Not Ready For Prime Time
March 23, 2014

The University of Minnesota men’s basketball team and the U of M women’s basketball team collaborated on a unique NIT event at Williams Arena on March 23.

Both teams emerged victorious.

The men’s team defeated St. Mary’s of California, 63-55, in the opening game of the day. In the nightcap, the women handled SMU, 77-70, although that victory may prove costly to the lady Gophers. Shooting star Rachel Banham crumpled to the floor in a heap after sustaining what is believed to be a severe ankle injury in the second half.

The Sunday event was created when neither team was chosen to represent the University in the NCAA tournament, relegating both to the NIT. The not-ready-for-prime-time players on both teams won their respective preliminary NIT games, and scheduling difficulties with a high school tournament at Williams Arena set up the double-header, allowing fans the chance to view both teams with a single admission price.

The long day led off with the men’s team clueless, falling behind to the Gaels by the remarkable score of 14-0. The boys looked like they wanted to be any place else, bumbling through the first seven minutes of the game before reserve Mo Walker scored to make it 14-2.

The male Gophers played as if they thought St. Mary’s was a Division II team from Winona. If they had done their research, they would have learned that, over the last decade, the Gaels have the highest winning percentage among all Division I men’s basketball programs in California. That group includes UCLA, USC, Cal, and Stanford. Of course, the Gophers have the highest winning percentage of Division I teams in Minnesota. They also have the lowest, since Minnesota is the only Division I program in the entire state.

Dating back to 2007, St. Mary’s has posted an impressive 184-54 (.773) record and has averaged 26 wins per year. This season, the Gaels surpassed the 20-win mark for the seventh straight year and eighth under head coach Randy Bennett.

To say the Gophers were caught napping would be an understatement. Lineup switches early on produced nothing more than standing around on offense and a listless defense. Only power forward Joey King came ready to play, managing to score nine first-half points, including an improbable three-point basket.

“We were turning the ball over at an alarming rate,” observed coach Richard Pitino after the game, “but we started to do a good job defensively. That brought us back.”

A 22-12 run put Minnesota within four points at the half. “I didn’t want to send these guys off this court with a loss,” Pitino said. “We had to create our own luck. We found a way to do it.” That way included taking a 34-32 lead and holding it.

In the second half, the Gophers were hustling, able to score baskets off offensive rebounds and fast breaks. The lead mounted to 49-41on an Elliot Eliason free throw.

St. Mary’s made a late run, capped by a three-point basket by Stephen Holt to make it 58-53 with under a minute to play, but Gopher free throws sealed the victory. Holt finished with 24 points.

Minnesota’s leading scorer was King with 18 points, followed by DeAndre Mathieu with 14. Eliason registered seven blocks and eight rebounds.

Many of the crowd of 5,489 stuck around for the second game of the day which pitted the women Gophers (21-12) against SMU (18-13) of the American Athletic Conference. For some it might have been their first live exposure to the women’s game.

Unlike the first game, these Gophers jumped off to an early lead and held it for a 46-29 margin at halftime. Sari Noga, in particular, was hot with 14 points, including four three-pointers.

Banham had 11 points before going down with injury, and things got interesting from there. Clearly shaken by their star’s absence, the Gophers began rushing their shots and committing foolish fouls. The latter was especially critical since Minnesota already had a short bench.

Minnesota dressed only seven players and were now down to six. As SMU rallied behind reserve Keena Mays’ 34 points, the Mustangs crept to within four points of the Gophers. Minnesota’s predicament was compounded by the fact that both Noga and 6-5 center Amanda Zahui each had four fouls. Should both foul out, the Gophers were lacking a replacement for one. The tension in the building was palpable as the crowd sensed the situation.

Fortunately, neither Noga, who finished with 22 points or Zahui (10 points) fouled out and clutch free throw shooting by Mikayla Bailey provided the 77-70 win.

How Gopher coach Pam Borton found herself with only six healthy players remains a mystery. Poor planning combined with injuries could cripple the team for its next NIT game versus South Dakota State. Couldn’t Borton find live bodies from the intramural ranks like Bill Musselman did in the 1970s? One of the players Musselman found there was Dave Winfield.