University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Open Against Tennessee Tech
11/13/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Tubby Smith's 600th Game: Minnesota will look to stay perfect in season openers in the Tubby Smith era, as they welcome Tennessee Tech to Williams Arena. The contest will mark the beginning of Smith's third season in "Gold Country," and also his 600th career game as a head coach. Smith's career record entering the night is 429-170 (.716).
About the Golden Gophers:
- Minnesota has a combined record of 22-2 under Tubby Smith in non-conference games, including a perfect 12-0 record to start the 2008-09 season.
- Under Tubby Smith, Minnesota is 17-0 in regular season non-conference games at Williams Arena. Dating back to the 2006-07 season under Jim Molinari, Minnesota has won 19 consecutive non-conference regular season home games.
- Smith is 28-8 (.778) overall at Williams Arena during his two seasons at Minnesota.
- Minnesota is allowing just 60.2 points per game at Williams Arena under Smith (36 games). The Gophers allowed just 58.4 ppg at The Barn in 2008-09 in 18 games. Under Smith, opponents have only reached 70 points eight times in 36 games (22% of the time).
- The Gophers were led a season ago by guard Lawrence Westbrook. He averaged a career-high 12.6 ppg. He also established career-highs in average minutes played (24.1), field-goal percentage (.430) and free-throw percentage (.833).
- Guard Devoe Joseph led Minnesota during the exhibition season with a 19.0 ppg average.
- Gopher freshmen Justin Cobbs and Rodney Williams will be making their collegiate debuts.
About the Golden Eagles:
- Tennessee Tech is coached by Mike Sutton (Eighth Season)
- Tennessee Tech went 12-18 in 2008-09 and finished eighth in the Ohio Valley Conference.
- The Golden Eagles return eight letterwinners from last season, including seniors Will Barnes (9.9 ppg in 2008-09), Frank Davis (10.0 ppg in 2008-09) and Elijah Cunningham-Muhammad (5.1 ppg in 2008-09).
- Mike Sutton and Tubby Smith have been on the same coaching staff on five different occasions. Coach Smith hired Sutton to be an assistant while the head coach at Hoke County High School in Raeford, N.C. in 1979. The two were then reunited as part of J.D. Barnett's VCU coaching staff a year later. Sutton would go on to be part of Coach Smith's staff at Tulsa, Georgia, and Kentucky.
Series History:
- Minnesota leads the all-time series, 1-0.
- The only meeting between the schools took place during the 1986-87 season. Kelvin Smith scored a team-high 24 points and Willie Burton added 16 points as the Gophers came away with a 92-69 victory. Tech's Earl Wise also amassed 24 points on the evening.
Each New Season: The University of Minnesota men's basketball program has an all-time record of 86-22 in season-opening contests, dating back to a victory over Company A in 1896 by a score of 5-4. The Gophers current win streak in season openers stands at 11 (1992-93, 1999-2008). Last season, Al Nolen scored 17 points and dished out six assists and Lawrence Westbrook added 13 points as the Gophers defeated Concordia-St. Paul in the first round of the NABC Classic at Williams Arena. The Gophers hosted the tournament in conjunction with the NABC and then NABC President Tubby Smith.
Tubby Out of the Gate: Tubby Smith comes into the 2009-10 season with 429 career wins as a head coach, 15 of which have come via season-opening victories, including the Gophers' victory over Concordia-St. Paul in last year's opener and an 84-52 victory over Army in Tubby's Gopher debut. While at the University of Tulsa, Smith guided the Golden Hurricane to a 3-1 record in openers, followed by a 2-0 record in his stint at the University of Georgia and an 8-2 record in his 10 seasons at the University of Kentucky. Coach Smith's teams have won the last seven season openers.
Westbrook Gaining on 1,000: Senior co-captain Lawrence Westbrook enters the 2009-10 season needing 236 points to become the school's 35th member of the 1,000-Point Club. Westbrook scored 73 points as a freshman, 288 as a sophomore and 403 points last season as a junior. He averaged a team and career-high 12.6 points per game last season.
Dan Coleman was the last Gophers player to join the club, as he did so as a senior during the 2007-08 season. He began the season with 923 points and finished with 1,317 points, 15th most in Minnesota history. Mychal Thompson is atop the list with 1,992 points.
Exhibition Roundup: Minnesota concluded the exhibition season by defeating Minnesota State, Moorhead 98-49 Nov. 9 at Williams Arena. The win gives Tubby Smith a perfect 6-0 record in exhibition games at the University of Minnesota.
Sophomore guard Devoe Joseph averaged 19.0 points per game to lead Minnesota during the exhibition season. Senior co-captain Lawrence Westbrook and Damian Johnson averaged 17.5 and 13.0 points per game, respectively. Johnson grabbed a team-high eight rebounds per game, while junior Al Nolen dished out a team-high 6.5 assists per contest.
Junior Blake Hoffarber (.556) led a group of six Gopher players that shot at least .500 from three-point range. As a team, the Gophers were 19-38 from three-point land.
Against the Dragons, the Gophers shot 57 percent from the field for the game, including an unconscious 61 percent from three-point range. Minnesota had five players finish the game with double-figure scoring nights, led by Joseph with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including 5-of-8 from behind the arc. Westbrook added 16 points, while Hoffarber, Sampson III and Johnson chipped in with 14 points, 11 points and 10 points, respectively.
The Gophers opened the exhibition slate against the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs on Nov. 5. Both teams started slowly, as the Gophers held a slim five-point lead at the first media timeout, 8-3. From there, Minnesota went on to score 50 points in the first half, including 21 straight to finish the half, and held the Bulldogs to just five field goals and 13 points.
The Gophers added 10 straight points to open the second half and went on to beat UMD by a score of 114-47. Minnesota was led by Westbrook with 19 points, while Joseph added 18. Johnson, who led the team in steals and blocked shots a season ago, finished with 16 points, 10 rebounds, seven steals, four assists, and three blocks.
A trio of freshmen, guard Justin Cobbs and forwards Dominique Dawson and Rodney Williams, made their debuts against the Bulldogs. Cobbs delivered four points and five assists in 14 minutes, while Dawson added four points and three rebounds in just six minutes on the court. Williams finished with 11 points on four-of-five shooting from the floor and led all of the freshman with 22 minutes logged.
All 11 Gophers in uniform made it in to the boxscore and played at least six minutes. Last season, Minnesota had 11 players average at least 3.7 points per game and at least 11 minutes per game.
Preseason Rankings: The University of Minnesota men's basketball program begins the 2009-10 season as the 18th and 25th ranked team in the nation, according to the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' preseason and Associated Press polls, respectively.
The Gophers were last listed among the nation's best in a preseason poll prior to the 2002-03 season, when they began as the 24th ranked team in the nation. That season, Minnesota spent the first eight weeks in the polls and reached as high as 17th.
Minnesota spent seven-straight weeks in the polls last season, reaching as high as 17th in the ESPN/USA Today poll on Jan. 12. The Gophers entered the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls as the No. 23 ranked team in the country on Dec. 22, the first time they had been ranked since 2002-03
I know What you did Last Summer: A pair of Gopher forwards spent their summer away from Minneapolis, and playing basketball, of course. Junior Paul Carter, the team's leading returning rebounder, was part of a 13-day, eight-game trip to China as a member of a Sports Reach ministry team. He averaged a team-high 15.6 points and 11.0 rebounds per game.
Sophomore Ralph Sampson III was among 17 players invited to participate in a tryout for the USA under-19 men's national team at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Unfortunately, Sampson was among the last players cut from the team.
Gophers Sign Elliott Eliason and Austin Hollins: The Minnesota men's basketball program announced on Nov. 11 that Elliott Eliason and Austin Hollins had signed National Letters of Intent to play for the Gophers. Both players will be eligible to compete during the 2010-11 season.
"We are really excited to now have Elliott and Austin as part of the Golden Gopher basketball program," said Minnesota head coach Tubby Smith. "We have definite needs for Elliott and Austin in our system with the loss of Damian Johnson, Lawrence Westbrook and Devron Bostick. We know that we are getting a pair of players that not only have great basketball IQ's, but are also great students. We look forward to following and seeing their progression during their senior seasons."
Eliason, a 6-11 senior center from Chadron, Neb., averaged 14.8 points, 10.4 rebounds and 3.8 blocks (99 total blocks) as a junior in leading the Cardinals to a 26-1 record and the Nebraska C-1 state title game. He comes from an athletic family, as his father, Jay Eliason, and mother, Lorna Eliason, played football and basketball and volleyball, respectively, at South Dakota State University.
Ranked as the 27th-best center in the country by Scout, Eliason carries a 3.75 GPA and last year finished second in the Introduction to Business at the Nebraska Future Business Leaders of America state competition. The reigning Gatorade Player of the Year in the State of Nebraska, Eliason chose the Gophers over Stanford and Creighton.
"Elliott is a young man that has great length and size that will add some real depth to our front court. His skill level and passing ability set him apart at the center position," said Smith. "I think that he will be able to develop and learn from Colton Iverson and Ralph Sampson. His future's is very bright."
Hollins, a 6-4, 180-pound shooting guard from Germantown, Tenn., is the son of Memphis Grizzlies head coach Lionel Hollins. The elder Hollins played collegiately at Arizona State and was a first round draft pick (sixth overall) by Portland in the 1975 NBA Draft. He would later help lead the '77 Trail Blazers to the NBA Title.
Ranked as the 34th-best shooting guard in the country by Scout, Hollins averaged 16.0 points and 6.0 rebounds per game as a junior and led Germantown to a 20-12 record and to the Tennessee Region 8-AAA quarterfinals. This past summer he helped lead the Nashville Celtics to a 30-10 record and to the River City Showdown AAU Tournament championship. Hollins carries a 3.5 GPA and chose Minnesota over Arkansas, Memphis and Oregon State.
"Austin is a very intelligent and gifted player that has been around the game of basketball his entire life," said Smith. "I think those experiences and the amount of exposure that he's had to major athletics, especially basketball, have been very beneficial to him. We will benefit from his great outside shooting ability and ballhandling."
New Barn Floor: Williams Arena, originally built in 1928, has undergone many changes through its 81-year history and on May 11 construction began on the next phase, a new floor. The project to replace the original floor was concluded on Aug. 28 and came with a price tag of roughly $600,000. Ironically, the original construction expense for Williams Arena was $650,000.
- The original floor was installed in 1928.
- The arena was initially named The University of Minnesota Field House.
- When the building was remolded in 1950 it was renamed in honor of Dr. Henry L. Williams, the U of M football coach from 1900-21.
- In the remodel it was built for basketball and hockey (the old Mariucci and current Sports Pavilion) with a capacity of 18,025 for basketball.
- From 1950-71 Williams Arena had the largest capacity of any collegiate basketball arena in the country at 18,025.
- After the 1950 remodel, Williams Arena was granted the 1951 NCAA Finals (Kentucky defeated Kansas, 68-58).
- The arena underwent major renovations during 1991-93 and in 1997.
- After the additional renovations, fire code restrictions put the capacity at what it is today, 14,625.
- The University of Minnesota men's program has only had two losing seasons in Williams Arena since 1935-36.
- The Gopher men have an overall record of 710-279 (.718) at Williams Arena, while the Gopher women have an overall record of 212-108 (.663).
- 1,407 Golden Gopher basketball games (men's and women's) were contested on the Williams Arena floor.
- 17 Gopher Men's All-Americans and 13 Gopher women's All-Americans donned jerseys on the Williams Arena floor.
- The most individual points scored in Williams arena is 45 from Michigan State's Scott Skiles (1/18/86).
