Winning Ugly
February 24, 2008

Led by a strong effort from sophomore Lawrence Westbrook, the University of Minnesota men’s basketball team recovered from blowing a 13-point lead to overcome the Penn State Nittany Lions 75-68 at Williams Arena before a crowd announced at 13,222.

Westbrook scored 15 points and provided second-half shutdown defense against Penn State star David Jackson in the Gopher win. “We are shorter than any team we play,” Minnesota coach Tubby Smith said after the game. “Take Westbrook. He gave six inches in height to Jackson and yet he held him to one basket in the half. Lawrence battles. He’s the toughness for us right now.”

The victory cemented Minnesota’s place as the leader of the second division of the ll-team Big 10 Conference. The team’s record of seven wins and seven losses (17-9 overall) places the Gophers ahead of Iowa, Michigan, Penn State, Illinois, and Northwestern. In fact, Minnesota, with the exception of Illinois, has defeated each of these teams (some twice). Unfortunately, the Gophers have no wins against the five teams ahead of them in the race (Wisconsin, Indiana, Purdue, Michigan State, and Ohio State) and finish the 18-game conference schedule with games at Purdue, Indiana, and Illinois and a home contest with Ohio State.

Minnesota has no chance of making the NCAA tournament unless they win at least three of four of their remaining games and add Big 10 tournament wins. More likely, the Gophers will be candidates for the NIT. But even that is no sure thing. The NIT has been pared down to 32 teams, and the NCAA has guaranteed a birth to teams that win their conference title but lose in the conference tournament. For example, if Austin Peay wins the Ohio Valley Conference but loses to Morehead State in the tournament, Austin Peay is guaranteed a NIT birth. If this happens enough, nearly half the NIT field will be taken up by the Austin Peays of the world. Last year, Iowa went 17-14 but was turned down by the NIT.

While it’s true that Minnesota has 17 wins, none are considered to be “quality” victories. Of the Big 10 teams, the Gophers have defeated, none has a winning record. Plus the non-conference schedule is suspect. The following is a list of Minnesota’s non-conference wins:

Army (to date, 11 wins and 15 losses)
Iowa State (14-13)
Central Michigan (11-15)
California-Riverside (7-17)
North Dakota State (14-13)
Colorado State (6-20)
South Dakota State (8-19)
Santa Clara (13-13)
Nicholls State (7-20)
Kennesaw State (9-20)

Regardless of the opponent, Westbrook thinks the Gophers are ready to defeat anyone. “We know we can win,” he said. “If we were to play the Lakers, I’d say we would win. We can’t be scared of them. We’re not going to back down.”

Yet, against Penn State, the Gophers appeared to be slow early on. Sluggish play combined with red-hot shooting by Penn State had the Gophers in a double-digit hole late in the first half. But Minnesota sandwiched a 32-7 run around intermission to take control of the game. Six different Gophers scored as Minnesota opened the second half by scoring 15 of the first 16 points to turn a 37-35 halftime deficit into a 50-38 lead.

Amazingly, Penn State’s scoring production for most of the second half came from one man, forward Jamelle Cornley. Until slightly more than five minutes were left in the half, Cornley had scored all 13 of the Lions’ points in the period. In the meantime, Westbrook was blanking Jackson, who had 13 points in the first half.

Despite building a 65-52 lead, Minnesota seemed on the verge of self-destruction. A three-point basket by Penn State’s Danny Morrissey cut the lead to 66-64. The Gophers surged ahead 71-66, but Dan Coleman fouled Jackson on a three-point attempt. Jackson made two of three from the line. “Coleman almost cost us the game,” Smith wailed afterward. Free throws by Westbrook provided Minnesota with its final margin of victory.

Cornley led all scorers with 20 points, followed by Jackson with 19. “We have to get back to the drawing board,” Smith observed. “We’re going to have to play a much sounder game.”

Penn State coach Ed DeChellis was philosophical. “We made a run at them. We just couldn’t finish. Plus, we did some silly things. We turned it over foolishly. Plus, it seemed like we just couldn’t score in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Sometimes we lose focus.”