Golden Gophers Open Big Ten Season Friday at Michigan State

Minnesota Golden Gophers (9-3, 0-0 Big Ten)
vs.
Michigan State Spartans (8-4, 0-0 Big Ten)

LOCATION Breslin Center (14,759) - East Lansing, Mich.
DATE / TIME: Fri., Dec. 28 / 2 p.m. (1 p.m. CT)
TELEVISION: none
RADIO / WEBCAST: KBEM- FM 88.5
Gopher Radio Network / gophersports.com
Corbu Stathes (play-by-play), Lynnette Sjoquist (analyst)

Golden Gopher Watch List Dec. 28, 2007
Gophers Open Big Ten at Michigan State - Minnesota kicks off the 2008 Big Ten Conference schedule on Friday, Dec. 28, when the Golden Gophers travel to Michigan State. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. (1 p.m. CT).
Note Time Change For Friday - The tip time of the Gophers’ Big Ten opener at Michigan State on Friday, Dec. 28, has been changed to 2 p.m. ET (1 p.m. CT). The change was made since the Spartans play in the Champs Sports Bowl versus Boston College that evening.
Gophers Among Big Ten Leaders With Nine Wins - Minnesota finished its non-conference campaign with nine wins, equalling the win totals of both Ohio State and Penn State fro the most in the Big Ten. Overall, the Big Ten accumulated 79 wins (79-44) with nine of the 11 Big Ten teams capturing at least seven wins during the non-conference schedule.
The Leader of the Gopher Pack - Emily Fox is ranked among the Big Ten Conference leaders in scoring, assists, steals, free throw percentage and three-point percentage.

Minnesota Open Big Ten Slate at Michigan State
Minnesota kicks off the 2008 Big Ten Conference schedule on Friday, Dec. 28, when the Golden Gophers travel to Michigan State. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. (1 p.m. CT). The Gophers enters the Big Ten season with a record of 9-3 in non-conference action. The Spartans own a record of 8-4.

Time Change Announced For Michigan State Game
The tip time of the Gophers’ Big Ten opener at Michigan State on Friday, Dec. 28, has been changed to 2 p.m. ET (1 p.m. CT). The change was made since the Spartans play in the Champs Sports Bowl versus Boston College that evening.

Big Ten Openers
Minnesota is 4-1 under Pam Borton in Big Ten season-opening games. The Gophers, however, lost to Iowa (58-56) last season, breaking a streak of four straight conference-opener victories. Overall, Minnesota is 12-14 in Big Ten openers.

Preseason Team Predictions Jumbled
The Big Ten coaches and media agreed on pegging Ohio State as the favorite to repeat as league team champion, but after that, the preseason polls were an interesting jumble. The coaches named Ohio State, Wisconsin and Illinois to their top three, while the media named Ohio State, Michigan State and Wisconsin. The Golden Gophers were picked to finish sixth by the coaches and eighth by the media.

Nine Wins Popular at the Top
Minnesota finished its non-conference campaign with nine wins, equalling the win totals of both Ohio State and Penn State fro the most in the Big Ten. Overall, the Big Ten accumulated 79 wins (79-44) with nine of the 11 Big Ten teams capturing at least seven wins during the non-conference schedule.

Putting the Books Away For a While
The Gophers just finished up first semester final exams and now look forward to a nearly a month off of classes. Minnesota will play seven more games before the second semester begins on Tuesday, Jan. 22. So far the Gophers are 1-0 during their winter break from classes.

Borton in Her Sixth Year at Minnesota
Head coach Pam Borton is in her sixth season at Minnesota, which in itself isn’t unusual or newsworthy. What is interesting is that Borton, along with Ohio State’s Jim Foster, share the second-longest coaching tenure in the Big Ten Conference. Only Iowa’s Lisa Bluder, in her eighth season, has been in the league longer. Four Big Ten schools (Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State) have new coaches this season.

Dec. 30 Game on the Big Ten Network
The Purdue/Minnesota game will be televised live by the Big Ten Network, the Golden Gophers’ second appearance on BTN this season. Marney Gellner will handle the play-by-play duties, while Brenda Van Lengen is the color analyst. Eleven (11) Golden Gopher games will be broadcast by BTN during the regular season.

Minnesota in Solid Standing in RPI
Thanks to the Gophers’ 9-3 record over a challenging schedule ranked as the 26th toughest in the nation, Minnesota continues to hold a solid position (No. 26) in RPI (Rating Percentage Index) according to CollegeRPI.com. Penn State has the top RPI in the Big Ten at No. 12, followed by Michigan at No. 23.

Knight Enjoys Career High in Win Over Iowa State
Senior Leslie Knight converted on 7-of-10 field goal attempts en route to scoring a career-high 19 points in the win over Iowa State. In the Gophers’ last two games (Utah, Iowa State), Knight has averaged 18 points shooting 72.2 percent (13-18) from the field.

Fox Leads in Scoring and Assists
Emily Fox played all 40 minutes in the win over Iowa State, leading the Gophers with 20 points and dishing out six assists. Her 20-point outing was her third game with 20 ore more points scored this season. The Gophers are 8-1 when Fox tops the team in the scoring column.

Sylva Makes Her Biggest Impact
Junior Kay Sylva came off the bench with 15 impact minutes in the win over Iowa State. Sylva scored three points on her first three-pointer of the season and added three rebounds, two steals and an assist.

Freshman Dockery Has Surgery on Both Knees
Freshman forward Kristen Dockery is out indefinitely after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on both knees on Dec. 5 to relieve chronic knee pain. Dockery has yet to see action this season, other than a seven-minute stint in one of the Gophers’ exhibition games.

Gophers Win When They Score 70 Points
Though for a team with a defensive philosophy this statistic only makes sense, it’s worthy of mention nonetheless. Minnesota has won 69 straight games when the Gophers have scored 70 or more points. One has to go back to the 2003 Big Ten Tournament and an 80-77 loss to Iowa to find the last time Minnesota tallied 70 yet lost.

Securing Extra Chances
The Gophers do an excellent job of hitting the offensive glass to garner extra chances for their offense. Minnesota has outrebounded their opponents by a 201-126 margin on the offensive boards. The Gophers average 16.8 offensive rebounds per game.

Free Throws Can Make a Difference
Minnesota has made more free throws (186) than the Gophers’ opponents have attempted (170). The result has been a 22.3 to 14.2 differential in free throws attempts on the season. Minnesota has made 98 more trips to the line than its opposition this season.

Ellis-Milan Getting to the Line the Most
Starting center Ashley Ellis-Milan has done an excellent job of getting to the free throw line so far this season. Ellis-Milan has made a team-best 61 trips to the charity stripe, converting at a 75.4 percent clip.

Fox Consistent as Gopher Leader
Emily Fox has captured team scoring honors in nine of the Gophers’ 12 games. The only games in which she was not the Gophers’ top scorer was versus Virginia, though she scored 15 points in that game, against Charlotte, where she contributed 11 points and seven assists, and versus Utah, a game she posted 14 points and seven rebounds.

Scouting The Spartans
Michigan State brings an 8-4 record into the Big Ten season. The Spartans were nationally ranked all season until falling from the polls this week. Highlighting the Michigan State roster is 6-9 forward Allyssa DeHaan, last season’s Big Ten Freshman of the Year, and easily one of the biggest impact players in the Conference. DeHaan is averaging 13.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.2 blocks per game. She is shooting an impressive 54.8 percent from the field and 89.6 percent from the free throw line.

The Minnesota / Michigan State Series
Michigan State owns a 31-15 lead in the series with Minnesota. The Spartans won two games over the Gophers last season, one in the quarterfinal of the Big Ten tourney. Michigan State has won nine of the last 10 games of the series. The last time Minnesota won in East Lansing was on Jan. 7, 2002 (70--69) on a last-second jumper by Lindsay Whalen.

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