Motivated Gophers Top Wake Forest in NIT Opener
Wednesday, March 16, 2006

“These games are about who wants it and who’s accepted the fate of their year and who’s going to continue to try to work at end to change things when they’re disappointed,” said Minnesota coach Dan Monson after his Gophers beat Wake Forest, 73-58, in the opening round of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) before a sparse crowd of 2,643 at Williams Arena in Minneapolis.

Despite an appearance in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament last season, it was clear from early in the 2005-06 season that the Gophers would be doing well to get even an NIT bid. Following the Big Ten season and tournament, which ended last weekend, the Gophers practiced on Sunday and then waited for the announcement of the NIT field. “Sunday’s practice was awesome,” Monson said, adding that after they got the news that they were in the tournament, “They left here Sunday night really excited to be able to play and to play at home. They wanted to keep playing, they love playing here, so getting to do both, they left here really excited.”

Used to loftier heights than the NIT, Wake Forest had to overcome a slow start with some late-season victories to even qualify for the tournament. The Demon Deacons closed out their regular season with a win over North Carolina State, then beat Florida State and North Carolina State in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament to raise their season record to 17-16.

Against Minnesota, who came into the game with a 15-14 record, Wake Forest shot well early in the game. Senior center Eric Williams, who came into the game averaging 16.6 points and nine rebounds, was one of the few Deacons who had trouble over the first part of the first half. He missed one shot with Zach Puchtel closely guarding him and then was off-target with a hook shot over Spencer Tollackson. However, Williams found his stride midway through the second half. He used a drop step to make a nice move around Puchtel for a layup that put the Deacons ahead, 22-20.

Minnesota’s Rico Tucker answered with a pair of layups, the second after a steal by and pass from J’son Stamper to put the Gophers ahead by two. Wake Forest got the ball back to Williams, who this time dished off to Chris Ellis for a layup that tied the game. “We’ve run against some good post players but none are as big and physical as he was,” said Monson of the six-foot-nine, 280-pound Williams, who had two more baskets in the half to go with three assists and four rebounds.

Despite Williams’s contributions, the Gophers held a 39-33 lead at the intermission, in large part because of 14 turnovers by Wake Forest. Deacons coach Skip Prosser attributed the turnovers to a combination of “our mistakes and their defense.”

“How we have to win basketball games is at the defensive end,” noted Monson. “When we have had success this year, that’s how we’ve done it.”

Williams scored 15 seconds into the second half to pull the Deacons to within four points. After that, however, the big man virtually disappeared. He had no assists and no rebounds in the second half. He took only one more shot from the field, which he missed; he got to the free-throw line twice but each time missed the front end of a one-on-one.

The Gophers switched defenses as they bottled up Williams and the others, holding the Deacons to 25 points in the second half. “We felt that this was a team that we had to give them different [defensive] looks to try to have to make them not get comfortable,” Monson said. “I felt that if this got into an offensive game, we were going to lose. They average a lot of points, and we don’t.”

Following Williams’s basket early in the second half, the Gophers went on a 13-3 run, opening up a 14-point lead. Senior guard Vincent Grief had three straight baskets during that run, and he finished as the game’s leading scorer with 18 points. Grier also led both teams with eight assists and had seven rebounds.

Wake Forest wasn’t able to make any runs of its own over the rest of the game. “If we get stops, we can get transition,” said Monson. “We’re different from Wake Forest. If their offense gets going good, their defense feeds off of it. We’re the opposite of most teams. When our defense is going good, our offense feeds off it.”

The Gophers maintained their double-digit lead the rest of the way and won by 15 points.

“A lot of things we did poorly all year came back to fruition—we had 14 first-half turnovers—as well as our inability to keep them from scoring,” lamented Prosser after the game. “We did not play nearly as sharply as we needed to play to be able to win.”

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