On Verge Of Embarassment, Gophers Survive

The only way to adequately describe how the Gophers beat Northwestern 55-52 Thursday afternoon in the Big Ten Tournament is to take a look two entirely different halves.

But before I break down what went so horribly wrong in the first half--which found the Gophers down 16 at one point--and what transpired to enable such a good comeback, I need to spend a minute praising Lawrence Westbrook.

The sophomore shooting guard, who has been playing in the shadow of the more experienced Lawrence McKenzie, took over in the second half at a time the Gophers desperately needed a go-to player. When the Gophers needed it most, Westbrook created his own shot. He rebounded and immediately pushed tempo. He hit from the outside once the Northwestern defenders starting flying by him, he pumped, hopped and hit a mid-range jumper. Heading into a likely NIT bid at some point, and more importantly next season, Westbrook needs to play with a scorers mindset all of the time. Westbrook put up a career-high 17 points. He's the reason the Gophers have a chance to beat Indiana on Friday.

Now, on to a tale of two halves.

First Half: The Gophers went into the locker room at halftime trailing 34-21. When the Gophers played their once tenacious man defense, the Northwestern back doors were devastatingly efficient. When the Gophers went to zone, much like against Illinois, the Gophers couldn't close out on shooters. The Gophers had nothing. No inside offense. No penetration. Only one-on-one and high screens. Our offense looked like an offense the girls team from Eastview, no, Chisago, might be working out the kinks on in an early season scrimmage in Cloquet.

Just for the record, this was just the ninth time this season Bill Carmody's bottom-feeding Wildcats went into the halftime locker room with a lead.

Things were so ugly that the benchwarmer Travis Busch made an appearance. Yes, it was that ugly. Complicating matters was an early ankle injury to Spencer Tollackson. Normally, this isn't a huge loss. But one advantage Minnesota had in two previous lopsided wins against Northwestern was height and an inside game. Without Tollackson, in the first half, the Gophers did nothing to exploit a still decided size advantage.

Obviously then, with Northwestern embarrassing the Gophers, the quite bored ESPN announcers began to talk about the dreaded Tubby Smith stare. Erin Andrews' presence was really the only upside in the first half, and she told us all about the vaunted stare. Said stare was in full effect.

I guess it worked.

Second Half: The Gophers came out in an extended and active 2-3 zone. Shots were contested now. The forwards attacked the glass for rebounds. And Northwestern was rushing it's offense. Instead of taking a good 20-30 seconds off the shot clock, the Wildcats were forced into tougher shots. And they actually started to miss.

On offense, the energy was now present. Cuts were crisp. Shot selection improved dramatically. Westbrook, for the first eight minutes or so of the half took over. He did everything the Gophers needed to get the Gophers back in the game. When he missed, Dan Coleman grabbed a key offensive rebound--and the Gophers during the second half had an entirely different sort of aggression on the offensive glass.

But as soon as Westbrook led the huge charge to get the game knotted at 42-42 with about 10 minutes to play, the Gophers, maybe exhausted from the furious comeback, went cold. Northwestern, still cold itself, pushed ahead to a 47-42 lead. As the clock ticked down, with about five minutes to play, the game resembled so many others that the Gophers had played in this year. In the past, the Gophers have fallen behind, busted their butts to claw back and then faded away. But this time the Gophers had enough moxie to finish the job.

Down five, the Gophers extended pressure full court. Northwestern started turning the ball over: 10 second counts, over and back. And with Northwestern back up one point in the last two minutes, Coleman picked off a lazy pass at the free throw line on defense and sprinted the length of the floor--pausing to pull up his shorts momentarily--and slammed the ball home.

The Wildcats had chances to win, but the Gophers now tenacious, arms-in-passing lanes, fast rotating defense pressured bad shots. And down the stretch Blake Hoffarber, who hit a timely three, pulled down an ever important offensive board.

During the second half the Gophers did almost everything right, everything they had to do to pull off the comeback: defensive pressure, turnovers, rebounding on both ends, a hot streak and some intensity that wasn't there to begin the game.

I wonder if the Tubby stare had anything to do with it.

Up Next: The Gophers face Indiana Friday night for the third time this season. Hopefully the Gophers take the attitude the played with in the second half into the game against the Hoosiers.

Gophers Take Care Of Lowly Northwestern

The Gophers did what they were supposed to do Wednesday night. In fact, they did what they had to do. The Gophers' upcoming slog of a schedule has been well chronicled, making it all that much more important that they dispatched the lowly Northwestern Wildcats in relatively convincing fashion during Tubby Smith's debut at Williams Arena.

From my vantage point--recliner, beer, DirecTV--Spencer Tollackson led this team against the Wildcats. His interior passing was crisp, effective and even fancy. In 27 minutes, Tollackson scored 14 points on 5-for-6 from the field (a big improvement for him) and contributed in other areas (four rebounds, three steals and two assists--a number that could have been higher had the recipients of his good interior looks converted). Tollackson also completely impressed with his ability to get out on perimeter shooters while rotating on defense. The boy was hustling.

We can write his performance off if we want because the Wildcats have very little height and the Gophers had a clear inside advantage. Still, this was Tollackson's best, most active game of the season and it was good to see this senior lead the way.

Fellow senior Dan Coleman also had a nice game. But Coleman has done this to us before. He continues to excel against inferior opponents and struggle against average to very good teams. He finished with a great line (19 points, 14 rebounds). Until Coleman proves he can be a difference maker against the best teams in the conference, I'm not going to give him large ovations for dominating the Northwestern's and North Dakota State's of the world. He'll have a chance again this Saturday when the Gophers travel to meet Geary Claxton and the Penn State Nittany Lions.

Against Northwestern, we saw the Gophers dominate in numerous aspects of the game. The Gophers forced the Wildcats into a season-high 19 turnovers. The Gophers won the war on the boards handily. Our pressure defense had an impact, and the Gophers' rotations on defense were very impressive.

Other thoughts on the Gophers' 82-63 win:

** Al Nolen is far and away the best defensive guard on the team. He impressed in the Michigan State game by frustrating Kalin Lucas. Against the Wildcats, Nolen worked in the second half to apply pressure at key times to cause turnovers that led to easy scores. He played 22 minutes Wednesday night (the most of any non starter) scoring 10 points with six assists to three turnovers. And according to the Gophers' PR folks, Nolen had three steals on the night and has had three or more steals in seven games this season. Nolen has 34 steals on the season, and seven in two Big Ten games. He's still slightly up-and-down, but the Gophers are at their best when he is on the floor causing havoc in the opponents' back court.

** There was some clamoring in the post below for Blake Hoffarber to replace Jamal Abu-Shamala in the starting lineup. Some also questioned the lack of second half minutes for the freshman of ESPY fame. It's easy to make the argument that he should start, or at the very least see an increase in minutes, when he shoots the lights out like he did in the first half. But I tend to like his offense coming off the bench. Last night's game is a prime example. The starters were a little flat coming out and NW jumped out to an early lead. Off the bench, Hoffarber provided the spark we needed. He's the go-to guy in the second group offensively. Put him with the starters to begin games and he'll get lost while we try to establish an inside presence or get Lawrence McKenzie going. More than anything else, I'd like to see Nolen replace Westbrook in the starting lineup.

** Kevin Payton played just four minutes, and honestly, I though they were fairly impressive four minutes. That said, it's good to see Tubby shortening his bench now that Big Ten play has begun. The BTN flashed an interesting statistic last night that indicated the 10 Gophers players had played in every game of the season. No other Big Ten team had more than eight players play in every contest. Similarly, Jon Williams only recorded seven minutes last night. Part of that was because Tollackson and Coleman were playing so well.

** Dan Coleman does deserve some recognition for becoming the 17th player in school history to record 1,000 points and 500 rebounds. Congratulations, Dan.

** Lawrence McKenzie's new role as distributor continued against Northwestern. He scored fewer points (five) than he had assists (six). I'm still not sure how I feel about this, but like I've said before I'm not sure Tubby Smith has much of a choice. Someone other than Nolen needs to put together quality minutes at the point. Interestingly, McKenzie led the team in minutes with 31.

UP Next: The Gophers head to face Penn State (10-4, 2-0), a team that has kicked off the Big Ten season with road wins at Illinois and Northwestern. The game Saturday at 1 p.m. central time will be the Nittany Lions' Big Ten home opener.

** This post was updated at 8:50 p.m. eastern time Thursday to accurately reflect the rebound total for Tollackson.

Preview: Northwestern at Minnesota

This might sound silly, considering it's just the second Big Ten game of the year, but Wednesday night's tilt with the lowly Northwestern Wildcats is a must-win for the Golden Gophers men's basketball team.

Consider that the Gophers (10-3, 0-1) will travel to Penn State this weekend to face the surprisingly strong Nittany Lions. After that, the Gophers' schedule gets absolutely brutal, with home games against the league's two top teams (Indiana and Michigan State). Then, the Gophers face another upper-echelon conference team when they travel to Ohio State. For all of the positivity after the 10-2 start, the Gophers could be underdogs in every game after the Northwestern match-up. If the Gophers don't beat Northwestern, they very well could 0-6 in Big Ten play by the time February rolls around.

But that's not going to happen, now is it!

The fact is, the Wildcats (5-6, 0-2) are simply the latest version of putrid purple basketball. Bill Carmody, now in his seventh season in Evanston, has just one winning season on his resume. I expected Carmody, a disciple of former Princeton coach Pete Carril, to have taken strides with the Northwestern program by now, but it simply hasn't been in the cards.

This year's Wildcats were setback in the early going when sophomore Kevin Coble left the team to take care of his ailing mother. In 2006-07, Coble, a 6'8" forward, led the Wildcats in scoring and rebounding. He missed the first nine Northwestern games before returning to his team for Big Ten action. Coble is an important figure for the Wildcats because without him, Carmody's squad relies heavily on its guard play. Three guards play heavily into Carmody's plans. Michael Thompson, a 5'10" freshman point guard, leads the Wildcats in minutes, scoring and assists. He's flanked on the perimeter by junior Craig Moore and senior Jason Okrzesik. All three guards are shooting 40 percent and above from the three point line, so the Gophers' perimeter defense, which for the most part has been sound this season, could be tested.

The Gophers should be able to score inside against the Wildcats and hold an advantage on the glass. This should be good news for Dan Coleman and Spencer Tollackson, who could both use a solid conference game to gain some confidence.

Aside from winning the war in the paint, here is what I are some more pregame thoughts on the Big Ten home opener:

** The Gophers can't look past Northwestern. After the hard-fought, encouraging loss at Michigan State, Tubby Smith's squad can't afford a letdown. Earlier in the season the Gophers might have looked past South Dakota State, and because of it the Jackrabbits were on the verge of stealing one in Williams Arena.

** Al Nolen and Lawrence McKenzie need to make sure the Gophers have solid possessions. In East Lansing, the Gophers went long stretches with less than stellar possessions. Both guards need to make good decisions.

** The Gophers played their best basketball Saturday night when Nolen and McKenzie were on the floor together. With our lack of depth, it is virtually impossible for Tubby to pair Nolen and McKenzie together all of the time. But every minute they are on the floor together benefits the Gophers.

** The second group not including Nolen--Blake Hoffarber, Damian Johnson, Jon Williams and Kevin Payton--need to hold their own when they are on the floor. If Tubby insists on his five-in, five-out strategy to begin games, the second group needs to find ways to score on offense.

** I'm going to watch Hoffarber closely. The freshman sharp-shooter was slightly under his average in minutes at Michigan State and was relatively quiet, scoring just five points while shooting 2-for-2 from the floor. The Gophers are going to need his offense in Big Ten play.

** One area where the Gophers need to be careful all season is foul trouble for our interior players. Against the Spartans, Dan Coleman picked up two quick fouls and found himself on the bench for much of the first half. When Coleman or Tollackson are in foul trouble this season, because of our lack of depth inside, the Gophers are going to struggle.

** I actually always enjoy watching Northwestern because they run a back-door heavy offense. And I imagine Tubby will have the Gophers ready for it. That said, I've seen the Gophers turn their back to the basketball on a few defensive possessions this season. They need to know where their man and the basketball is at all times.

Prediction: The Gophers should have this one handily. I expect the Williams Arena crowd to be the loudest it has been in some time. Tubby Smith and this team deserve that much after the great game in East Lansing. Gophers win 74-59.