Minnesota Team Report

GETTING INSIDE

   Not so long ago, The Barn was a mausoleum. The Gophers couldn’t win games and couldn’t lure their hard-core fan base inside Williams Arena.

Now, as Tubby Smith enters his third season at Minnesota, The Barn is the most exciting place in the Twin Cities (non-Adrian Peterson division).

The Gophers start the year at the program’s highest point since the Clem Haskins era was not yet between the NCAA’s crosshairs. Minnesota welcomes back its top nine scorers from last season’s 22-win team that earned the school’s first NCAA bid since 2005. Then Tubby added four premier recruits, at least three of whom should jump into the Gophers’ rotation right away.

Power forward Royce White, a Minneapolis native, and small forward Rodney Williams ranked among the nation’s Top 50 recruits in the Class of 2009. Junior Trevor Mbakwe was a Top 100 recruit when he spurned the Gophers to go to Marquette in 2006, but now he’s back in town (albeit facing a felony assault charge from his season at Miami Dade JC). Point guard Justin Combs can spell third-year regular Al Nolen at the point.

In short, Minnesota’s Big Ten-best depth should allow the Gophers to play the same way as last season—when 11 guys averaged at least 11 minutes per game. The change this year? Every spot on the roster is either more experienced or more talented—or both. Look for big bumps from the touted sophomore class, which features center Ralph Sampson III (6.3 ppg), center Colton Iverson (5.4 ppg) and guard Devoe Joseph (5.0 ppg). Joseph, in fact, might be too good to keep out of the starting lineup. That would mean the Gophers are so strong, Lawrence Westbrook might come off the bench. He merely led the Gophers in scoring last year (12.6 ppg) as well as pressure-packed heroics.

Nolen, the only true non-freshman point guard on the roster, could be the key to Minnesota’s season. While he ran the team solidly and handed out 143 assists with just 57 turnovers—the Big Ten’s best ratio—he made just 34 percent of his shots and just 29 percent from beyond the arc.

NOTES, QUOTES

  —Senior F Damian Johnson could be the best player whose name you’ve never heard. Because the long-armed 6-foot-7 senior from Thibodaux, La., averaged just 26.7 minutes per game on the Gophers’ deep squad, he doesn’t quite rack up big numbers compared to other Big Ten big dogs. But he ranked among the team’s top two in the following categories with these averages: 9.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.0 blocks, 1.9 steals and 1.6 assists per game.

• Minnesota led the Big Ten last year in blocked shots (6.1 blocks per game) and steals (8.3 steals per game). The Gophers could repeat that unlikely combo as they retained all of their top defensive players while adding athleticism to their roster.

• The Gophers are the Big Ten’s only team to retain as many as its top nine scorers. Michigan comes closest with its top five scorers returning. Iowa and Wisconsin are the league’s only schools that don’t welcome back their top scorer.

   LAST YEAR: 22-11 overall, 9-9 in the Big Ten; lost in first round of the NCAA Tournament.

   HEAD COACH: Tubby Smith (career 429-170); 3rd year at Minnesota (42-25).

   QUOTE TO NOTE: “My expectations are improvement and for us to be better. So, yes, the bar is set higher.”—Minnesota coach Tubby Smith to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL

   SCOUTING THE NEWCOMERS: Minnesota’s expectations are heightened in large part due to its four new players. Freshman forward Royce White is the Big Ten’s top freshman according to the Recruiting Services Consensus Index, which ranked the 6-foot-8, 240-pound power forward as the nation’s No. 31 recruit. Small forward Rodney Williams ranked No. 46 on the same list. Marquette transfer Trevor Mbakwe piled up 16 points and 13 rebounds per night in junior college last season, so he should be an immediate contributor as well if his legal troubles get sorted out (see below). Freshman guard Justin Cobbs, a versatile player, should fit in the backcourt mix right away.

   KEY EARLY-SEASON GAMES: Minnesota built its confidence last year with a lot of winnable games at Williams Arena and a few intriguing challenges mixed in. That seems to be the formula again this year as the Gophers have 8 of their 12 pre-conference games at home. Their biggest tests will come at the 76 Classic in Anaheim, Calif., where they’ll meet Butler in the opening round (Nov. 26) and either UCLA or Portland the next night. The ACC-Big Ten Challenge sends them to Miami on Dec. 2.

   PROGRAM DIRECTION: Three years ago, when Dan Monson was fired early in the season and Jim Molinari had to guide the program the rest of the way on an interim basis, who could have guessed Minnesota would be in such good shape today? The Gophers made the NCAA Tournament last season for just the second time in 10 years, but they look like they’re close to making March Madness an annual celebration in Minneapolis.

   PROBABLE STARTING LINEUP: PG Al Nolen, SG Lawrence Westbrook, SF Damian Johnson, PF Royce White, C Ralph Sampson III.

   ROSTER REPORT:

• Junior PF Trevor Mbakwe has been allowed to practice, but not play, due to a pending felony assault charge in Florida. He’s supposed to stand trial in December, while Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he plans to rule on Mbakwe’s playing status prior to the Nov. 5 exhibition opener.

• F Rodney Williams didn’t clear all of the necessary academic hurdles until July. Due in part to that struggle, Tubby Smith suggested to the Star Tribune that the Top 50 recruit might redshirt this season.

   —Senior guards-to-be Travis Busch and Kevin Payton transferred after last season, in part because playing time and scholarship aid became too much of a premium. Busch moved on to Colorado State.