On Wednesday, as the team piled on in
to the New York Athletic Club for practice, I thought to myself “hey, this is
the last practice of the season, and everybody knows it. This, for sure, is the
last time Stanford men’s basketball will practice in the 2011-12
campaign.”
While more teams can make this
statement than those teams that win postseason tournaments or have played so
poorly that they won’t make their conference tournament or they are a DI-indy
school that is S.O.L. for any sort of postseason play, it’s still a unique
feeling for a middle-of-the-pack one-percenter conference team. One I never felt
as a manager in my four years; one no Stanford squad has experienced since 1993
(no conference tourney back then for the 7-23 Farm Boys).
That’s what playing in a championship
game means, and later today, the Stanford Cardinal will square off with the
Minnesota Golden Gophers at the self-proclaimed most famous arena in the world
for the NIT Championship and a chance to add “2012” next to “1991” on the banner
hanging from the rafters inside The House That Roscoe
Built.
So what do we know about Minnesota?
Here’s a primer:
Minnesota - The
Program
Fifteen to 20 years ago, Minnesota
Golden Gopher basketball was a power. After winning the school’s first NIT
Championship in 1993 with a win over Georgetown in the finals, Clem Haskins led
the Gophers to four straight NCAA tournament appearances, culminating in a trip
to the Final Four. Minnesota would not make it back to the NCAA tournament in
1998, but they took home the granddaddy consolation prize of ‘em all again by
knocking off Penn State in the NIT title game. This would propel Minnesota to a
#7 seed for next year’s NCAA tournament, as they were set to take on
Gonzaga…
…and then George Dohrmann, the man who wrote Play
Their Hearts Out and the “Not the UCLA Way” article for Sports Illustrated,
broke the news that a former basketball office manager had written hundreds of
papers for multiple players, including four who were currently on the team. As a
result, those four guys were suspended for the Gonzaga game, the Gophers lost,
an NCAA investigation ensued, Clem Haskins was slapped with a show-cause, the
Gophers were given four years of probation, and boom went the dynamite on the
Minnesota basketball program. According to the NCAA, everything I wrote about in
the paragraph above didn’t officially happen.
But, they still do have one legitimate
NIT banner, and they for real-deal-Holyfield almost made the Final Four back in
1990, losing to Georgia Tech 93-91 in the Elite Eight.
More than that, though, the days of
academic fraud are well behind Minnesota, as the next two full-time head coaches
- Dan Monson and Tubby Smith - are some of the most respected men in the
business. Monson only took the Gophers to one Big Dance, but he was credited
with cleaning up the program big time. Then came Tubby Smith, fresh off the most
successful stint ever at a school and still be ushered out of the place at
Kentucky (only in Lexington can you be essentially sent packing after ten
straight 22-plus win seasons, an NCAA title, three Elite 8s, two Sweet 16s, and
ten NCAA tournament appearances in ten seasons, never losing in the first round.
Good thing they got Gillespie to replace him…). All he did was take a school
that went 8-22 the year before and send them to the NIT and two straight NCAA
tournament appearances. I guess “the team from the SEC” has its guy now with
Calipari, but Tubby didn’t get nearly the amount of respect from the Lexington
folks he deserved.
Times have gotten a little leaner in
Minneapolis as of late, with no NCAA bids the last two years and a slew (and by
slew, I mean three) of guys transferring out west: Colorado State’s Colton
Iverson and two of the Pac-12’s better players this year in Oregon’s Devoe Joseph and Cal’s Justin Cobbs.
Minnesota - The 2011-12
Edition
You will basically need to knock down
Jim Delany’s door to figure out how much “official” pre-season hype the Golden
Gophers had entering this season following a 17-14, 6-12 campaign, a year in
which Minnesota started off on fire, beating #8 North Carolina in the preseason
and being ranked for most of the year before spiraling into mediocrity to
conclude the season with six straight losses and ten of 11 overall. That’s
because the Big Ten only released who finished in the top three in the preseason
poll.
But that same Big Ten release will
tell also tell you that there was at least some hype surrounding the team,
thanks to power forward Trevor Mbakwe, a fifth-year senior who was selected to
the preseason All-Big Ten team alongside Sullinger, Draymond Green, Robbie Hummel and Jordan Taylor. And through six games, that pre-season label was
warranted, as Mbakwe was averaging a near-double-double with 14 points and nine
rebounds per contest.
Then came the seventh game of the
season, the Old Spice Classic Final against Dayton. In the second half of that
one, Trevor tore his ACL, and so went the Gophers’ NCAA hopes. But I will now
pull out the most used sports cliché of all time when a star player goes down by
saying the Gophers continued to fight hard, posting six wins in the toughest
conference in college basketball this year and losing another three games in
overtime (with their win over Washington on Tuesday night, the Gophers have
played six overtime games this year). If it weren’t for two losing streaks that
lasted four and six games in conference, the Gophers could have been a
tournament team.
But lose four to start Big Ten play
they did, and after winning five of seven, losing six straight they did before
beating Nebraska in the regular season finale. They then essentially knocked
Northwestern out of the NCAA tournament with an overtime victory in the first
round of the Big Ten Tournament before losing to Michigan in overtime in the
quarterfinals, setting up their NIT run.
Minnesota was probably on as many pins
and needles as I was heading into the NIT selection show - would a team that
lost two-thirds of its conference games be considered good enough to earn a spot
in the Real Field of 32? Of course, the answer was yes, otherwise I wouldn’t be
previewing these dudes. They first faced off against sneaky-good La Salle in the
first round of the NIT, beating the A10 squad 70-61 in Explorerville. Despite
shooting 1-11 from downtown, the Golden Gophers were 52 percent from the field
overall and outrebounded the Explorers 32-23. It was a close game for most of
the way, with La Salle holding an advantage as late as midway through the second
half, but the Explorers were held to just four points in the final 6:43 to lose
contact with the visiting squad.
Then it was time for the Golden
Gophers to take their talents to South Beach, as Minnesota shot the absolute
crap out of the ball - 58 percent for the game, 6-13 from three, en route to a
78-60 rout of the No. 2 seed Miami Hurricanes. Unlike the La Salle game, the
Miami one was never close as the lead for Minnesota was in single digits only
once in the second half with the Gophers expanding their lead to as much as
22.
All Minnesota had to do next was beat
a Middle Tennessee State team that made noise in November by crushing the UCLA
Bruins by 20 in Los Angeles in its native Murfreesboro. A Rodney Williams layup
with 16:44 to play in the second half gave Minnesota the lead for good, but the
Blue Raiders would make the Gophers earn it, keeping it around two possessions
for the rest of the game and cutting it to a deuce with seven seconds to play.
But in one of the most dumb-unluck plays of all time, MTSU’s Laron Dendy
accidentally touched the ball in the in-bounder’s hands as he was waving his
arms to provide pressure on the passer. That’s a technical foul, and Minnesota
iced the game with four free throws, becoming the second team of the 2012 NIT to
advance to New York City after playing three road games.
Minnesota - The Washington
Game
This was Tubbyball at its finest.
Minnesota completely flustered Washington in its half-court offensive sets and
held the Huskies to without a field goal for the first three minutes of the game
and, if it weren’t for a Darnell Gant buzzer-beater, would have held the Dawgs
to 23 first half points and nine first-half field goals.
Lorenzo Romar said his guys played
more like a team in the second half, but they were rarely ever able to get into
the open court. In fact, Washington was held to two fast break points for the
whole game, something that rarely ever happens (strangely enough, Utah held
U-Dub scoreless in that category in Salt Lake City in early January in a
near-upset). Minnesota really had Washington searching offensively; Tony Wroten
looked absolutely silly out there trying to go one on five and having almost
zero success, Abdul Gaddy had some very questionable quick three attempts off
offensive rebounds, and C.J. Wilcox was forced to try to create his own shot -
something he can do, but he’s much more of a rhythm
shooter.
Eventually, Washington did get back
into it. Down eight coming out of the under-four timeout in the second half,
U-Dub tallied off eight straight points to send the game into OT, none more
important than C.J. Wilcox stealing a Joe Coleman pass intended for Andre Hollins and laying it in with 16 seconds to play. Tony Wroten damn near fouled
Andre Hollins and his game-winning attempt in regulation, then Wroten damn near
won the thing with a 40-foot shot that just rimmed out as time
expired.
Washington appeared to have all the
momentum going into OT, but Tubbyball prevailed again with its lockdown,
half-court man defense that forced Washington into more
Tupac-Me-Against-the-World basketball, as the Huskies had only 11 assists on 26
made buckets. Andre and Austin Hollins combined for all seven Gopher points in
the extra cinco minutos, and Minnesota survived a three-quarter court heave at
the buzzer to advance to the finals with a 68-67 victory in
overtime.
Minnesota - The Starting
Five
You’ll see that everyone who is
currently starting will be back, plus Mbakwe was just granted a sixth year of
eligibility, so this team will have plenty of returning firepower to contend in
the Big Ten next season.
·
Joe Coleman (#11, 6-4, 200-lb freshman guard) -
Part of a very young group on the perimeter for Tubby Smith, Coleman was the No.
92 recruit of his class. He has
started every game since their Michigan State tilt on Feb. 22 and has shot it
well in limited attempts ever since - 16-27 in his starts from late February
leading up to the Washington game. He struggled a decent bit in the semifinals,
shooting just 2-9 from the floor and throwing the bad pass that led to overtime,
but he also contributed four rebounds, three assists, and three
blocks.
·
Rodney Williams (#33, 6-7, 205-lb Junior F) - This is
the guy who has taken Mbakwe’s spot, and it really has been a better fit for
Rodney on the court. He was a center in high school who switched to small
forward his first two years at Minnesota. Once Trevor went down, Rodney became
the new starting “4” for Tubby Smith, which Tubby says is a more natural for him
because he can use his athleticism in the paint to his advantage against bigger
dudes. The stats show he leads the team with 12.2 pts, 5.6 boards, 1.4 blocks,
and 1.3 steals to go along with his 1.7 assists. He had a huge lefty take in the
game against Washington late in the second half. Despite all this, Tubby told me
he expects more from his junior forward.
·
Andre Hollins (#1, 6-1, 200-lb Freshman PG) - The
man who lost out in the Class of 2011 Scholarship Sweepstakes on the campus of
Stanford University, Andre was the No. 77 recruit in his class. Would have been
really nice to see he and Chasson Randle in the same backcourt as this guy is a
game-changer; great penetrator, and can really score it. He looked like a
magician at times last night, taking it to the hoop to put Minnesota up three
with 23 seconds to go in overtime, a drive in which he threw it up over Darnell
Gant and Terrence Ross while falling away from the hoop. He got some bumps and bruises along the
way (missing a game against Saint Peter’s and only playing six and nine minutes
against Indiana and Northwestern, respectively), but he has really turned it up
in the postseason, averaging 23 ppg in the Big Ten Tourney and 17.8 ppg in the
four NIT games.
·
Austin Hollins (#20, 6-4, 185-lb sophomore guard) -
He is not related to Andre, but Austin is the son of Lionel Hollins, the head
coach of the Memphis Grizzlies. He was a big factor for Tubby in the win over La
Salle in the first round, scoring 16 points against the Explorers. Not counting
Mbakwe, Austin is the third-leading scorer on Minnesota at 9.1 ppg and has also
made the most threes out of anyone on the team with 51 (though he doesn’t have
the best percentage).
·
Elliott Eliason (#55, 6-11, 260-lb Sophomore C) - Who
can forget Johnny’s recruitment of Elliott? He doesn’t really look to score much
but was huge in the Middle Tennessee State game with a 12-point, seven-rebound
effort against the Blue Raiders. He
passes well out of the post (four assists against the Dawgs) and is a big body
who can rebound it (eight boards in that game as well). He has started the
previous six games, ever since Ralph Sampson III sprained his right knee (this
has kept him out of the Big Ten Tournament and NIT). Talk about injury troubles
for big men - Oto Osenieks, another post, has been out with a concussion the
last couple of games.
Minnesota - The
Reserves
·
Julian Welch (#00, 6-3, 197-lb Junior guard) - He
is a UC Davis transfer from Elk Grove, Calif. Dude is the biggest three-point
threat for team, shooting 45% from downtown and went 4-4 from three in the
18-point shellacking of “The U.” He has not started since sitting 2 games
because of a hip pointer (he has actually started 21 on the season), but is the
team’s biggest threat off the bench.
·
Chip Armelin (#23, 6-3, 198-lb Sophomore guard) -
One of my favorite names in all of college basketball, Chip Armelin averages 14
minutes per game off bench and is pretty productive - 5.3 points and 2.1
rebounds. He didn’t do much against Washington, playing only a handful of
minutes (five to be exact), and is only a 50 percent foul
shooter.
·
Maverick Ahanmisi (#13, 6-2, 192-lb sophomore guard
from Santa Clarita, CA) - Like Armelin, Ahanmisi also averages 14 minutes per
game off the bench. Like Armelin,
he played sparingly against the Huskies (two minutes, one rebound, and one
foul). He’s less productive, averaging 2.8 points and 1.3 rebounds.
·
Andre Ingram (#30, 6’7, 213-lb Junior F) - The
JuCo transfer scored nine points and five boards off the pine for Tubby in the
UW game. He doesn’t usually play a whole bunch, but due to Oto’s injury, he has
averaged 20 minutes per game over the last three, as opposed to 8.1 for the
season overall.
The Stat
Comparison
|
Category |
Minnesota |
Stanford |
|
Scoring |
68.1
(64.5) |
71.7
(63.5) |
|
FG% |
.465
(.412) |
.444
(.414) |
|
3FG% |
.358
(.344) |
.377
(.337) |
|
FT% |
.699 |
.665 |
|
Rebounds |
35 (31) |
37.1
(32.6) |
|
Defensive Rebounding
% |
.678
(.632) |
.717
(.650) |
|
Assists |
15.1
(11.6) |
12.8
(10.6) |
|
Assists/FG
ratio |
,625
(.526) |
.505
(.478) |
|
Turnovers |
14.5
(12.9) |
13.8
(14.9) |
|
Steals |
7.1
(7.7) |
6.5
(6.6) |
|
Blocks |
4.9
(3.7) |
3.4
(3.9) |
|
Percentage of shots as
3s |
.288
(.353) |
.318
(.313) |
People can complain all they want
about Tubbyball not being exciting, but you can’t knock it for being bad,
selfish offensive basketball. Sure, the Gophers turn it over a decent amount,
but look at that assist-to-field goal ratio - that’s pretty damn good, and it
blows Stanford’s .505 out of the water. What’s more impressive about that stat
is that there isn’t a single guy on the team with 100 assists on the season
(Julian Welch has 99); instead, nine of the ten guys who average double-digit
minutes on the season have at least 30 assists.
Minnesota is a team that can force the
Farm Boys to look like the way they did against UMASS for the middle 20 minutes
of that game due to their solid half-court defense, but then again, Dawkins said
he purposely slowed it down against UMASS so as to not get into a track meet
with the Minutemen. Dawkins will certainly try to push it a little more against
the Gophers, and if they can out-will the Golden Gophers in this fashion (it
won’t be easy - Washington found that out the hard way on Tuesday night),
Stanford should be in good shape.
Wichita State, the NIT champs, were a
#5 seed in the NCAAs this year; Alabama, the NIT runners-up, were a #9 seed.
Neither advanced to the Round of 32, but Wichita State was in a much better
position to be a second weekend team. Not that this translates every year, but
the NIT Champs usually make the NCAA tournament the next year- actually, that’s not true at all - only
three of the past seven NIT champions made the Big Dance the next year.
Still, a championship is a
championship is a championship, and Stanford hasn’t won its final game of the
season in 21 years. You can talk about momentum into next season all you want,
but it’s about winning on Thursday for the sake of winning on Thursday and
getting a title. Plain and simple.
Time for the Stanford Cardinal to be
pissed off for greatness.
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