Gophers Open with Easy and Hard Exhibition Games
November2010

The Minnesota Gophers stuck with recent tradition by opening their basketball season with a pair of exhibition games at Williams Arena. On November 2, Minnesota cruised to a 109-59 win over Northeastern State of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and hung on November 8 for a 78-72 win over Winona State, a team that had beaten the Gophers in 2006.

Against Northeastern, Minnesota scored the first 12 points of the game and later held leads of 19-2, 25-4, 35-7, and 45-9. “I thought our guys were focused and ready,” said Gophers coach Tubby Smith. “We did some good things in sharing the basketball and establishing the tempo early in the game. We made shots, we pushed it up the court, we got in transition and really defending well. Those are things you use to win basketball games.”

Trevor Mbakwe played his first games for the Gophers, having missed the 2009-10 season while awaiting trial on assault charges. Mbakwe came off the bench and had an impact in the Northeastern game, although he said he was disappointed with his rebounding (he had 3, all in the first half, in 13 minutes on the floor).

Mbakwe did better against Winona State, grabbing 7 rebounds in the first half and 11 in the game. Winona State coach Mike Leaf knew rebounding would be a challenge against the much taller and bigger Gophers. “We knew it would be tough and that we would have to be aggressive. We got lots of fouls, so we must have been aggressive.”

The Warriors committed 33 fouls in the game, sending the Gophers to the line 46 times. However, Minnesota made barely 60 percent of its free throws and, combined with 23 turnovers, allowed Winona State to stay in the game despite a 51-28 edge for the Gophers in rebounding.

Minnesota opened up a 58-40 lead with a little under 12 minutes in the game. Winona came back with 11 straight points on the outside shooting of Jon Walburg, who came off the bench to score 22 points, and the playmaking of Anthony Tucker, who scored a game-high 24 points and had 5 assists. Tucker has been reunited on the Warries with C. J. Erickson, a teammate at Minnetonka High School, after transferring from the University of Iowa, where he had problems with alcohol and was also ineligible for academic reasons.

Walburg had back-to-back three-point baskets and was fouled on the second one, pulling the Warriors to within 58-51 with 8:20 left. He missed his free throw, however, and the Gophers moved their lead back into double digits. Another flurry by Winona State made it close at the end. Tucker stole the ball from Ralph Sampson, one of four turnovers in the game by the Minnesota center, and buried a three-pointer to bring the Warriors to within 73-68 with 58.1 seconds to play. Tucker was later fouled on a three-point attempt and made the first two of his free throws with fewer than 20 seconds to play. Asked after the game if he was surprised the Warriors were so close at the end, Tucker replied, “Not at all.”

The Gophers open their regular season with a game against Wofford at Williams Arena on November 12.