Sometimes I think bloggers and sports columnists protest too much. Some do it with venom while others draw words on pictures . Both can be effective methods, but the point here is that the all encompassing new media world typically chooses to disect most any issue. Ad nauseum.

With that in mind, I want to share my biggest, maybe only, standing complaint about the Tubby Smith era in Minnesota. It's not an original complaint. And this team is 13-1 having bested two top-25 teams. So .... as you can tell, I'm having some difficulty finding the nerve to be hypercritical, but this is bothering me, so here goes.

Tubby's lineup decisions, his elementary five-in, five-out rotations and his dispersal of minutes is absolutely mind-boggling. At times this year we've seen lineups that included both Blake Hoffarber and Jamal Abu-Shamala. We've seen lineups that have seen Hoffarber, Abu-Shamala and Travis Busch on the floor at the same time. Against Michigan State when the Gophers were being out-muscled, Tubby's best big man--Colton Iverson--played sparingly for no apparent reason. Meanwhile, 6'4" Busch played power forward.

Eleven players are averaging more than 10 minutes per game. Only four players--Hoffarber, Al Nolen, Lawrence Westbrook and Damian Johnson--are averaging more than 20. Tom Izzo, Matt Painter and Bo Ryan, by comparison, have played eight players more than 10 minutes per game. The best argument I've heard for Tubby's use of a deep bench has been that his team isn't as talented, but is deeper than others.

I don't buy that. Westbrook has played about 23 minutes per game this season and leads the team with 13 points per game. Ohio State's Evan Turner by comparison (a different position but perhaps similar talent level) plays 34 minutes and puts up about 16 points per game. But instead of keeping someone like Westbrook on the floor for 30-plus minutes, Tubby hands out minutes to players like senior Abu-Shamala.

The AP's Dave Campbell asked Tubby about his lineup and rotation decisions after the Ohio State win.

This has typically been Smith's style, playing as many guys as possible. This is his argument for scheduling so many teams from weak conferences in November and December, for the chance to get his younger players more time on the court and build confidence against less-threatening opponents. When it's time to play the big boys, then they're in better mental and physical shape to succeed.

Unfortunately, I think this is Tubby using the success of his team's depth against Ohio State to belatedly justify the team's fluffy non-conference schedule. And the same logic could be used with an 8 or 9 man rotation. If the Gophers need Lawrence Westbrook to play 38 minutes, is he in the mental and physical shape to succeed? Tubby's logic would suggest he isn't.

Back to the AP.

But don't try to get Smith going on how the rotation will look moving deeper into the Big Ten season. Starting lineups are essentially meaningless to him. He regularly uses hockey-style mass substitutions, and eight different players have started this season. On Saturday, only two of his starting five — Johnson and Colton Iverson — were on the floor to begin the second half.

Starting lineups are meaningless, but Tubby's constant tinkering could also inhibit the Gophers from developing chemistry as a group. Incessant substitutions and lineups that are bound to struggle on offense (think the trio of Hoffarber, JAS, Busch and Ralph Sampson III together).

Tubby has also shown an incredibly quick trigger with his younger players. One mistake from a Minnesota player and they'll soon be seeing the pine. That would seem to work two ways, both providing incentive for fundamental basketball but also an incredibly stressful environment that could have detrimental effects on the court.

"I don't care about playing time. That's the last thing on my mind," Smith said. "I want to know who can help me win the game. If you can help me win the game, fine. If you can't, you ain't playing. It's as simple as that. That's just the way I operate. I've always done that. I've been pretty good with it. So our guys understand that. They may get more minutes. They may not. They'll be rewarded if they can do what they're asked to do."

Honeslty, that's exactly what any coach should say. But those players that are earning playing time deserve it. Iverson deserved to play significantly more against Michigan State. Paul Carter's play against Ohio State should have earned him more than 10 minutes.

And you know who does care about playing time? Any hypothetical big-time recruit. What's going to happen in the next two years? If Royce White and/or Rodney Williams emerge as top Big Ten players, will they see the court for 35 minutes per game?

I had hoped that once the non-conference season ended, Tubby would shorten his bench. That hasn't happened. Going forward, it'd be nice to see the Gophers play an 8 or 9 man rotation.

After the jump I lay out the typical 9-man rotation I'd like to see. I'll be curious to see your opinions.

Continue reading this post »

We're in the middle of basketball season, but we'd be remiss if we didn't use this space to discuss, even if briefly, the committment of Minneapolis prep wide receiver Bryce McNeal.

On NBC Saturday afternoon, the wide receiver who de-committed from Michigan looked at a table with four hats on it and pushed away Minnesota in favor of ACC's Clemson Tigers. I'll let Minnesota blogger Buck Bravo pick it up from here.

On occasion, a high school football recruit has the opportunity to make a commitment to a school not just to play football, but to change the course of a program. Bryce McNeal, like Michael Floyd before him, had the opportunity to be the player who definitively announced that the borders were locked down for the Minnesota Gopher football program. McNeal would have been a marquise (sic) player on the Gophers, become an instant local celebrity, and cemented a future as a favorite son of Minnesota.

If you follow the recruiting efforts of Tim Brewster, you know that defensive back Michael Carter--yes, related to former Gopher Tyrone--also had Minnesota on his mind when he made his declaration Saturday. The younger Carter opted for West Virginia.

And if you follow Brewster's recruiting efforts, you also know that perhaps his biggest priority as Minnesota coach has been to seal the borders and make the Golden Gopher football program one that builds a base with local talent. Through his first two years, Brewster has put his finger in the dike and received committments from many Minnesota high school players (Sam Maresh, Ra'Shede Hageman, Josh Campion, Moses Alipate, Matt Garin and others), but some of the top talent (Floyd, McNeal, Willie Mobley) continues slip away.

So, what say you? Has Brewster been successful in closing the border? .

• With all of the talk about Tubby Smith's dispersement of minutes for this year's Gophers, I found this nugget within this article about former Kentucky big man Mark Bradley interesting.

  Bradley counts his two seasons for Kentucky as a blessing. If there's any fan resentment over his transfer to Villanova (where he averaged 20.8 points and 9.8 rebounds in one season before turning pro), he doesn't feel it.  "I hated to leave," Bradley said. "We just had a few differences with what I thought I could do and what Tubby (Smith, then UK coach) thought I could do. "I think Tubby's a good guy. It was nothing personal. It was just when you become a junior in college and one of your goals is to become a pro athlete and you're not playing a ton of minutes, the best thing for me to do is to go someplace where I could showcase and play more minutes." Bradley was a face-the-basket big man who could shoot jumpers and pass. "A point-center," as then Temple coach John Chaney called him. Rick Pitino recruited him to play that way at Kentucky. Then when he got to UK, Smith became coach and wanted him to be a more traditional low-post big man. "Five feet and in and screening and rebounding, which is fine," Bradley said. "I understand the game well enough to know you need those guys. It just seemed like I was recruited to one system and didn't fit in the other.

• Eleven Warriors has a post-game anaylsis entitled "Marooned" after Minnesota's 68-59 win at The Barn on Saturday. I like seeing the Gophers described as "pyhsical."
• Gophers blogger Down with Goldy takes aim at Ohio State guard and Minnesota native PJ Hill for antics following Minnesota's win Saturday.
• The STrib's Jim Souhan writes that coaching, defense and depth help the Gophers men's basketball team short on offensive talent.
• John Millea pens a nice column on Hopkins senior and future Golden Gopher Royce White. White's number 1 priority on the floor? Leading Hopkins in assists! Really.
• Dan Monson's Long Beach State squad is 6-7 and a local columnist is arguing the former UofM head man should receive a raise. That got me thinking that maybe Pat Reusse would like to spend the last years of his career in California?
• Fiesta Bowl hype: Buckeye Battle Cry has reasons why Ohio State will beat Texas. I wasn't sold, but you might be.

(promoted to front by PJS. A well done diary/fanpost).

I am writing this about college basketball, but let me first elaborate on my opinion of such tools by talking about college football and how it relates.

Humans vs Computers

If you will recall, there are two primary components to the BCS formula in college football--the polls and the computer rankings.  A few years ago, the BCS created an unfavorable match up in the national championship game that caused an uproar and therefore a tweak to the BCS formula regarding the weighting of the human and computer components.  This was probably going to happen in any event--computers or humans--in the absence of a playoff.  Critics argued that computers shouldn't hold as much weight as the human polls, that somehow humans were smarter.  I was outraged at that argument back then (2003, I believe) and still contend that computers are much better at ranking teams than humans.

First, humans are biased.  They go off of name or brand equity and exposure.  This is why Utah didn't get a chance to play for the title despite being undefeated in football.  I will take this time to toot my own horn where I predicted a double digit win for Utah over Alabama.  My point is that computer rankings (such as RPI) take an entire season into consideration and not just a snapshot of who is better this week.  For the record, Utah was ranked ahead of Alabama in the computer rankings.  However, this is not a predictive tool; rather it is a ranking tool for games played to date.  It really is the best way to rank teams in college football.

Does One Game Determine Who is Better?

All that human polls do is rank teams according to an iterative logic (who won this past week, who lost and shuffle accordingly--despite who that win or loss was against).  Also, a win early in the season against a supposed favorite can either be supported or refuted by a computer.  For example, the Gophers hoops team had a big win over Louisville earlier this year.  How big of a win is that really going to turn out to be?  Well, if Louisville wins the Big East, that is going to be a huge win.  But if Louisville keeps falling to teams like UNLV, as they did a few days ago (at home, no less) then it isn't as great as it once seemed.  And it shouldn't be--Louisville was ranked #9 based on perceptions and not reality at the time; and what their RPI ranking was at the time is completely irrelevant--it is only relevant at the end of the season and before the tournament.  That ranking at the end of the year tells us how good our opponents really were.

Furthermore, just because team X beats team Y does not necessarily mean that the winning team is "better".  They could have been better that day, but if they played 10 times, the outcome could be different.  A perfect example of this is last year's Super Bowl.  The Giants were definitely better that day, but do you think the Giants would have won more games over the course of a series?  I don't think one game makes an entire season.  But it does in sports with a one and done sort of playoff (NFL, college football's BCS championship game, and college basketball where one loss sends a team home) where the "best" team does not usually win the championship.  One can certainly make the case that a 7 game series (MLB, NHL, NBA) does not guarantee such a result either, but I would argue it does so more often.  Likewise, it is possible that team X can beat team Y, yet be ranked below team Y in RPI because of the two schools' "body of work"; that is the context of the entire season not just one head to head game.

Nuts and Bolts of RPI

So how is the RPI calculated?  The NCAA does not actually release an official RPI during the season.  A close approximation is 25% of your team's winning percentage, 50% of your opponents' winning percentage (strength of schedule), and 25% of your opponents' opponents' winning percentage (opponents strength of schedule).  The precise calculation involves adjustments for home/road/neutral results.

So while it took me a while to get here, my point is that the Gophers are currently in a great position RPI wise.  Here is a great site that updates RPI standings in a timely manner and is organized in an easy to use fashion.  As of this writing, the Gophers are sitting at #37.  This includes the win over Ohio State.  We were #53 or #54 before the game.  Ohio State was a good win for us since the Buckeyes have an RPI ranking of #19 even after the loss.  Louisville has a #47 ranking--not quite what it was a few weeks ago.  Our loss to Michigan State was to the #11 team--so if you are going to lose, that is the sort of team to lose to--one that won't hurt too badly.

Importance of Conference Play

Now that we are in conference play, you will see a convergence of Big 10 teams' RPI (as you will with other conferences).  This is because before conference play teams were playing unrelated teams, often teams that won't play anyone else in the conference.  Now, however, all eleven teams are playing against each other.  Think for a moment if the Big 10 was the only conference.  There would not be a need for an RPI or other computer rankings.  The records would speak for themselves since everyone plays one another.  So conference play will tighten the standard deviation of the rankings--think of the distribution of RPI in terms of a graph.  After conference play, the shape of the graph will be closer to a bell curve than it is now.  The current range is #11 (Michigan State) to #192 (Indiana).  The Gophers are currently the median at #37; that is they are the middle team in the conference.

You'll notice that the average rank is just over 54.  That means 8 of the 11 teams are better than the conference average.  Expect the average RPI to fall since any win for the conference is also a loss for another conference team from here on out (with exceptions for any teams playing out of conference games in the middle of conference play, but the effect will be negligible).  But this also means that the average will normalize and there will only be five or six teams above the conference average (closer to one half).  The range will probably increase because some teams' winning percentage will be a mirage since it was compiled against weak competition.  Indiana, for example, could fall into the 250 range as wins will get even tougher for them.

Conference vs Conference RPI

The Big 10 is in a good position this year relative to other conferences thanks to a strong performance against other conferences.  The Big 10 has the second best conference RPI right now (ACC).  This means that each win against a Big 10 team is going to be worth that much more (although wins against Indiana may prove not helpful).

Final Thoughts

Remember that RPI is not a predictor.  It is a way to measure a team's performance to date based on varying schools' schedules.  Also, try not to think of RPI in an iterative manner.  That is, don't look at an individual game's impact on the RPI.  You will often hear pundits talk about a supposed absurdity how a team's win could lower it's RPI.  While in isolation that may be true, it isn't just that one game.  It is the team's overall performance and the context of that performance--schedule and opponents' schedule.  If a team has a gripe about its RPI, it should have won more games or scheduled tougher opponents.

After laying the proverbial egg against Michigan State, the Golden Gophers rebounded (figuratively and literally) Saturday against the #23 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes.

The Gophers did just about everything at a higher level than they did against the Spartans. Offensively, the team moved without the basketball very well after the first 10 minutes during which the Buckeyes' 2-3 zone caused some problems. The Gophers got the ball into the paint against the zone, rotated the ball extremely well and crashed the offensive boards. Minnesota ended the game with 13 offensive rebounds. Ohio State had 7.

On the defensive glass, the Gophers were much more aggressive. At one point Lawrence Westbrook put his rear end so far into a Buckeye he pushed the Buckeye from the paint all the way out to the three point line. It was a team effort on the defensive glass, sparked by the efforts of Damian Johnson, Paul Carter, Colton IVerson and Ralph Sampson III.

While the effort and focus on little things made this victory possible, so too did a first half defensive adjustment Tubby Smith probably made while cringing inside. Tubby's always been a proponent of man-to-man defense, but early in the game Ohio State, and Evan Turner specifically, were having their way with Minnesota in the half-court set. Then out of nowhere, with the Gophers trailing 22-15, Tubby switched to a 2-3 zone. The Buckeyes had no answer for a long stretch of the first half and the Gophers went on such an extended run that they ended the half up 34-24.

That move came at a time when Al Nolen found himself on the bench with two early fouls. It was a Devoe Joseph led comeback, as the freshman played his best game in maroon and gold. As the Gophers were forcing bad shots out of the 2-3 zone, they were able to rebound and then push in transition, much to the credit of Joseph, who led a fast-paced, but controlled, Minnesota attack.

Ohio State threatened a couple second half comebacks, but Minnesota's first half lead and second-half defensive pressure was too much to overcome.

Damian Johnson had another one of his stat-sheet filling games. He finished with 12 points, 6 reboudns, 4 assists, 4 steals and 3 blocks. He played 34 minutes and didn't turn the ball over once. When the time comes, DJ Swat or Sweet D, whatever you want to call him, ought to be under serious consideration for Big Ten defensive player of the year honors.

The win puts the Gophers at 1-1 in the confernce and improves the Gophers to 2-1 against ranked opponents this season. Splitting these two games at home this week should be good enough to keep the Gophers in the top-25.

Before we move on to begin looking at the Iowa game scheduled for Thursday, there are a few players and topics I'd like to focus on.

Paul Carter: The sophomore transfer had his best game as a Gopher. His size and athleticism helped on the boards. He played just 10 minutes, but they were highly effecgtive minutes. He was just 1-5 from the floor, and is shooting an abysmal 29 percent from the floor this season. But those numbers are bound to turn around because Carter is shooting fairly high-quality shots. I hope to see Carter's minutes grow as the conference season progresses.

Minnesota Twins fans will understand this reference: I kind of feel like Paul Carter is the Gophers version of Jason Kubel. He seems to have the talent to be a difference maker but isn't seeing the floor enough. This is somewhat explainable because Carter missed a decent chunk of the non-conference slate with an injury. But now back healthy, can we free Paul Carter?

Devoe Joseph: The Candaian wasn't perfect. He tried to dribble throuh an OSU press in the final minutes and turned the ball over. But for a large stretch in the first half, with Nolen out, Joseph was a very important catalyst. One year ago, had Nolen found foul trouble, the Gophers would have struggled with Westbrook or Lawrence McKenzie trying to run the offense.

Rebounding: Yes, reboudning was much improved. But let's not forget that Ohio State's rebounding isn't in the same class as Michigan State's. Seven-footer BJ Mullens played just 19 minutes. Dallas Lauderdale was infuriating Thad Matta all afternoon. Aside from those two, Ohio State isn't exactly a team made up of traditional rebounding types.

Getting to the foul line: Maybe it was just one of those basketball oddities, but the Gophers had been to the line a total of 4 times (all Paul Carter makes) before Ohio State started fouling in the final two minutes. Now, there were a few occasions when the Gophers probably could have been awarded two shots but the whistles were largely put away. For a team that is inconsistent at best in the half-court set, getting to the free throw line is very important.

There's no easy answer for this team in that department. The Gophers don't really have a guard who can penetrate and finish (though Nolen's good at penetrating and drawing fouls). And we don't have a dominant big man (yet). But four free throws through 38 minutes is troubling.

Up Next: The Gophers travel to Iowa for the first Big Ten road game, and first road game since the narrow win at Colorado State.

Tip: 11 a.m. central time.

Television: Big Ten Network

Game Thread: This is it! Here at TDG!

This will also serve as a mini-preview, as life has been hectic with hoiidays and travel. We'll be back to normal around here next week.

Undoubtedly this is a big game for the Gophers. And while I hesitate to state the second conference game is a must-win, this one is pretty close to it. The young Gophers need to demonstrate today they can bounce back from adversity.

The #23 ranked Buckeyes come into Williams Arena this morning after bouncing back from a shellacking from West Virginia by beating Iowa down the stretch in their Big Ten opener.

If there is a player to worry about, it's Evan Turner. Over the last two OSU games, Turner has played 40 and 39 minutes respectively (Tubby, please take note!).  He's averaging  15.7 points and 7 rebounds per game and is the likely match-up for Damian Johnson.

On the interior, Dallas Lauderdale joines diaper dandy B.J. Mullens. The latter of the two has been OK, but relatively inconsistent. This will be an interesting match-up for Colton Iverson and Ralph Sampson III.

Prediction: The Gophers can win this game if they tunover the Buckeyes and hold their own on the boards. I expect to see some growth from Minnesota today, especially on the defensive end of the floor (I think the offense is going to take much longer). The Gophers win this one. It's not a laugher, but it's also not a game that forces you pace down the stretch. Minnesota 69, OSU 57.

I'll be here for the game thread today. It'll be nice to relax for a game with my laptop and chaise lounger.

Well 2008 ended with a ginormous thud.  Both the men's basketball and football teams proved to be competitive in short stretches but overall were overmatched.  What a negative way to end the year.  Here are some quick thoughts on yesterday's games and what we can look forward to in 2009...

Football - 21-42 loss to Kansas in Insight Bowl

• The defense gave up 42 points (97 in their last two games) and I'll get to them in a second but the offense is frustrating.  With two years as his body of work in Minnesota I have generally been happy with offensive coordinator, Mike Dunbar's game plans.  The offense usually comes out moving the ball well early in games.  But nearly every game the offense stalls when the opposing defense makes adjustments.  A good offseason project would be to see points scored, yards gained and first downs earned by quarter over the last two years.  14 points on the first two possessions and 7 in the next nine.
  
  The offensive line deserves some of the blame but play calling and adjustments to the original game plan have to be part of it.
• It was great to finally see David Pittman involved in the game plan.  That is what I was hoping to see for the last 12 games.  A couple catches and a 75 yard pass to start the game is the X-factor that was sold to us.
• The defense will be very interesting next year.  Overall they need to get much better at every position.  I like many of the guys returning but they all need to get stronger and need to  improve if we want improve our Bowl game status.  I have more complete thoughts on this but I'll save it for a more comprehensive 2008 review of the team.

Basketball - 12 point loss to Michigan State

• PJS has a good preview so I won't belabor his points.
• Michigan State ran a play in their half court set killed us over and over again.  It was frustrating that we were unable to adjust to it, but at the same time it is an effective play that puts the defense in a bad position.
  
  Michigan State puts three guys on the left side of the court, a big man to set a screen for the shooter who has half of the floor to work with.  We consistently went ball side of the screen which allowed Lucas to flare and be wide open for threes.  You can't switch the screen or have your big man help too much or the MSU big is wide open in the lane.  If you trail the screen then Lucas curls it and either has a jumper at the top of the key or drives the lane. 
  
  MSU ran this over and over.  If you watch the BTN highlights you'll see three plays with Lucas shooting an open three, all of them were set up by this

• Kalin Lucas is REALLY good, he might be my favorite Big Ten player to watch.  He does not turn the ball over, is a good shooter and is really quick.  Al Nolen is a very good on the ball defender who did fine yesterday when he wasn't getting hit on the pick and roll, but Lucas is fun to watch.

What do we have to look forward to in 2009

• TCF STADIUM - unless the basketball team makes a Final Four run or something crazy like that, this will undoubtedly  be the highlight of 2009.  I cannot wait.
• Brewster's recruiting class - a nice New Year's present would be Michael Carter and Bryce McNeal verbally committing to Minnesota at Saturday's US Army All-American game.  But early February we will find out what this class will look like.
• The Big Ten Season and the NCAA Tournament - Tubby's boys should be fun to watch through the conference season and hopefully get themselves a ticket into the NCAA tournament in March.
• A toucher non-conference schedule - Syracuse, Cal and Air Force are all upgrades to what we saw in 2008.  Overall the schedule will be tougher and wins may be harder to come by, but we should be more prepared for some Big Ten games.
• Royce White and Rodney Williams - this is a long ways off but next year's hoops team promises to be more athletic and more explosive.
• Eric Decker's senior season - He is in position to break all Minnesota receiving records and get himself into the top 5 of Big Ten receivers for yards and receptions.
• Sam Maresh - coming back from open heart surgery to play LB in the Big Ten!

What else am I missing?  What are you looking forward to in 2009?

First, Happy New Year to all. Now on to the men's basketball team's first loss of the year.

Congratulations to the Michigan State Spartans for playing a very solid basketball game in the Big Ten opener at Williams Arena. They proved to be bigger, faster and stronger. They hustled and beat Minnesota to loose balls. They played a more tenacious--and consistent--brand of basketball than our Gophers.

The final was 70-58, and it wasn't really that close.

The Spartans were excellent in the win. Kalin Lucas was electric in winning the match-up of sophomore point guards over Al Nolen. He finished with 24 points on 9-18 shooting. Raymar Morgan and Goran Suton both finished with double-doubles. And while Morgan's numbers aren't ridiculously impressive, the MSU junior impacts games in many ways. At one point when the Gophers still had a prayer in the second half, Damian Johnson had a lane on a break and attempted to throw one down on Morgan. Success would have brought Williams Arena to its feet. But Morgan rose higher and sent Johnson and his shot tumbling backwards.

So, credit certainly goes to the Spartans as they were the better team on New Year's Eve day. But the way the Gophers played calls for considerable scrutiny. I want to break this down into a few categories.

Playing Time: Colton Iverson, arguably MInnesota's most effective low-post player finished the game having played 15 minutes. This came during a game when Michigan State embarrassed the Gophers on the glass [ESPN says the rebounding advantage was 41-22]. Iverson had just one foul during this game. Just one. And he had 7 of MInnesota's rebounds in only 15 minutes. I can't explain this, but it shouldn't have happened. They needed Iverson on the floor.

Ralph Sampson III played just 10 minutes during this game, though at least his low minutes can be explained because he was in foul trouble.

There was absolutely no reason why Iverson shouldn't have been on the floor as often as possible. But instead, Tubby Smith taps Travis Busch to play the power forward position against a team that sees rebounding as its pride and joy. Busch played 17 minutes, and was who Smith turned to in the second half when the Spartans had a flurry of offensive rebounds.

Leaving the topic of big men, Jamal Abu-Shamala played 7 highly ineffective minutes against the Spartans. He came in and immediately missed a defensive assignment. He is simply not equipped to play on the offensive end of the floor against an athletic team like the Spartans. This has been clear for three years now, but inexplicably Smith continues to give the former walk-on token minutes. It needs to end, because even in limited time JAS hurts the Gophers.

Rebounding: Part of this goes back to what I stated above about playing time for Iverson, but even with the South Dakota native on the floor, the Spartans were going to win on the glass.

Blame here shouldn't be placed on any individual Minnesota player or Smith--I'm sure he's harped on rebounding all year. We can, however, look back to the Dan Monson era to find a collection of teams that struggled on the glass. Minnesota's ineptness in this department began with Monson.

However, rebounding isn't about two big men, it's a team effort thing. When a shot goes up, find your man, put your butt and all of your weight into him and box him out. More difficult than it sounds, but on so many occasions from my vantage point in The Barn Minnesota guards turned to watch a shot as a Spartan followed his own and grabbed a second chance. Yes, the Spartans were thicker and quicker on the inside and they were going to have a rebounding edge. But the war on the glass is a mindset, and the Gophers don't have the first clue at the moment.

Lawrence Westbrook: The junior from Arizona was completely out of control on numerous occasions on Wednesday. He had 11 points on 5-12 (0-4 from three). Westbrook was criticized as a prep athlete by even his coaches for being selfish with the basketball. Through his first two years in maroon and gold, Westbrook probably paid too much mind to those critiques. But as a junior, it's been the opposite.

It's not that he's shooting too much or too little. It's that instead of letting the offense come to him, instead of playing with a system or creating his own shots with some semblance of control, Westbrook on numerous occasions against MSU was playing at a speed that he couldn't control.

The junior needs to lead this team on the offensive end of the floor. He hasn't done that yet.

Defense: Whether it was of the half-court or transition variety, the Gophers didn't really didn't come to play defense against Tom Izzo's boys.

In transition--even after Minnesota scores--the Spartans embarrassed the Gophers. Minnesota players--too many to single out--missed assignments in transition. Some players didn't seem to know who they were going to guard when they came in off the bench. The result of course was quick, easy hoops. That's not Tubby Smith defense. And it's inexcusable.

In half court sets, the Gophers didn't help one another through, or even call out, back picks. they didn't rotate with the sense of urgency they did against Louisville. Those combined team defense deficiencies allowed the Spartans to establish a decent outside game in The Barn.

The second half defense was particularly atrocious, until the last two minutes or so of the game, when it had already been decided, when Smith decided to put heavy pressure on the Spartans. All of a sudden the Gophers forced Michigan State to waste some of the shot clock, created turnovers and foudns some too little, too late momentum. Why not apply that hard-edged pressure earlier in the game?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The loss against a top-10 or top-15 Michigan State team is certainly not the end of the world. There wasn't much to point to in this game to be positive. But this was one game, and for five Gophers it was their first test in the Big Ten.

We should also note that the Gophers had to open with a team that excels in an area [rebounding] where Minnesota struggles. This was obvious, and it will undoubteldy be used as a way to teach.

For me, the team defense was more inexcusable. If that's fixed by the time Ohio State comes to town Saturday, all will be just fine.

And here is your official game thread for the Insight Bowl.

With very few seniors on the roster this game is just a baby step for the 2009 season, imo.  An extra month of practice and more game speed work for the offense to come together. 

There are a few seniors who will be playing their last game as a Gopher.

• DE - Willie VanDeSteeg - all time leader in Tackles for Losses, currently fourth all time in sacks.
• TE - Jack Simmons 
• LB - Deon Hightower
• LB - Steve Davis
• LB - Kevin Mannion
• DT - William Brody
  
• QB - Tony Mortenson
• QB - Mike Maciejowski

I probably shouldn't have started a list because I am going to miss people.  This was a quick list of relatively significant players who will be missed in 2009.

Good luck to the Gophs, this would be a big win that would set the tone and raise the bar for 2009.

** NOTE: GN will be driving through Wisconsin and PJS may or may not be in front of a computer so be good and enjoy the game.