2009-10 Schedule Coming Together

Slowly but surely the Gophers 2009-2010 basketball schedule is coming together with Jeff Goodman from Fox Sports reporting that Morgan State, St. Joseph’s and Stephen F. Austin have all been confirmed as opponents.  The Gophers will also be playing on the road against Miami (FL) for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

Minnesota will also be opening up the season in Anaheim for the 76 Classic (Nov. 26-29).  While the tournament pairings have not been announced, the rest of the field includes UCLA, West Virginia, Clemson, Texas A&M, Butler, Long Beach State and Portland — a pretty stacked early season tournament as seven of the eight teams were in the Big Dance.

With a field like that, its entirely plausible that the Gophers could end up playing one or more top 25 teams, which would be a strong non-conference addition to their schedule.

So, while the upcoming schedule continues to be a closely guarded secret, the pieces are starting to come together.

UPDATE: It’s now been reported that the Gophers will meet Butler in the first round with the winner facing the UCLA/Portland winner.  So it’s feasible that Minnesota could open its season with games against two top-10 teams.  Fun!

Gophers up to #21

The Gophers took two out of three on the road against Michigan, improving to 33-14 on the season and 15-5 in the Big Ten.  Minnesota currently sits in first place in the conference with one more series left to play in the regular season.  The Gophers travel to Happy Valley to take on Penn State in their final tune up before the Big Ten tournament and, more than likely, the NCAA Tournament.

If you haven’t been following the Gophers too closely recently they are completely on fire.  Since dropping two in a row to Illinois back on April 17-18 they had won nine straight conference games before losing to Michigan on Sunday (John Anderson was denied his 1000th win in the process) with one strange loss to Division III St. Thomas sandwiched in the middle.

Their reward?  Their highest ranking in any national poll this season.  Baseball America placed them at #21, while both Collegiate Baseball Magazine and Rivals put them at #24.  This marks the first time the Gophers have been ranked in the Rivals poll this season.

Derek McCallum is having a ridiculous season hitting .403-16-66.  He leads the conference in batting average, slugging percentage, hits, RBIs, home runs, and total bases.  He is also second in on-base percentage.  Unbelievable.

AJ Pettersen checks in at 12th in the conference in batting average and first in runs scored.  Tom Buske owns the conference’s fifth best ERA.

Now Minnesota just has to take care of business on the road at Penn State (7-14 in the Big Ten) if they want to take the top seed in the Big Ten tournament in Columbus, OH.  The NCAA tournament is starting to look more and more like a lock.

The Gophers have been mentioned as legitimate postseason participants in several publications.  More often than not they are slated to be a #2 seed in whichever region they appear in, meaning they would have to travel for the tournament.  For instance, ESPN’s Jeremy Mills puts them in Texas A&M’s region.

But chew on this — the Gophers actually have a chance to host a regional.  The NCAA has been trying to nationalize baseball for years (read: not have the South dominate year in and year out) and would love nothing more than to have a northern team host a regional.  Should the Gophers win out the rest of the season, they actually have a chance to end up as a number one seed in a region.

Even if they don’t end up with a #1 seed somewhere, it’s not out of the ordinary for a #2 seed to host a region if it makes geographical sense.  Word on the street is that John Anderson has been making a push to host the region at the Dome (Hey, it never rains indoors), and with the NCAA’s push to get the North interested in college baseball, it’s not out of the question that we could see a postseason region held right here in Minneapolis.

Stay tuned.

Baseball back in Top 25

The Gophers reclaimed a spot in the uber-coveted Baseball America Top 25 poll today after a successful week.

Minnesota split with Missouri on the road (one win, one 20-5 loss…ooofta), but followed up with a three game sweep over Northwestern in their second-to-last Metrodome series.  The week came on the heels of a previous weekend series win over then-#18 Ohio State.

The Gophers again saw spectacular pitching from their starters.  Chauncy Handran (7.2 IP, 2 ER) and Tom Buske (8 IP, ER) each had amazing starts and Austin Lubinsky chipped in with four innings of one-run ball.  Neither pitcher has an ERA over 2.73 for the season.

Offensively, SS AJ Pettersen finished the week 7-20 with four RBI, while Nick O’Shea went 8-21 with five RBI and a HR.  Catcher Kyle Knudson took home unofficial offensive player of the week honors going 9-19 with six RBI and two HRs. Pettersen currently leads the team with a .383 batting average, good for fourth in the Big Ten, while Buske’s 2.15 ERA puts him at second-best in the conference.

Minnesota (20-10, 6-2) now sits atop the Big Ten in a tie with Indiana, with whom they split an earlier series with.  Add that to a resume with series wins over Big Ten semi-powerhouse Ohio State and #16 TCU and single game wins over Santa Barbara and Hawaii and we have the makings of a truly successful season.  Hawaii was only recently ousted from the top 25.

The Gophers go outside this week with single games against Wisconsin-Milwaukee and South Dakota State before an important weekend series on the road against Illinois (21-8, 6-3).  Illinois is one of the more powerful teams in the conference and would be a huge series victory for Minnesota.  Not only would it add two more conference wins over a legitimate opponent, but it would even further solidify the teams postseason chances.

In an interesting side note, the Gophers are “in” as an at-large in Rivals’ most recent attempt at Bracketology.  Rivals has Illinois as the predicted Big Ten champion.  This is interesting in that the Big Ten is more or less the Missouri Valley of NCAA baseball (read:  mid-major) and usually doesn’t get more than one bid.  You might expect this ranking to change should the Gophers find success against the Illini.

Minnesota is currently the only team in the Big Ten ranked in the top 25.

Tubby Timeout

I’m not even really sure where this rumor started gaining traction — presumably somewhere deep within the confines of the Internet.  Nevertheless, people everywhere seem to think that our beloved head coach, father of Saul, is entertaining the idea of leaving the Frozen Tundra in hopes of landing somewhere more fun (and higher paying).

I have a question….why would he ever do that?

I didn’t believe it in February when people said he was going to Alabama, and I never believed that he was going to the University of Virginia.  In whose mind would that  move ever make sense?  Does it really seem like a beneficial move for Tubby to pack up and leave the very school he settled with only two seasons ago?  Where do these rumors start?

Here’s the reality.  Tubby Smith is not going anywhere for a long, long time.  Smith won a national championship at the University of Kentucky.  He maintained a dynasty at one of the most prominent basketball institutions in the country.  But you know what?  He wanted more.  He wanted to create his own dynasty, not inherit one.  Fast forward to Minnesota.

Here he is now, a couple 20 win seasons under his belt in his first try.  He has a top 25 recruiting class coming in that he created from nothing.  Now that he’s inherited the worst and realized some semblance of success, does anyone really think he wants to leave a project that he started merely toiling in mediocrity?  He wouldn’t even be going to a better situation out east.  He would just be setting himself back two season to achieve the same thing he set out to do initially, which is build a dynasty from nothing.

Now, this operates under the assumption that Smith doesn’t want to run around the country creating mediocre programs in two years and leaving them to their own devices.  Maybe he loves to only try kind of hard for a couple seasons and then leave the dumbfounded fanbase crying for more Tubby.  Maybe he’s an egomaniac like that, who knows.

But I’m willing to put a hefty bet down that he wants to create a championship team with his own hard work.  To create a legacy that people will remember.   Remember, this isn’t the NFL where head coaches come and go like Ryan the Temp.  Colleges have traditions they like to uphold and coaches stay around for long periods of time.  A college head coach is not a high-turnover profession.  If he wants to create a tradition of success then he is going to have to stick it out for a few years.

It’s mildly frustrating that legitimate publications like the StarTribune and the Pioneer Press are even entertaining this rumor in their print editions.  Luckily Charley Walters is reporting it, which means it most certainly is not true.

The silver lining of this whole situation might be that our current head coach is so good that people everywhere hope to have him.  Congratulations, team, the Gophers are relevant in college basketball again.

Baseball: On to conference

Gopher baseball recently concluded its non-conference season with a dominating sweep over Dallas Baptist.  While that in itself is not surprising, the fact that the Gophers will begin Big Ten conference play ranked #25 in the nation may come out of left field (see what I did there?).

Just to get you up to speed, the Gophers finished non-conference with a 13-6 record which included a series victory at TCU (#16) and a single game win over UC Santa Barbara (#20).   Throw in wins over Washington, Hawaii and West Virginia and you have an Interactive Strength Rating, an RPI of sorts,  that is the best in the Big Ten.  Not a bad way to start the conference season.

I had a chance to sit down and shoot the breeze with freshman SS A.J. Pettersen about the upcoming conference season and he had some interesting things to say.  One thing that he mentioned was how great the pitching and defense have been so far this season.  Indeed, Minnesota enters the conference season with the lowest  team ERA (4.10) and opponent’s batting average (.254) by far.  They also have the conference’s highest fielding percentage.  Pair that with an overall tough non-conference schedule from top to bottom and there is reason to get excited for the conference season.

The team did run into some trouble on their Texas road trip against UT-Arlington earlier in the week.  While on paper it seemed that the Gophers should have owned the series, Pettersen said that Dallas was a team that can mash the ball from time to time (32 hits in two games earlier this season).  That’s exactly what they did in game two of the series, dropping 12 runs on 20 hits.

“We’ve had some trouble in midweek games,” Pettersen said.  “We go against teams that are usually of lower caliber and we treat them as must win games.”

He  brings up an interesting point and on closer inspection the team on Monday through Thursday this season is 0-5 while a staggering 13-1 over the weekend.  Perhaps an anomaly, but perhaps not.

“We tend to press against those teams,” he said.  “We get down early and haven’t been able to gather ourselves for big innings. We feel like we have to win every game.”

You’d think that such a hardcore way playing from day to day would wear down a team, but Pettersen didn’t think so.

“I’m not worried — we do a lot of mental training on the team.”

Wait a minute, mental training?  Like a team shrink?  Supposedly Minnesota employs a team psychologist to help with stress that comes during the season to keep the players at peak performance.  The players even engage in belly breathing at each practice to help them relax.

“Once you get to a higher level, especially Division I, the mental game is what separates teams,” he said.  “We might not have anyone who can throw in the high 90s or hit a ton of bombs, but we have a lot of mentally tough individuals and because of that we can beat anyone.”

That’s the type of edge I’d be willing to hang my hat on.

End game

Well, I suppose it had to happen sometime, but I was hoping it wouldn’t be this early.  The Gophers 2009 season ended in somewhat disappointing fashion in a loss to the Texas Longhorns in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

It was a pretty simple diagnosis of what went wrong.  The Gophers knew they needed to stop Dexter Pittman and AJ Abrams; unfortunately they didn’t do either.  Pittman owned the paint (17 points, 11 rebounds) and Abrams drained eight three-pointers en route to 26 points.

The Gophers hung around until about the 14 minute mark in the second half when Abrams went on an unbelievable run in which he hit four three-pointers in two minutes.  A truly unreal feat that effectively broke the back of Minnesota.  I mean, really, how can you even come back against something like that?  Simply amazing.

And while the loss was disappointing, it’s important not to feel like the Gophers underachieved this season.  There were times where the team would do something above and beyond, like beat Louisville, and they would seem like they were a completely legitimate top-25 team.  Then they would go and lose to Northwestern and seem like they were dropping the ball on the season.

But what some people may not realize is that everything the Gophers did this season was above and beyond everyone’s expectations.  If you would have told me that this team would be in the NCAA Tournament before the season started I would have let out a hearty chuckle.  What we saw, though, was that Tubby Smith was able to mold a bunch of scrubs that he inherited into a completely noteworthy, and often dangerous, Big Ten team.  It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking a first round exit just caps a frustrating up and down season for Minnesota, but make sure you put it in context and take the entire season as gravy.

1)  The Gophers were incredibly young, often starting two freshmen the entire season.  They won’t lose any important seniors (unless you consider Jamal Abu-Shamala important) before next season

2)  Tubby has four big-time recruits coming to town next year.  Keep in mind that the majority of the team this year came during the Monson era.  If Tubby could turn someone else’s team into a tournament-worthy squad, imagine what he can do with his own players

3)  Minnesota established itself as a completely legitimate Big Ten team, something they hadn’t been in quite some time.  Next season they won’t have to work so hard to gain national respect as they used this season to put themselves on the map.  They should begin to appear in conversations as strong candidates to finish near the top of the conference next season

I know it’s the old, “maybe next year” thing that has become so second nature for Gopher Nation, but for real, next year will kick ass.  We are building on great things.

Check out The Daily Gopher’s take on the season.

Christmas Eve

It’s been so long that we’ve been at the foot of the door to the tournament, the night before it all goes down, and the Gophers are actually still playing.  I feel like an adult in some sort of adult candy store.  At 6:15pm tomorrow it becomes put up or shut up time for the maroon and gold.  No more “if we win then we might see tomorrow” talk.  This is black and white.

The boys at The Daily Gopher point out the lack of tournament experience that the Gophers have and, though it will work against them in this tournament, will provide valuable experience for coming seasons.

Fortunately, the Selection Committee bailed the Gophers out (a little) and placed them in a winnable game against the Texas Longhorns, a team that they match up quite well against.  Texas is a team that likes to push the ball, play up tempo basketball and shoot.  This isn’t (or, at least, wasn’t) a team that usually dominates the paint all game long.  AJ Abrams, for better or for worse, carries the team.  When he’s on, the ‘Horns are on.  However, they’ve realized some success with their tank of a center Dexter Pittman, who has found a serious groove in his past five games and has been playing some big minutes.  It wouldn’t be surprising to see Texas try to bully the Gophers inside with Pittman.

That being said, an up tempo, semi-out-of-control game, should it be played out that way, plays right into the Gophers hands.  They don’t do well in a set half-court style of play.  When they are let out to pasture they let instincts take over and end up forcing turnovers and creating points off those turnovers.

I spoke with my die-hard Longhorns buddy Gervin who gave me some insight into what we might expect from our Texan brethren.

“We win one of two ways,” he said.  “either Dexter Pittman plays football out there and we get physical, or Abrams drops 30.  But Pittman’s been on fire lately.”

He also made it seem like the Longhorns have found a newer, more reliable style of play with Pittman down low.

“He’s scored in double digits in five out of the last six games [including a 20-rebound performance] and he’s finally found his groove.  He really didn’t get into day to day shape until about a month ago.”

It’s interesting that Gerv mentions the shape thing, as Texas’ semi-turnaround at the end of the regular season (where they won seven of 10) seems to coincide with Pittman being healther and stronger.  It may come to be that the Longhorns abandon their up-tempo style of play and focus on a more reliable inside presence, something that the Gophers would have a challenge facing up against.

All in all it will be up to the Gophers to hope to dictate the flow of the game.  When they get trapped in a slow, half-court style of play they shoot themselves in the foot with turnovers and then end up pressing themselves to come back, causing more turnovers.  Keeping the ball away from Pittman will be essential, as will keeping Abrams in check — definitely a tall order.

From The Barn put together a killer breakdown of the Longhorns and what you might expect come gametime.

If the Gophers can somehow figure out a way to put together a complete game then they could be unstoppable.  That means reducing turnovers, pushing the tempo, getting results out of their press and taking smart shots.  Each of these is something that they have shown they can accomplish, just not, for some reason, at the same time.  We’ll see which team comes to play at 6:15.

Going dancing!

After a tumultuous last couple months in which it was unclear whether or not the Gophers were likely to play in the NCAA Tournament, the season finally culminated with Minnesota landing a 10-seed and a first round matchup with the University of Texas.

The Gophers were firmly on the bubble after losing to Michigan State over the weekend in the Big Ten tournament, however the consensus seemed to favor the team being included in the field of 65 after a first round victory over Northwestern.

The Gophers draw the University of Texas (22-11, 9-7), a team with a similar resume and type of season as Minnesota.  The Longhorns started out hot in the beginning of the season but have been only mediocre in Big 12 conference play.  Much like Minnesota, the Longhorns mostly beat up on the little guys in the conference but generally couldn’t get it done against the better teams like Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas.  They did, however, take down the Sooners, albeit without having to go against Blake Griffin.

Minnesota, with a win, would likely face Duke in the second round, a formidable second round opponent, though that’s putting the wagon ahead of the horse.  The Big Ten ended up getting seven teams in with Penn State being one of those left sitting on the bubble.  Other notable teams that didn’t receive an invite were San Diego State, St. Mary’s and Florida.  It was also another year in which mediocre major conference teams were given the nod over comparable mid-major teams.  With only four at-large teams being included from non-power conferences, the trend continues to show that the committee favors the bigger teams.

I expected the Gophers to get an 11 or even a 12 seed.  The 10 seed they received was definitely as high as they could have expected to go.  It’s also nice that they didn’t draw a team that is completely on fire.  Texas is coming off a disappointing loss to Baylor and is only 7-7 in their last 14 games.  It’s definitely a winnable first round matchup for the Gophers.  I’ll break down the matchup a little later in the week, but for now I plan to just live in the moment and enjoy the invite to attend the dance with all of the cool kids.

Are you ready to dance?

So many emotions in one game:  elation, disgust, fear, anger, anticipation, relief.  The Gophers didn’t make it easy, but it appears that they may be on the road to the Big Dance.

It was a real nice way to start the day.  An 11am start and, with no television in the office, a Walkman hooked up to my ear.  It truly reminded me of high school and sneaking a radio into class to catch March Madness action during science class.  With no free Minnesota-based radio feed available, I felt the need to smuggle in AM radio.

Minnesota was cruising until just before halftime and had even built a 12 point lead late into the first half until Northwestern went on a mini run to cut the lead to six before halftime.  It was a classic first half for the Gophers with stingy defense, up-tempo play and, of course, turnovers.  It seemed like neither team could hang onto the ball in the first half, even though Minnesota was able to build a good lead.  It just seemed like they were making far too many stupid mistakes to remain comfortable.

Maybe it’s written into every Minnesota sports postseason television contract or maybe there is some misunderstood force that undermines every important Gopher contest , but the Gophers felt the need to make the game super interesting.  Northwestern flipped a switch with about 10 minutes left in the second half  and stormed back from eight down and managed to grab a 49-47 lead with seven minutes to go.  As I sat there helplessly listening to my radio I had visions of each Gopher meltdown in the season.  This second half giveaway was nothing new…Minnesota had been punting games like this all season long.  A team makes a mid-second half run and the Gophers fold.

But then something amazing happened.  The Gophers did NOT fold.  In fact, they battled back.  They took the Northwestern run as a challenge and amped up the intensity.  They held Northwestern scoreless for seven straight minutes.  They owned the game.

It wasn’t only the defensive colonoscopy the Gophers administered on the Wildcats that was so impressive.  Rather, it was what they did with the offense.  They ran set plays, took the ball to rack, drew fouls, went to the line and converted.  There were no misguided jump shots or random three point attempts that make you scratch your head.  There was hard-nosed, confident, calculated basketball.  They even took care of the ball, committing only three turnovers in the final 10 minutes.

This is what the team is capable of.  They can dig deep and get things done when it counts.  What I’m hoping is that they take this confidence with them to the Michigan State game or, if nothing else, realize that they can rely on their current talent to get the job done.  Also, as the guys at The Daily Gopher point out, Minnesota already might have a feel for the arena, be in a groove, etc.

Minnesota sits at 22-9 with a 10-9 Big Ten record and I think this game gets them into the field of 65.  Tomorrow’s game against Michigan State will be a good barometer of where they are actually at before they get to the tournament as there won’t be any Indianas, Iowas or Northwesterns for the Gophers to beat up on.

Calm before the storm

As we count down the minutes until tipoff between the Gophers and Northwestern, several questions come to mind. What happened? What round of the NIT will the Gophers lose in? What type of suicide will I commit after the final horn sounds and the Gophers drop in the first round of the Big Ten tournament? What’s a Boilermaker?

I kid, and I seriously think the Gophers will take down Northwestern, albeit with difficulty. Northwestern is pretty terrible most of the time, but they can surprise teams (read: Michigan State). I do, though, find it pretty funny that Northwestern has never been to the Big Dance. NEVER. Not once. That is pathetic considering they play in the Big Ten, which has considerable pull in the Selection Committee. I actually put the drought up there with the Chicago Cubs. I mean, come on, even Cleveland State is going back for a second trip. 

There isn’t much to be said about the game that hasn’t been said at From The Barn.   If Minnesota wins, then I think they are in.  If they lose, well, I don’t really think they deserve to be in.  

Here’s to hoping that Craig Moore gets clowned by Damain Johnson several times.  I hate that guy.