A few of you may remember what can only be described, in the words of the kids these days, my “Epic Fail” of a Big Ten Preview last year. Not only did I begin my preview half way through the season, but I started with the worst teams first, and didn’t bother finishing it. While I was proud of what could only be described as the most in-depth preview of Northwestern and Penn State by a completely uninformed and disinterested (sorry fans of bad basketball teams named after large felines) blogger, it was not going to get the job done this year. So instead of an “Epic Fail,” I’m going for moderate success. I have scoured the Blogosphere to find as many team and conference previews as I could. They are organized by team, and the links go to various sites. As you’ll see, the vast majority of team previews are from bloggers who actually are knowledgeable about the teams of which they write. The internet is a big place, and I am sure there are other previews out there. Let me know in the comments what I missed and I will be happy to add them to the list.

Big Ten

College Hoops Net

Big Ten Geeks

College Fast Break

Storming the Floor

Rush the Court

Northwestern Wins

Illinois

Big Ten Geeks

Indiana

Inside the Hall via The Dagger

The Hoosier Report

Big Ten Geeks

Iowa

Black Hearts Gold Pants

Big Ten Geeks

Michigan

Maize ‘n’ Brew

MGOBLOG

Michigan Sports Center

UM hoops, really, just look at the whole site. He has been previewing the season for months.

Big Ten Geeks

Michigan State

Ballin is a Habit

Spartans Weblog

SpartyMSU

Big Ten Geeks

Minnesota

From the Barn via UM Hoops

The Daily Gopher’s Multi-part Preview

Down with Goldy

Hoopraker

Big Ten Geeks

Northwestern

Big Ten Geeks

Ohio State

Buckeye Banter

Eleven Warriors

Big Ten Geeks

Penn State

Black Shoe Diaries

Crispen and Cream

Happy Hour Valley Parts 1 and 2

Big Ten Geeks

Purdue

Ballin is a Habit

Boiled Sports

Off the Tracks Parts 1 and 2

Hoopraker

Big Ten Geeks

Fan House

Wisconsin

Ballin is a Habit

Hoops Marinara via UM Hoops

Big Ten Geeks

We all know what he can do against Northwestern. Now imagine what he could do in a tournament full of Northwestern level competition. Averaging 16 ppg over the first 7 games of the Jones Cup isn’t bad, especially for a kid who will be lucky to see 16 minutes in any game this coming year. Abu-Shamala is of course playing for the Jordanian National Team. In the championship game against Athletes in Action, which featured players from barely DI college teams, he scored 11 points.

And if you are desperate to watch a little basketball before the Olympics start up, the Internet does provide:

Jordan vs. Australia

No word on any Shane Heal or Luc Longely sightings.

Online Videos by Veoh.com
Online Videos by Veoh.comIn other Gopher News…

Royce White will play at Hopkins, if he doesn’t get expelled first. Trying to start a fight with a future teammate isn’t the best idea.

The rest of the Big Ten is really, really interested in the Gopher football team. At least someone is.

So much so that we are now a “rival” of Penn State. Yeah, it was news to me too. Too bad that North Dakota State is more of rival than Desperatetofitin Valley. Of course, that NDSU rivalry has more to do with Gopher ineptitude than geography or history.

Go outside…winter is on the way.

You wouldn’t know it by looking at Penn State’s record, but Minnesota’s shocking, come from behind victory at Happy Valley in the first week of the Big Ten season was as close as Minnesota has come to a quality victory. Back then, the Nittany Lions were the upstart team in the conference, with consecutive road wins and a dominant player that defied traditional positions and anyone trying to guard him.  His name is Gearry Claxton, and 7 minutes into his teams next game against Wisconsin, he tore up his knee. Since then Penn State’s record is what you would expect from a one man team without their one man. A once promising season has been turned upside down, and Penn State basketball fans will have to wait at least another year.

While Penn State’s 4-9 conference record isn’t exactly unexpected, the way they have played is. Many teams in their position would have given up by now. After all, their best player, best scorer, best rebounder, and by all accounts the heart and soul of the team is now more concerned with being able to play basketball again, let alone playing for his college team, but Penn State didn’t see this as a reason to quit. They led  Ohio State well into the second half at home, nearly won at Michigan (something Ohio State couldn’t do), beat Illinois, and shocked Michigan State in what may have been the biggest upset of the year in all of college basketball. The effort, the fight, everything good about a college basketball team is stil there, but without talent they can only take you so far.

Without Claxton, the Nittany Lions’ roster has been severely depleted, but the cupboard is not completely bare. Jamelle Cornley, like Claxton, defies categorization. At only 6′5″ but weighing 240 pounds, he can play inside and out. His 11 points and 6 rebounds per game lead active member of the team (Claxton led in both categories before his injury). Ironically, Cornley was finally recovering from a nagging injury when Claxton was lost. Talor Battle, a freshman point guard, has struggled with consistency like most first year players, but has season highs of 20 points and 5 assists. In the first match-up between Penn State and Minnesota he scored 19 points, but made a few bone headed mistakes that arguably cost his team the game.

Minnesota should win rather easily tomorrow. Unfortunately, other than a probable game against Northwestern or Penn State in the conference tournament, this may be Minnesota’s last chance for a win. Tomorrow’s game should be a welcome opportunity for the Gophers to work out their rotation for the rest of the season, and possibly try out a few new offensive and defensive sets at game speed. Such opportunities are rare, especially in the Big Ten, and Minnesota would wise to use the game against Penn State to learn and improve, and not just run away with an easy win.

Prediction: Minnesota 80 - Penn State 55

For more about Penn State Basketball, and possibly a game preview, check out Happy Valley Hoops and  Penn State Hoops.

If you have any thoughts about the game or pertinent links, by all means share them in the comments.

Six minutes into the second half it all began to fall apart. A missed lay up, a bad pass, bad shot selection, and seemingly every time down the court, Danny Morrissey would hit a wide open three pointer. What had been a three point Penn State half time lead had quickly ballooned into a 16 point blow out, and there was a real danger it would get much, much worse. Most frustrating was that the Nittany Lions hadn’t done anything spectacular. The Gophers were simply beating themselves against a beatable team. But freshman will be freshman, at least for Penn State.

In an attempt to place the final nail in the coffin way to early in the game, Penn State freshman guard Talor Battle badly missed a wide open dunk (he missed it about a foot to the right, something I haven’t seen before). It was as if the missed dunk were a signal to Minnesota’s talented freshman duo Al Nolen and Blake Hoffarber to not play like that. Suddenly Hoffarber couldn’t miss. Whether wide open, with a player in his face, or falling out of bounds, Blake Hoffarber single handedly erased 10 points to cut the Gophers within six. Damian Johnson added a wide open from the right wing to cut the game to one. Following several made free throws by seniors Spencer Tollackson and and Dan Coleman, a lay up and a three pointer by Penn State, and one of several nice assists from Nolen to Tollackson, Lawrence McKenzie hit a gutty long three pointer despite an injured hand to give the Gophers a 73-72 lead.Penn State tied the game on a Jamelle Corley free throw, and had several chances to take the lead.

Al Nolen was only eight years old in 1997 when the Gophers beat Illinois to win the Big Ten title in the season that never happened. In a game much like today’s, Illiois star point guard Kiwane Garris had a chance to beat the Gophers with the clock winding down, but Eric Harris flew in from nowhere to steal the ball and secure a win. I don’t know if Nolen was watching the Gophers that day, but in an encyclopedia of Gopher basketball, he should be listed right after Harris.

With six seconds left, the game tied, and Minnesota fans everywhere expecting a spectacularly heartbreaking loss to which we have all grown accustomed, Nolen jumped into the passing lane, stole the ball, drew an intentional foul, and most importantly made 3-4 free throws in the last five seconds of the game to secure an amazing come from behind victory. Every college basketball team could a lot worse than have at least one coach’s son in the back court. Instincts and awareness like Nolen displayed can not be taught.

Hoffarber and Nolen will get the headlines, and they certainly deserve them, but the seniors stepped up too. In addition to his gutty three pointer near the end of the game, Lawrence McKenzie made four other shots, and score 12 points on 5-8 shooting. Spencer Tollackson combined his trademark flailing with nice fall away jump-shots and made all five free throw attempts to finish with a team high 19 points. Dan Coleman’s shot wasn’t there, but he worked hard and got to the free throw line, finishing with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Penn State, on the other hand, game the game away. Despite a huge foul disparity which resulted in every Gopher starter finishing the game with four fouls, Penn State could neither foul out a Gopher or make an important free throw. The Nittany Lions shot 17-36 from the line, and were much worse in the second half. They also had 10 offensive rebounds (compared to the Gopher’s 4) and out rebounded Minnesota by 8, but often could not convert these many extra opportunities into points.

The Gophers needed a win, not only for their NCAA tournament resume, but also for momentum going into home games against Indiana and Michigan State. Thanks to a great team effort from both young and old, the Gophers escaped Happy Valley with both.

Who did what:

• Dan Coleman led the team in rebounds and minutes played. For the first time this season, Coleman stepped up in an important game. His stats might not be impressive, but everything else he did was.
• Damian Johnson didn’t stuff the stat sheet as much as usual, but he did stuff a Penn State three point attempt and added one of his own late in the game.
• Spencer Tollackson made all his free throws. The Gophers will have a hard time winning when Tollackson struggles from the line, but that was not the case today.
• Lawrence McKenzie should hurt his hand every week.
• Lawrence Westbrook played exceptional defense, didn’t turn the ball over and had three assists. His transition from a “look at me” high school scoring sensation to a reliable team player is a testament to Tubby Smith’s coaching.
• Al Nolen was his usual steady self. Despite a season high 5 turnovers, he had six points, seven assists, and three steals. He also reinforced that he is the best clutch free throw shooter that the Gophers have. And he’s a freshman!
• Kevin Payton didn’t do anything to hurt the team.
• Neither did Jonathan Williams.
• Give Blake the ball. Give him the damn ball. He had 19 points on 6-11 shooting, and played the most of any Gopher guard besides Nolen.
• Jamal Abu-Shamala had no stats of consequence in limited action due to an injured hip.
• Does anyone know if Ryan Saunders is still alive?

Highlights from the Big Ten Network (now embedded!)

If you frequent this site and happen to have read my preview of Penn State, you may have noticed that the post was a bit schizophrenic. For several paragraphs I wrote glowingly (or as glowingly as possible for a Penn State basketball team), but when it came to actually predicting the outcomes of their Big Ten games, I predicted they would only go 4-14. So what gives?

I knew the Big Ten was down, and I knew Penn State was…up? But when it came to predicting the games, I just didn’t see where Penn State would be able to show their improvement. Illinois took care of that for me, and Penn State is on their way to over achieving. That’s right, I was wrong.

I still think Penn State’s 10-4 is a bit misleading, both because they haven’t really beaten anyone (sorry Illinois), but their losses, particularly those in the Old Spice Classic that at first glance are particularly disheartening, may have been more of product of second leading scorer and rebounder Jamelle Cornley’s injury than a sign that Penn State should disband their basketball program.

Minnesota comes into today’s game also looking to show that their 11-3 record is worth paying attention to. They haven’t beaten anyone worth mentioning, and two of their three losses were dreadful. However, just one weak ago, an overmatched Minnesota team went into East Lansing and almost pulled off what would have been one of the most impressive wins in Tubby Smith’s career, and Minnesota didn’t even play that well.

For those with the Big Ten network, or for people who don’t mind spending an afternoon in a bar, this should be a fun game. Dan Coleman for the Gophers finally had a break out game, and Geary Claxton is having another break out season. Al Nolen and Stanley Pringle will give each other fits. Blake Hoffarber and Danny Morrissey can both knock down a shot from anywhere on their half of the court. Its a shame that less than 8,000 people are expected to see the game in person. Neither Penn State or Minnesota did anything at all last year, and it is still very early in the Big Ten season, but it is possible that this game could decide whether Minnesota or Penn State will be dancing in March.

Prediction: 66-65 Minnesota