Gophers Beat Mankato and Southwest Baptist
November 1 and 5, 2012

The University of Minnesota Golden Gopher men’s basketball team performed their 2012-2013 season debut by defeating Minnesota State Mankato, 81-56, at Williams Arena in Minneapolis.

Coach Tubby Smith, who likes to substitute in platoons, was given the opportunity to utilize three different squads against Mankato State. Only the injured Wally Ellenson was not called on to play as Tubby used, in addition to his starting lineup, nine bench players against the undermanned Mavericks. Fourteen Gophers saw action, and 13 scored.

Mankato State is picked to finish third in the Northern Sun Conference, which calls into question the validity of the 13 other teams in that conference.

Sophomore Joe Coleman led the Gophers with 21 points, with most of his baskets coming via easy layups. The majority of the 8,907 in attendance, however,came to see the return of center Trevor Mbakwe. Only after the second of Tubby’s three ubits had completed their tasks did Mbakwe enter the game. He played only briefly, scoring four points.

Minnesota jumped off to a 12-4 lead and never looked back, twice leading by as much as 34 points.

The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers men’s basketball team won the second of two pre-season exhibition games at Williams Arena, defeating Division II Southwest Baptist of Boliver, Mo.,86-59, in front of a announced crowd of 8,654 spectators on November 5..

The visitors from Missouri proved to have more spunk than the Gophers’ first Division II victims Minnesota State at Mankato, but nonetheless were worn down by Minnesota’s size and depth.

Four Minnesota players finished in double figures, led once again by sophomore guard Joe Coleman with 15 points. In all, a dozen Gophers scored. Rodney Williams had 13 points, followed by Andre Hollins (12) and Austin Hollins (10).

Southwest Baptist was able to stay within 44-30 at halftime but was unable to keep up the pace in the second half. Coach Jeff Guiot’s son Preston led Southwest Baptist’s scoring with 13 points, including three 3-pointers.

Minnesota shot 53 percent from the floor while Southwest Baptist could only muster 34 percent. Gopher ace Trevor Mbakwe played only 11 minutes and scored three points.