss and winning streak. Especially during the Holiday season, it is best to follow Aristotle’s advice: “In all things moderation.”

Who did what

• Dan Coleman didn’t play as well as he has the last few games, but he shot 50% from the floor and led the Gophers in rebounds.
• Spencer Tollackson played only 16 minutes, and didn’t do too much when he was on the floor except miss free throws. The big, lumbering center from Chaska didn’t have the speed or quickness to compete.
• Lawrence McKenzie struggled as well. He led the team with 11 shots, and had 3 assists and 3 turnovers.
• Lawrence Westbrook scored 7 and pulled down 5 rebounds, but at least he didn’t turn the ball over.
• Jamal Abu-Shamala continues to struggle with his shooting, but 5 rebounds is nothing to sneeze at.
• Al Nolen played like a freshman for the first time this season, and struggled in all facets of the game. Most notably, he committed 4 turnovers and with no assists.
• Travis Busch saw the floor in the first half. This isn’t good.
• Jonathan Williams played as much as Tollackson, but at least pulled down a rebound (or 4, compared to Tollackson).
• Blake Hoffarber led the Gophers in scoring, shooting 5-8 from the floor and 3-6 from behind the line, and scored 13 points.
• Damian Johnson appears to have kicked the turnover bug, and scored 7 points to go along with 5 rebounds.

My apologies for the above head line. I initially wrote a few others, but they all quickly veered into existential or psychological territory, describing the Gophers quest for self-awareness and knowing their true identity. I also tried a few referencing Las Vegas institutions, everything from taking a bite out of UNLV (because of Tark the Shark of course, but would a Gopher bite even alter a jump shot?), attacking the Rebels with the ferocity of a white tiger (but given the Sigfried and Roy incident a few years ago, and recent events in San Francisco, it just seemed too soon), and neither fat Elvis or Wayne Newton conjure up any images that I would want to subject anyone to, so you get the cliche of a head line, and I sincerely apologize.

Last night the Gophers coasted to an 83-66 win over Kennesaw State in rather non-descript fashion. They jumped to a 21 point half time lead, and then concentrated more on making sure no one got hurt or exhausted. Dan Coleman continues to shoot well, and led the team with 24. Lawrence Westbrook added a carreer high 11, Damian Johnson keeps turning the ball over, and Spencer Tollackson can’t rebound. But given an intentional lack of intensity against a team who would be thrilled to crack the top 300 in the RPI, everything but the final score is generally meaningless.

In tonight’s game against UNLV, everything has meaning. It is the Gopher’s third and final “loseable” game of the nonconference schedule, against a Sweet 16 team from a year ago, in a hostile environment, on 24 hours rest. A win tonight against UNLV will be the most important non-conference road victory in a few years, and could catapult the Gophers into the top 25, and maybe, depending on how everything else works out, into the NCAA tournament in a couple months.

If this game was played at this time last year, the Gophers would have been thrilled to be within 30 points at half time. UNLV was well on its way to its best season in years, and the Gophers…well…remember that loss to Marist? But a new season brings lots of changes, and the prospects heading into this season were headed in opposite directions. UNLV lost 4 starters, all started more than 30 games, from a 30 win team. Wink Adams, the lone returning starter, averages 14 ppg and is the teams leading scorer. But even with the departures, this won’t be an easy win.

By all accounts, Adams is stellar perimeter defender with the potential to frustrate Gopher guards in the half court offense. Don’t be surprised if the Lawrences throw up some ill-advised shots, and if entry passes are tough to come by. Hopefully Minnesota learned how to exploit in your face perimeter defense after their immense struggles against Florida State. If they can’t handle UNLV’s quickness and can’t get the ball inside, the Gophers will struggle. UNLV also doesn’t beat themselves (only 11 turnover per game). But the Gophers are rolling, Dan Coleman has found himself, and won’t be intimidated by UNLV’s athleticism and hostile environment.

Prediction- 68-62 Gophers

In a season so far characterized by intense and pressuring defense, the Gophers showed they can score a little too. Dan Coleman scored a season high 22 including the thousandth point of his career and Blake Hoffarber added 21, 18 in the first half as the Gophers scored more than 90 points for the first time since 2005.

In an obvious attempt to get Coleman and fellow 6′9″ senior Spencer Tollacskon into the flow of the game, the Gophers deliberately went inside on the first several possessions. This strategy paid off as Tollackson and Coleman were unstoppable. The ease in which the Gophers scored was bad enough for CSU, but a terrible bout of the hacks compounded their difficulties.

Ronnie Aguilar, one of Colorado State’s two seven foot tall starting centers may be the worst basketball player to ever set foot on the raised floor at Williams Arena. So far this year we have seen a fair number of D-II farm boys, a mustached Puerto Rican who kicked his legs sideways whenever he ran, and everyone’s favorite goon from Central Michigan. These guys were bad, but they didn’t do too much to hurt their team. They didn’t, at least, make their team worse than it would have been with only four players on the court. As if he took these dismal displays of basketball as a challenge, Ronnie Aguilar committed two fouls in the first 45 seconds of the game and left the game. After a several minute break, he re-entered the game and fouled again within several seconds and sat out the remainder of the half. He lasted another 45 seconds in the second half before committing his fourth foul. Somehow, despite spending the last several minutes on the floor, he didn’t foul out. He also didn’t do much else. In fact, he was rarely within 5 feet of whomever he was “guarding” to avoid fouling out.

Because of the sheer dominance by the Gopher big men (Tollackson scored 16, Damian Johnson added 10, and Jonathan Williams scored two on a breakaway dunk) Blake Hoffarber found himself wide open behind the three point line. He made his first three pointer despite being fouled, and went on to make 5 more, all of them wide open. It was the most impressive shooting performance by a Gopher in the last several years. Tollackson was responsible for most of those open looks, and he finished the game with 5 assists.

As one would imagine, the 91 Gopher points were accompanied by accurate shooting. The Gophers made 54% of their field goals. Unfortunately, besides Hoffarber’s threes, the Gophers were dreadful from long range, shooting only 10-29 for the game and 4-16 in the second half.

In a game that they led by 23 at half time, there was simply no reason for 16 three point attempts in the second half. As I wrote in my preview for the UC-Riverside game, sometimes winning isn’t enough. Against bad teams when the score is all but decided before the ball is even tipped, it is more important to play in a way that will make the team better in the long run. The Gophers didn’t do that, and won’t be having much fun during their practices leading up to Wednesday game against South Dakota State. In addition to the bad shooting, the Gopher abandoned their inside game that had made them so successful in the first half. They also, for the first time this season, looked like the didn’t care about defense. This is especially disappointing considering their first half defensive performance brought the crowd to its feet several times, including the first standing ovation this season that didn’t take place during a time out. These lapses are understandable, but could become a much bigger concern against better teams. Colorado State was within 14 points towards the end of the second half.

I’m still amazed this team has improved so much that I am able to gripe about lazy defense during a blow out. The Barn continues to get louder and fuller, and should be in vintage form next month when the Big Ten season begins. I’ll still be thrilled with an NIT home game, but its getting more and more difficult to restrain loftier expectations.

Who did what?

• Dan Coleman did what he does best. He shot 10-14 from the floor, mostly mid range jumpers and layups, didn’t attempt a three point shot and added 11 rebounds. When Dan Coleman has struggled, he has been floating around the three point line, shooting out of his range and unable to create his shot. His five offensive rebounds last night clearly show that Coleman has realized that he is at his best when he is close to the basket.
• Jamal Abu-Shamala may be the biggest victim of Blake Hoffarber’s surprising freshman season. He played only 10 minutes, missed the only shot he attempted, and didn’t do much else.
• Spencer Tollackson dominated on the offensive end, and shut down Colorado State’s Stuart Creason. Inside is where he belongs, but he knocked down a three pointer within the context of the offense, and showed that he at least needs to be guarded a the top of the key. He added 5 assists, but still insists on full court passes that will eventually get one of his teammates killed. Any good quarterback knows not to lead a receiver down the middle of the field right into the path of an oncoming linebacker.
• Lawrence Westbrook scored five points, but played poorly on defense.
• Lawrence McKenzie played the point more than he has in any other game this season, and his offensive numbers suffered as he went 1-5 from the field with only 4 points. He did have 5 assists and two turnovers, but adds much more to the team when isn’t called on to handle the ball. With the apparently failure of the Kevin Peyton Project, Tubby Smith faces quite the challenge in deciding who should handle the ball and when.
• Damian Johnson score 10 points, including a few slashing dunks. For the first time this season, Tubby played Coleman and Johnson at the same time, and both seemed to benefit from the other’s athleticism.
• Jonathan Williams dribbled about 70 feet and dunked the basketball. This was the most frightening thing I have seen since Spencer Tollackson did the same thing a few weeks ago. Wait, seeing a point guard trying to get a lay up over Williams is even more frightening. He may decapitate someone on of these days. He didn’t last night, but did have 4 blocks.
• Kevin Peyton continues to get minutes, and continues to be afraid to shoot. Despite several wide open looks, he insists on passing up his shot. Last night he was 0-4 and missed a lay up.
• Al Nolen played another solid game and continues to be the teams only real point guard. He had 11 point, 5 assists, and only one turnover.
• Blake Hoffarber played a great first half and a horrible second half, scoring a career high 21. His emergence has opened up an inside-outside game that many teams will have a hard problem defending.
• Dare I say it: Ryan Saunders, modest suit.

Highlights from the Big Ten Network

The Gophers take on the Colorado State University Rams in their second straight game against green and gold wearing teams named after hoofed animals from the great plains. Saturday night’s game should go much the way of the NDSU game, except with higher expectation’s for the Gophers.

In what has become a bit of a theme for Gopher opponents this year, Colorado State ended last year looking to build off of a moderately successful season. The Rams finished the season 17-13, and won against Utah, Kansas State, and BYU. Last year’s Rams were led by Jason Smith, currently in the NBA, but returned 4 starters and expected to build off of what was, for Colorado State at least, a successful season. Jason Smith left just in time. Instead of returning 4 starters, the Rams only return one, along with only one reserve. Three players transferred, and one was kicked off the team after pointing a gun at a teammate’s head. And we thought the Gophers were responsible for strange scandals. The resulting departures have left a very depleted teams, as this years CSU basketball team is without 85 percent of their offense, 92 percent of their assists and 84 percent of their rebounding, which means to understand this year’s team, all we really have to look at is this year.

Outside the state of Alaska, Colorado State is not a very good basketball team. They won their first two exhibition games, and then did about as well as the guy from Grizzly Man against Montana, losing 75-39. For those who haven’t seen Grizzly Man, its the story of a guy who think all bears, regardless of whether they have large claws, big teeth, and can run 40 mph for short distances, are nice and cuddly, that is until they eat him alive. After that drubbing, they traveled to Alaska, where coincidentally Grizzly Man was filmed, and put together a nice run knocking off Oregon State, Tennessee State, and Portland State. Then they got on roller-coaster, getting blown out by Stanford, blowing out Arkansas-Pine Bluff, getting blown out by Northern Colorado (which has a basketball team. Who knew?) and beating Denver 44-40, which must have been painful to watch. To offer a bit of context, the lowest scoring Gopher game last year was their 49-40 loss to Michigan in the Big Ten tournament.

By all accounts, the Gophers should win big. They seemed to work out most of their kinks against NDSU, though with this group, there will always be room to improve. Dan Coleman seemed to remember that he is 6′9″ and had an impressive game, at least in the box score. Spencer Tollackson didn’t dominate but he was at least a factor. The Gopher guards got a good work out against NDSU and dominated. Saturday, the Gopher big men will face a very surmountable challenge.

CSU returns two 7-footers. Stuart Creason is averaging 12 points and 6 rebounds per game while reserve center Ronnie Aguilar has improved his scoring exponentially (from 2 points in 11 games to 2 ppg). At least he will be more formidable than an assistant coach waving a broom in front of the basket. The six new players (two are transfers and must sit out a season), as expected, provide most of the punch in the Rams line up. Marcus Walker and Willie Gardner, two JuCo transfers, are the teams two leading scorers. Walker scored 43 points against Tennessee State, but has since come down to earth and is averaging 15 ppg. Willie Gardner averages close to 13 ppg and leads the team in assists. It will be interesting to see how they handle the Gopher press. The rest of the Rams are freshman, who have never faced a crowd like the one at Williams Arena. Judging by the available tickets for the game, The Barn should be full. Because I like round numbers, I predict that the Gophers will win 80-60.

The Gophers should win big, and if they don’t it is a real cause for concern. So far Minnesota has faced a cupcake filled schedule, and have won big. The big wins against tough teams may be a year away. This year may be more defined by how the team wins and loses than who they win and lose against.