Gophers Reveal Little in Exhibition
November 1, 2015

Hellish may not be the proper word to describe the first Gopher men’s basketball team’s exhibition versus the fellows from the University of Minnesota at Crookston (UMC), but it comes awfully close.

Each year, the main campus hosts lesser teams representing four-year degree state institutions of higher learning from cities such as Mankato, Winona, and Duluth. This year, it was Crookston’s turn in the barrel, although if one was to judge the team’s warmup drills, it appeared that instead of UMC, the basketball team from Crookston High School had been sent by mistake. None of the Golden Eagles stood taller than six feet, seven inches.

Last year, a U of M humor magazine reported that the Crookston campus had burned down in 2007, but no one noticed. Even geography majors had trouble Crookston on a map.

UMC is a member of the Division II Northern Sun Conference and is the perennial doormat in both football and men’s basketball. UMC would do better to drop down a peg into the conference that currently includes the University of Minnesota at Morris (UMM).

Yet, somehow, incredibly, when 6-5 forward Ben Grygiel from Rockford, Ill., scored a basket halfway through the first half, it gave the Golden Eagles a 16-9 lead.

It must be noted that no one expected the Gophers to be any good this year, and the team did recover for a 74-57 win, but no one expected them to be this bad. A smattering of hardcore spectators showed up at Williams Arena on a Sunday afternoon when the Vikings were on TV and went away mumbling in shocked silence. A guess is that only Rutgers stands in the way of the Gophers finishing fourteenth in the Big Ten.

Not that Minnesota was a world-beater last season, but after losing Andre Hollins, DeAndre Mathieu, and Maurice Walker, any hope for improvement in 2015-2016 vanished. Coach Richard Pitino faces a rebuilding job that would task even his father, with or without call girls.

Young Pitino has a roster of mismatched young men that someday might come together as a unit but not this year. It took the Gophers a dozen minutes of play before taking the lead at 20-19 on a three-point basket by Nate Mason, the only Minnesota player not tripping over his shoelaces. Somehow, the bumbling Gophers held on for a 30-26 halftime lead over an equally inept gang of unknowns representing Crookston.

The style of play improved in the second half but not by much. Of the Gopher newcomers, 6-6 Jordan Murphy of San Antonio appeared to have a sense of where the basket was and how to put the ball in it. He finished with 19 points and nine rebounds in 28 minutes on the court. Minnesota had no front-line stalwarts, especially with 6-9 sophomore Gaston Diedhiou filling in for the injured Bakary Konate. Diedhiou failed to take proper advantage over the smaller Golden Eagles. “He may be a sophomore,” said his coach. “but I look at him more was a freshman.” Another returnee, 6-9 Charles Buggs, played like he was 5-9.

In the second half, all pretense that UMC had a basketball team was dropped, and the Eagles fell behind 50-34 on a basket by Murphy. From there it was all sandlot ball with Crookston still pulling down rebounds but forgetting what to do next. Midway through the period, freshman Ahmad Gilbert scored to give Minnesota a 58-38 lead, and the many of those in attendance filed out the doors to enjoy the unseasonably mild evening. None had any clear sense of hope for a better tomorrow.

In addition to Murphy’s 19, Mason scored a dozen points, and Buggs had 11. Nate Lorenz, a freshman from Breckenridge, Minn., led UMC with 13 points, the only Eagle to achieve double figures in scoring.

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