University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Head East to Face Penn State
2/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Gophers Head East to Face Penn State
The Gophers will head to the Keystone State to take on the Penn State Nittany Lions on Feb. 14. Minnesota has come away victorious in the last eight matchups with the Lions, including the last three trips to Happy Valley. Last season, the Gophers had to overcome a 16-point PSU lead to leave the Bryce Jordan Center with a 76-73 victory.
The matchup is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. CT and can be seen on the Big Ten Network with Mike Crispino and former Ohio State great Jim Jackson on the call.
About the Golden Gophers:
- The Gophers are led by junior guard Lawrence Westbrook, who is averaging a career-high 12.7 ppg. Westbrook scored a game-high 15 points against Illinois (1/29) and has scored in double-figures in 18 of the 23 games he has played this season, including a career-high 29 points in the overtime victory at Wisconsin on Jan. 15. Minnesota is 15-3 this season when Westbrook reaches double-figures and 8-1 when he leads the team in scoring.
- Gopher sophomore Al Nolen leads the team with 118 assists and is currently 34 dimes short of 10th on Minnesota’s career all-time assists list. He comes into the Penn State game with 234 career assists (4.1 apg).
- Nolen has 28 career games with one turnover or less, and Minnesota is 23-5 in those games. Nolen is fourth in the Big Ten Conference with 4.9 apg and is second in the conference, and 18th in the nation with a 2.68 assist/turnover ratio.
- Junior Damian Johnson collected his second career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds against Ohio State (2/7). He also added three blocks and two steals while tying a career-high with 36 minutes played.
- Johnson is tied for the team lead in rebounding average (4.2 rpg), leads the team in blocks (46, 2.2 bpg) and is second in steals (39, 1.9 spg) and minutes played (27.0 mpg).
- Sophomore Paul Carter is coming off a career-high 22 point game in the Gophers victory over Indiana at Williams Arena on Feb. 10.
About the Nittany Lions:
- Penn State is coached by Ed DeChellis (13th Season, 6th at PSU).
- The Nittany Lions are 17-8 (6-6) this season and are coming off a 61-47 loss at Purdue.
- Penn State is led by sophomore guard Talor Battle, who is leading the Big Ten Conference in scoring at 17.4 points per game. He is also averaging 5.4 rebounds per game, 12th in the conference, and 5.2 assists per game, second in the conference.
- Penn State’s senior forward Jamelle Cornley is fifth in the conference in scoring at 15.3 ppg while senior guard Stanley Pringle is 12th at 13.2 ppg. Cornley is also ninth in the conference in rebounding with 6.6 rpg.
Series History:
- Minnesota leads the all-time series 16-3.
- Minnesota won both matchups a season ago with Penn State and has won the last seven matchups overall. The last PSU victory came on Jan. 17, 2004 in Happy Valley.
-Tubby Smith is 3-1 all-time against Penn State.
- Tubby Smith is 32-24 all-time against teams that belong to the Big Ten Conference.
- The Gophers have a 674-722 all-time record against teams that belong or have belonged to the Big Ten Conference.
Trent Tucker Receives Honor
The jersey of former Minnesota men’s basketball standout Trent Tucker joined four other former Gophers in the rafters of Williams Arena during a ceremony of retirement at halftime of the Minnesota-Indiana game on Feb. 10.
The Flint, Mich. native played four seasons at the U’ for head coach Jim Dutcher (1978-82). During his time in Gold Country, Tucker totaled 1,445 career points at Minnesota (8th all-time), posted 164 career steals (3rd all-time), 631 field goals made (6th all-time) and a .772 (183-237) free-throw percentage (7th all-time).
The University of Minnesota Athletics Department jersey retirement policy changed in 2004 so that only the jersey now is retired and not the number of the former student-athlete. This change was made to preserve a broad range of numbers that could be worn by current student-athletes on a team. It is now common practice at many institutions to retire the jersey and not the number. For those players whose respective number and jersey were retired prior to the policy change above, the Athletics Department will continue to honor them in both ways.
