The Lawrence McKenzie Show

That's what it was Thursday night in Williams Arena. Senior Lawrence McKenzie put up a career-high 26 timely points to carry the Gophers past a Michigan Wolverines team that seems to be gaining confidence as the season drags on.

Instead of doing a blow by blow recap of last night's game, I want to focus solely on McKenzie. He pushed the Gophers out to a quick first half lead with his hot shooting from beyond the arc. He had nine points in the first five or six minutes. His offense came and went for the middle portion of the game, as the Wolverines fought their way to a lead midway through the second half. But then, showing the offensive punch we all knew he had, McKenzie took over towards the end as he did shortly after the opening tip.

He finished with an incredible line. He was 9-14 from the floor including 7-11 from three point land. The offensive onslaught from McKenzie, in my mind, can be at least partially explained because he is now reverting back into the role of a shooting guard. He started in the backcourt alongside Al Nolen. And only for small portions of the game was McKenzie charged with being the floor leader, which it is so incredibly clear isn't his strength.

It's tough to blame Tubby Smith or anyone else for the situation McKenzie was thrust into this season. The team only has one true point guard in Nolen, an exciting but still unpolished true freshman. So, Tubby began the season by trying to get McKenzie comfortable playing the point. It never happened, and not only was McKenzie prone to turning the ball over, but his offense disappeared on most nights.

Tubby didn't really have any other option to start the season. Nolen wasn't ready to play 25-30 minutes per game as he is now. The only other point guard options were Lawrence Westbrook (that's scary) and Kevin Payton (yikes). So McKenzie, playing for his fourth coach during his college career, was forced to completely reinvent himself. That plan didn't work out, at least not the way I imagine Tubby envisioned it.

Now, McKenzie can play a handful of minutes at the point with some confidence. But it is so incredibly clear that he is the best scoring option on this team. To lose that offense because McKenzie is concentrating on protecting the ball, setting up the offense or getting Spencer Tollackson involved was unfortunate.

Against the Wolverines, McKenzie led the Gophers to a 69-60 win. It's really too bad the dearth of point guards on this roster forced McKenzie to put that offense on the shelf for much of the season.

UP Next: The Gophers host Penn State this weekend, another highly winnable game that should get the Gophers back to .500 (7-7) in the conference. Penn State will likely come in with a chip on their shoulder after the amazing comeback the Gophers made in Happy Valley earlier this season.

Minnesota at Michigan First Look

It would be easy to think, now that the grueling portion of Minnesota's schedule is in the rear-view mirror, that Tubby Smith's Gophers will get back to beating up on inferior competition.

Don't bet your house on it.

Beginning Thursday night in Ann Arbor, the Gophers can begin to claw themselves out of the deep hole that they dug during a three-game stretch that, had balls bounced differently, or free throws fallen instead of clanked. But no Big Ten win, especially a road win, is going to be handed over to the Golden Gophers. Should the Gophers look past a Wolverines team that has lost to the likes of Western Kentucky, Harvard and Central Michigan, the Gophers' hopes of finishing at, near or above .500 in conference play will not be realized.

Who Are The Wolverines?:

When John Beilein took over for Tommy Amaker last off season, he surely knew it could take time to rebuild the once-proud Michigan basketball program. With a young team (that includes just two seniors who aren't difference makers) Beilein has suffered through a 5-15 start to the season.

Not surprisingly, the Wolverines are led by two underclassmen--freshman guard Manny Harris and sophomore forward DeShawn Sims. Harris has been your classic shoot-first freshman guard. He's racked up the assists and turnovers (1/1.1), but also leads the team in scoring with 16.2 per contest. Sims, meanwhile, has matured in his second year. His minutes have jumped along with his production. He leads the Wolverines in rebounding and in is a legitimate threat from beyond the arc.

While Harris and Sims are a decent one-two punch, production for the Wolverines drops off substantially after that. Ekpe Udoh is a still-intriguing 6-10 sophomore center who is still very raw, but can alter countless shots with his length in the paint. Kevin Grady is, perhaps, Michigan's point guard of the future, but Grady has seen his playing time dwindle as conference play drags on.

Those four players--Udoh, Grady, Harris and Sims--should give you a sense of what the Wolverines are: A team currently without an identity.

Five Keys For The Gophers:

1.) Create turnovers. If experienced teams like Michigan State will turn the ball over against the pressure defense, the Wolverines should be perfect victims.
2.) Attack the basket.
3.) Get out to an early lead. No sense giving a young team any confidence at home.
4.) Score in transition. The Gophers need easy baskets to win.
5.) Forget about the three game slide.

Reason For Optimism: All season, the Gophers have been able to beat the teams they should beat. This game should be no different. Michigan might be the worst team in the conference other than Northwestern.

Reason For Pessimism: The Gophers haven't put together a full 40 minutes all season. Add to that the fatigue that comes along with a three game slide and a likely yawn-inspiring road environment, and the Gophers could come out flat.

Take Five: The next five games for the Gophers are all must wins if the Gophers want to still cling to NCAA hopes. After Thursday night, the Gophers host Bucky the Badger, travel to Northwestern before hosting Iowa and Illinois. Sweeping all five might allow us to dream about a Big Ten Tournament run and a long shot at the NCAAs.

Key Player: Al Nolen. The Gophers have been at their best this season when he has been a competent floor leader. We can withstand occasional mishaps, but not the lengthy stretches of poor play he put together at Ohio State.

Prediction: I'm so very tempted to pick the Wolverines, but they are so bad, I mean really, really not good at all, that I just must pick the Gophers. The Wolverines have beaten Radford, Brown, Eastern Washington, Oakland and Northwestern. The Gophers won't be added to that list, but it will be closer than you expect. Minnesota 74, Michigan 65.

PJS Note: I'll be in meetings all day tomorrow so the typical Game Day Prep will not make an appearance before the Michigan game.

Sensationalism Saturday, Or Why Kirk Herbstreit Should Shut His Mouth

On a day when the crazy college football season should have taken center stage, some goof named Kirk Herbstreit stole the thunder from Oklahoma, Pittsburgh, LSU and others.

And since ESPN likes to market every Saturday during the college football and basketball season with a ridiculous name, I decided I'd lend a hand to the geniuses in Bristol, Conn. and name this past Saturday for them: Sensationalism Saturday. Beacuse that's what reporting is about at the 4-letter. It's about Internet hits and clicks. It's about gossip, not actual reporting.

The latest display of ESPN's tacky journalism began early Saturday morning on College GameDay, when color commentator and college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit decided to offer his best John Clayton imitation. Herbstreit cited a "source," who may or may not be close to the situation, who had apparently told him that Les Miles would be bolting from his position at LSU to take a job at his alma mater in Ann Arbor. Shortly thereafter, ESPN had a story up on its Web site. Miles was on his way to Michigan, ESPN was reporting just hours before LSU was to meet Tennessee in the SEC title game. Meanwhile, eager Michigan bloggers began sending readers over to ESPN to read the good or bad news, depending on their perspective.

But it quickly became clear that Herbstreit's reporting was shoddy. Other reports trickled out that indictaed Miles was going to have a presser with his LSU bosses and announce his plans to stay in Louisiana. Here's the text of Miles' brief meeting with the press:

There was misinformation on ESPN and I think it’s imperative that I straighten it out. I’m the head coach at LSU, I will be the head coach at LSU, I have no interest in talking to anyone else. I have a championship game to play and I’m excited about the opportunity of my damn strong football team to play in it. And that’s really all I’d like to say. It’s unfortunate I had to address my team with this information this morning. With that being done, I think we’ll be ready to play. There will be no questions for me; I represent me in this issue, please ask me after. I’m busy. Thank you very much, and have a great day.

Miles was pissed. He had a right to be. I bolded the first line for emphasis because on at least one replay of the presser I saw on the 4-letter, the network decided to leave that intro out. But it's the end of Miles' statement that should bother Herbstreit going forward. The mark of any good journalist is to check his information. In this situation, there are any number of reasons why someone would want to leak misinformation about Miles. Perhaps someone from Michigan wanted this story out there to ruin Miles' relationship with his current employer. Who knows? Perhaps Miles leaked it through someone else as a way to pressure LSU to ante-up. We might never know. But if Herbstreit is going to pretend he's a reporter, he at least needs to learn that people have motives from time to time when they decide they want to leak information 'off the record.'

And that's exactly the reason why Herbstreit should have checked his information with an authority, like Les Miles for instance. Because of Herbstreit's arrogant reporting, Miles was forced to address his team (again, before the SEC Championship game) about his fate as coach.

My question is, couldn't this wait? I try to understand the landscape of the modern media. Videos go viral in minutes. News breaks and it's hyperlinked around the globe as quick as someone can make something up. And it's not just Herbstreit. This week, Buster Olney pulled the same crap regarding Johan Santana and the ongoing trade talks between Minnesota and Boston. Olney didn't go as far as Herbstreit, but he implied that a trade was imminent. The result? Links on Minnesota message boards to Olney's story that turned out to be bogus, or at least premature.

Herbstreit took a few moments Saturday night while he was calling the Missouri-Oklahoma game to explain the Miles incident. He didn't offer an apology. He didn't retract his reporting or offer to correct it. In fact, he implied that Miles may well still be on his way to Ann Arbor. Saying that, now with a prime time audience during a game with national title implications, Herbstreit has once again put the onus back on Miles to make another denial. And who knows? Miles could very well bolt. Stranger things have happened.

But wouldn't it all be a lot easier if Herbstreit or other ESPN hacks could wait until they have something solid to report? Here's a good ground rule: If kids' emotions are in play, say like on a day they are playing for a championship, maybe sensational, scoop-oriented reporting can wait for 12 hours until what really matters--the game--is over.

And people think they can't trust what they read on the blogs ...