Gophers Cruise over Tennessee Tech in Opener
November 13, 2009

The Minnesota Gophers wrapped up their two-game exhibition schedule with a 98-49 win over Minnesota State, Moorhead on November 9. Freshman Justin Cobbs dished out five assists in his 13 minutes on the court and Devoe Joseph followed up on his 18-point performance against Minnesota, Duluth with 20 points, including five three-point baskets in the second half, against Moorhead.

“I thought tonight we did some great things,” said Gophers coach Tubby Smith. “We got off to a good start defensively. That's how we set the tone in most games, and I think our guys have a pretty good appreciation for that. The one area was turnovers, we got a little carless there, but I thought our three-point shooting was superb tonight, and our defense was pretty consistent.”

“As far as a team we're sharing the ball a lot better, and that's why a lot more guys score,” added Joseph. “Just looking at the sheet here, almost everyone had an assist, which shows that everyone's being unselfish, a lot more guys are scoring, and we're getting the ball moved so everyone’s getting good shots.” Four nights later, the Gophers opened the regular season against the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles of the Ohio Valley Conference with a 87-50 win, shooting 68 percent from the field and blocking 15 shots, including five by forward Damian Johnson and four by Colton Iverson off the bench.

Freshman Rodney Williams put on a crowd-pleasing show with a dunk, rejection of a Frank Davis layup, swatting the ball into the stands, a three-point basket, and later another dunk on a nice pass from Nolen in first half.

Minnesota, ranked 25th by Associated Press and 18th in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll, had 25 assists on its 34 field goals with senior guard Al Nolen leading the way with seven. The Golden Eagles had 27 turnovers in the game, 17 in the first half, and shot only 28.3 percent from the field. “We gave up too many second shots and didn’t take care of the ball,” said Tennessee Tech coach Mike Sutton after the game.

Despite the massive number of turnovers, the Golden Eagles stayed within single-digits of the Gophers until late in the first half. Then a couple of uncontested baskets and a leaning three-pointer by Lawrence Westbrook at the buzzer sent the Gophers into the locker room with a 37-22 lead.

“They had cut it to seven at one time, so that was huge,” said Smith of Westbrook’s buzzer-beater. “When you can gain that type of momentum going into the locker room, your guys feel better about themselves. They have a little more confidence and they believe their shots can go in. That is always huge when you can get that kind of momentum at halftime.

“We were very pleased with the play tonight. I thought our guys really showed a lot of energy. We could not make some shots early on. We were grateful that Tennessee Tech and Mike Sutton, the head coach there who is a great friend of mine, came out and threw a lot of different things at us that we needed to work on. There were some good, solid, all-around plays by our players. Free throw shooting is one of our concerns right now. Looking at the stats, we were 10-for-20. Otherwise, a good game all around.”

With 10 points, Kevin Murphy was the only Golden Eagles player in double figures. “We just saw that we could play against anybody in the country,” said Murphy. “Minnesota was ranked 18th in the nation and we stayed on the floor and made some good runs. It was a good experience for me to play against his [Smith’s] team. It was really good.”

Westbrook led the Gophers with 22 points against Tennessee Tech while Joseph, the only other player in double figures, had 14. Ralph Sampson had nine rebounds, three of them on the offensive boards.

Notes: Sutton was an assistant under Tubby Smith from 1994 to2002 at Tulsa, Georgia, and Kentucky. Sutton was 2005 Ohio Valley Coach of the Year. Then, in April 2005 he was stricken with Guillain Barre Syndrome, was paralyzed and near death that summer. Sutton returned during 2005-06 season but still has some of the paralysis.

Minnesota freshman Royce White missed the exhibition games and the regular-season opener after an arrest for shoplifting and assault in mid-October, followed by being named a suspect in a burglary in a university dormitory.