Gophers Butt Rams
December 8, 2007

Colorado State head coach gave the Minnesota Gophers a surprise by putting two 7-foot centers into his starting lineup, inserting sophomore Ronnie Aguilar to play alongside senior Stuart Creason. Minnesota coach Tubby Smith said his team “recognized that we had to take the ball at them.” That they did on their first two possessions. Spencer Tollackson drove and drew a foul from Aguilar, and Dan Coleman did the same. Not only did Tollackson and Coleman make their free throws for a 4-0 lead that the Gophers never relinquished, they had one of the 7-footers out of the game only 45 seconds into it. Aguilar later returned to the floor but lasted fewer than another two minutes before picking up his third foul and taking a seat on the bench for the rest of the half.

Meanwhile, the Gophers had opened up a double-digit lead and cruised to a 91-74 victory, upping their record to 6-1. The Rams, dropping to 5-4, stayed above .500 despite returning only two players (the 7-footers) from a season in which they had a 6-10 record in the Mountain West Conference. New head coach Tim Miles, who coached at Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota, from 1997-2001, picked up a couple of junior-college transfers, Marcus Walker and Willis Gardner, and has relied on several freshman, most notably forward Andre McFarland, who had started all eight games until Aguilar started in his place.

The first half featured Tollackson and Coleman attacking the basket frequently. Tollackson had a couple of nifty baseline moves that finished with a reverse layup while Coleman had six rebounds, including two off the offensive boards, in the first half. The real spark for the Gophers, however, was freshman Blake Hoffarber, who came off the bench and connected on five of seven three-point attempts and scored 18 points in the half. After the game, Tollackson marveled at the freshman shooter, saying, “He has the quickest release I’ve ever seen.”

Minnesota, leading 50-37 at halftime, got another break when Aguilar picked up his fourth foul only 13 seconds into the second half and returned to the bench. Tollackson pointed out that it was nice that “we didn’t have to deal with the Twin Towers.”

The Gophers at one point increased their lead to 32 points, although a sloppy finish allowed the Rams to get to within 14 points, before Minnesota’s Al Nolen capped the scoring for both teams with a three-point basket with just over a minute to play.

For Colorado State, Gardner had 19 points, Walker 18, and McFarland 13. Walker had six assists, while Creason led the Rams with 11 rebounds. Aguilar, confined to 10 minutes on the floor because of his foul trouble, did not score and contributed only one rebound.

For the third straight game, five Gophers finished in double-figures in scored, led by Coleman, who had 22 points, including his 1,000th point as a member of the Gophers. Coleman also had 11 rebounds, five of them offensive. Hoffarber cooled down in the second half, making just one of five shots, and finished with 21 points. Tollackson had 16 points, Nolen 11, and Damian Johnson 10. Nolen, McKenzie, and Tollackson each had 5 assists while the Gophers had 24 assists on their 35 field goals. With only 12 turnovers, the Gophers had an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2-to-1.