March has finally arrived!

For gopher fans back in December, we were expecting to be in the top half of the Big Ten, and playing for seeding in the NCAA tournament.  However, a snowball effect of unfortunate circumstances and disappointing play has put the gophers on the outside looking in.  Starting tonight at Northwestern, the gophers will have to reel off a 3-4 game win streak to feel good about tournament hopes.  This season has had our morale so high and so low, that even us gopher fans have had a lot of trouble handling it. However, because it is now March, I will now be focusing on March Madness.  While it would be cool to see the gophs make a nice run to make to the dance similar to last year, I am fully expecting an NIT bid this year.  With conference tournaments getting started right now, all I can think about is that in two and a half weeks, I will be on a sofa somewhere with food and beverages within arms reach watching the greatest sports event America has to offer.

Preview: Minnesota Gophers @ Penn St. Nittany Lions

Time: 6:00 P.M. (C.S.T.)
TV: ESPN

I was going to write a story about the timberwolves game I went to tonight that featured Kevin Love and Blake Griffen, but it was much too pathetic a performance by the t-wolves to even write about.
The gophers will try to get back to the .500 mark in Big Ten play as they travel to State College to take on Penn St. for the first of two meetings this year.  Penn St. once again is lead by guard Talor Battle who can score in a variety of ways.  They also have some experience up front (and some rather generic names) in seniors Jeff Brooks, Andrew Jones, and David Jackson.  Battle is second in the Big Ten averaging just over 20 ppg, while Brooks is 4th in the Big Ten in blocks (1.7) and 3rd in field goal percentage (57.8%).  Ed DeChellis' team is once again sitting just outside the bubble in February.  They have a few quality wins in Big Ten play, but they have some head-scratching losses (like losing to Maine by 10) that will give them an uphill climb heading into March.  Penn State is a team I was sort of pulling for this year because I felt Talor Battle deserved to finally go dancing.  Oh well.

The gophers will try to build off a good defensive performance against Iowa (probably more of a terrible offensive game for Iowa).  The game featured Trevor Mbakwe absolutely owning the second half, scoring 22 of his 24 points.  He also shot very well from the line, going 10-11.  Other storylines of the game were Rodney Williams showing some aggressiveness and Maverick Ahanmisi playing his best game in a gopher uniform.  Rodney filled the stat sheet with 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists while Ahanmisi had 7 points and 1 TO in 11 minutes.  Blake is obviously not as effective playing the point as he is at the 2, so if the gophers want to make a run, players like Williams and Ahanmisi are going to have to step up each game.  I'm expecting a close game between these two squads, but I think a second half burst fueled by Chip Armelin will lead the gophers to a much-needed road win!

Preview: Minnesota Gophers @ Iowa Hawkeyes

Game Time: 5:00 P.M. CST
TV: Big Ten Network

O.K. this is my first time talking about the gophers in a while now.  It is just very hard to write things from deep within your heart when your heart has been crushed by watching this basketball team the past couple weeks.  What looked like a potentially special season in late November has become another typical gopher season filled with more injuries/suspensions etc. than quality wins.  While recent play would not suggest this, the gophers do still have a very good chance of making the tournament field, and the schedule is quite manageable from here on out.  However, the gophers will need to take care of business in games such as the Iowa game later today.

The hawkeyes come into this game a much better team than they were in the gopher's 69-59 victory in January.  The hawkeyes are led by Matt Gatens, a pretty decent shooter from outside and a guy that can create his own shot.  Point guard Bryce Cartwright is somewhat limited from the outside but has a very quick first step.  The player on Iowa that impresses me the most has to be freshman Melsahn Bassabe.  Bassabe, at 6-7, is a freak of nature who also has a pretty nice set of skills for a freshman forward.  He had 20 and 13 against the gophers in January, and I am hoping that our big men leave their dresses at home today and contain this guy.

In their last three games, Iowa has been a better team than Minnesota.  They absolutely embarrassed sparty 11 days ago, and then travelled to Indiana and picked up a win.  They then hosted Pissconsin and let a small lead slip away in the final minutes to a team that just knocked off the #1 team [vomit].  Judging by the play of both teams lately, I just cannot pick a gopher win here. 

Jordan Miller's Game Winner

http://smsumustangs.com/news/2011/2/11/MBB_0211113403.aspx?path=mbball

You must check this video and story out! Jordan Miller of Southwest Minnesota State (Mike Miller's cousin) hits a game winner as time expires in 2OT to beat Concordia University- St. Paul. They were down by 7 with 1 minute left in regulation and came back to win the game. I will write more about it late. I just needed to get this video up!

P.S. I was in the middle of the celebration pile!

Preview: #1 Ohio State @ Minnesota

On Sunday, a #1 ranked team will travel to Williams Arena to take on the gophers for the first time since Indiana defeated the gophers in February of 1993.  Despite the giant buzzkill loss to Indiana on Wednesday, the fan base is fired for the gophers to potential knock off an undefeated Ohio State game. 
Why the gophers have a legitimate chance to win:
-In Columbus earlier this year, the gophers had a potential game tying three blocked as time expired.  Trevor Mbakwe was just as effective as Jared Sullinger, and we did a good job of containing William Buford.
-Tubby Smith is our coach.
-The gophers will bring way more intensity and energy than they did against Indiana, and will look like a completely different team.
-Ohio St. has seemed to play down to their competition as of late, and seem "ripe" for an upset.
Why the gophers have little chance of winning:
-The gophers are extremely thin in the backcourt.  How are we going to be able to contain Aaron Craft, David Lighty, William Buford, and Jon Diebler?
-Sullinger keeps getting better and better every game; our bigs have been playing much too soft as of late
-The gophers looked flat out pathetic for 3/4 of the Indiana game.

Overall, I see this being a competitive game that will go down to the wire, as Ohio State has has been playing down to their competition, and the gophers will be playing with a lot more energy.  The atmosphere should be fantastic and I cannot wait to get the Barn rockin'!
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UPDATE: K-Love is now an All-Star

David Stern must have read my previous post, because Kevin has just replaced Yao as a Western Conference All-Star!

K-Love Snubbed

Kevin Love, the most prolific rebounder in the NBA today, has recently learned that he will not be on the Western Conference All-Star's roster.  In the NBA's all-star selection process, the coaches of each conference vote for player's in their conference.  You would think with Western Conference coaches seeing K-Love wiping the glass clean night after night, he would earn more than enough respectability in order to get All-star votes.  However, it appears that many people still forget think of the Timberwolves organization, as well as their players, as a real NBA team.  Between Love's rebounding and Beasley's scoring, the wolves have gotten a little more national visibility this year. However, their inability to win games has caused them to remain in many people's minds a second-rate organization.  Players on more recognizable teams have a clear advantage in the NBA's all-star process.  Let's compare Kevin Loves season averages against some other Western Conference bigs on top teams (and on the All-Star roster).

Player	PPG	RBG	BPG	APG
Kevin Love	21.4	15.5	0.4	2.5
Yao Ming	10.2	5.4	1.6	0.8
Blake Griffin	23.0	12.7	0.6	3.6
Tim Duncan	13.5	9.3	2.0	3.0

Clearly, if three out of four of these players make the All-star game, one of them should be Kevin Love.

Hawaiian Night for SMSU

Last night was the infamous Hawaiian Night basketball game at Southwest Minnesota State vs Winona State. It delivered one of the greatest basketball game I have ever seen in person. Let's start out with the atmosphere. The student section is always huge for the annual Hawaiian Night. With around 2000 drunk college students, the home court advantage was at a max. Before tip off, chants such as, U.S.A. and We Aren't That Drunk provide a preview for how crazy this student section would be. Not to mention the whole student section started singing the National Anthem faster than the singer. The first half was a fairly even battle between the two teams. With SMSU utilizing their inside game to their advantage (0-8 from 3 point range) and Winona State shooting only 4-15 from three point range, the Mustangs went into halftime with a 6 point lead. It also helped that the Mustangs shut down Winona State's Anthony Tucker as he went 0-5 in the first half. Tucker used to play basketball at Iowa. He averaged over 10 points a game his freshman year, but he had a couple alcohol violations that got him suspended and  eventually transfering. With a group of guys in the student section familiar with his history, they started the chant "Alcoholic" several times after he scored. The second half got underway and it was more of the same. The student section died down in the second half. The students lost their focus and half of them didn't even know there was a game going on. We kept the battle going. The Mustangs were running out of steam fast and the Warriors were taking advantage. SMSU led by 12 at one point, but didn't make a single field goal in the last 7 minutes of the second half. With 1:22 left, up by nine, the Warriors make a remarkable comeback that no one saw coming. They ended up tying the game and a last second shot by Jordan Miller, Mike Miller's cousin, hitting the front of the rim and out. This game was headed to overtime. Nothing too exciting happening in OT. Tucker hits 2 threes to keep the Warriors in the game. A tightly guarded 3 point shot by the Warrior was short and the game was headed into double overtime. Although SMSU scored first, after that it was a game of catch up by the Mustangs. Having to resort to fouling with a minute left, the crowd could tell this game was over. The Warriors sunk their free throws when it mattered and pulled off an amazing comeback to beat the SMSU Mustangs on Hawaiian Night. I have to admit it was a well played game by the Warriors. Good teams find a way to win and they proved that they were never out of the game. They beat the Mustangs earlier in the season on a last second 3 point shot by Anthony Tucker. Although both teams played as hard as they could for all 50 minutes, the Warriors were the ones headed home with the victory. Although they didn't win, I was still impressed with how hard the Mustangs played. S-M-S-U, Go Mustangs!!!!

Other Notes:
-SMSU shot 3-16 in the overtimes
-Points in the paint, SMSU 40, WSU 24
-Second chance points, SMSU 11, WSU 22
-Fast break points, SMSU 12, WSU 2
-Lavione West, SMSU, missed 5 free throws in a row in the second half.

Preview: Gophers @ Boilermakers

Gametime: Saturday noon CST
TV: CBS

The gophers, riding a four game win streak, will have their first rematch with a Big Ten foe, travel to West Lafeyette, IN to take on Purdue.  The boilermakers are coming off a game in Columbus in which they got absolutely run out of the building.  Other than JaJuan Johnson, most other boiler, most notably senior E'Twaun Moore, continued to struggle from the field.
The gophers will once again be without senior leader Al Nolen.  I was surprised in the Northwestern game in how much of the game Tubby had Iverson, Sampson III, and Mbakwe on the floor at the same time.  Because Purdue is stronger inside than Northwestern, I see Chip and Maverick getting a few more minutes in this game.  The gophers have a pretty impressive resume going into the game.  With a record of 16-4 (5-3), an RPI of 23, and a couple quality non-conference wins, all the gophers are really missing is a marquee road victory.  This is as good an opportunity as they're going to get.

For a recap of the Minnesota/Purdue game earlier in the month follow this link.

A New Week Brings a New Disaster For Gopher Basketball Team

This morning, the Star Tribune has reported that senior point guard Al Nolen sustained a broken right foot in Saturday's victory in Ann Arbor. He is expected to be out for four weeks or more (and possibly not putting on a gopher uniform again). Just when gopher fans thought we could put everything that has happened this season behind us and move forward, we lose arguably our most important player.  Unlike last year, we no longer have a reliable alternative to take over for Al's absence due to Devoe Joseph's inability to understand the concept that there is no "I" in TEAM.  This brings the number of scholarship players on the gopher's roster to a measly 8.
As a result of this, the pressure will be on freshmen guards Maverick Ahanmisi and Chip Armelin.  This is kind of ironic, because going into the season, these were the two recruits that were considered afterthoughts, and some fans questioned Tubby in giving them a D1 scholarship.  Thank God Tubby has given them some descent playing time early in the season, as they must rise to the occasion in order for us to remain competitive in the Big Ten race.  I expect to basically see a rotation of Blake and Mav at the point and a rotation of Chip, Blake, and Hollins at the 2.  Tubby could conceivably have Chip play a little point guard as well.  Blake will likely have to play 38-40 minutes from here on out.
In the Michigan game, the gophers did not see a drop in overall production in the second half when Nolen went out.  However, in the long term I am concerned with how Blake will hold up playing so many minutes from here on out.  Also, Al seemed to have a knack for making key buckets/defensive plays when we really needed them (especially in the North Carolina and Purdue games).  I am just worried of what is going to happen when we rely on our freshmen in some of these key situations.
Get well soon Al and beat Northwestern!

Thoughts From the Michigan Game

- The biggest storyline from this game is Al Nolen's injury.  I have not found any reputable source that gives us a timetable for his return, but I expect it to be several games.  At halftime, when it was announced he wouldn't be returning, I was very worried about winning the game.  However, the Hoff/Mav platoon at PG seemed to work out nicely.  Maverick seemed to rise to the challenge and even on the play he got called for the charge I liked his aggressiveness in going to the basket.  With that being said, I am still more comfortable with Blake playing point and Chip at the 2.

-  After a rough first few minutes for the bigs, they really came around late in the game, especially after Al went out.  It was good to see Ralph among the leading scorers and the rebounding margin 38-13 gophers speaks for itself.

-Rodney finally shot his threes with confidence and he went 2-3.  If he can can be somewhat consistent from three that just makes him that much more dangerous.

-You're going to win alot of games when you shoot 63% from the field.  This had alot to do with our superior size and athleticism translating to easy buckets.

-35 of Michigan's 53 shot attempts were 3 pointers.

Preview: Minnesota Gophers @ Michigan Wolverines

The gophers will look to continue their win streak as they head to Ann Arbor to take on Michigan Saturday night.  Members of the barnyard will be their for their annual roadtrip.  Over the last few years, the gophers have always seemed to have problems with the wolverines.  I don't know if it has to do more with John Beilein's agressive 1-3-1 defense or match-up problems in facing players like DeShawn Sims and Manny Harris.  Luckily for the gophers, Sims and Harris are no longer with the wolverines, but they remain a scrappy bunch.  Michigan is led by Darius Morris who is averaging 15.7 ppg and 7.1 apg.  And, like a typical Beilein team, they have sharpshooters in juniors Stu Douglass and Zack Novak.
The gophers come into this game fresh off a 6 day break for the start of spring semester.  They defeated Iowa 69-59 last Sunday.  They looked pretty solid for most of the game, but had a major lapse to start the 2nd half that resulted in a 13-2 Iowa run that tied the score.  All Big Ten road games are tough, but if the gophers can avoid lapses like in the Iowa game, their superior athleticism should give them an edge.

Name Change

Due to another blog out there with the same name we have changed our blog name from The Double Dribble to Rise and Fire Basketball Blog.  We chose this name to pay homage to one of the most important people walking the earth today, Gus Johnson.

Memphis Tigers Create More Drama

I know this is a Minnesota basketball blog, but I am a big Memphis Tigers fan. I just have to talk about them a little bit. Last night, while I was watching the Portland vs Phoenix game, I saw on the bottom line that the Memphis Tigers suspended Wesley Witherspoon indefinitely for mimicing an assistant coach on the loudspeakers on their team bus. As I thought about this, I realized that this kind of sums up how disappointing Memphis has been for me this year. Memphis has been my team for several years. Probably since sophomore year in high school. I have always enjoyed their dribble drive offense and their energetic hustle. I have always kind of thought of them as maybe "misfits". Every year, they run into off-court turmoil. This year has been no exemption. Memphis has endured the lost of 6'11" Angel Garcia leaving the team several weeks into the season to go play pro ball in Spain (after spending the last two seasons on the bench with academic issues, and a torn ACL). Wesley Witherspoon was out for a couple games with knee surgery. In some preseason scrimmages in Puerto Rico, a couple student-athletes had to stay back because they were not cleared by the NCAA. When Memphis played Austin Peay, they had to take the redshirt off Hippolyte Tsafack, due to the lost of Angel Garcia and Wesley Witherspoon being out. Now feshman Trey Draper, who has only played a total of 4 minutes this year, was in a car accident and broke his hand after their loss to SMU. I know, Memphis is a very young team. They have 1 senior and 7 freshman. It is only Coach Pastner's 2nd season as head coach for the Tigers. These off-court struggles have been reflecting their play in games. Sure 12-4 sounds pretty nice, but they don't have any big wins and lost to SMU. They have had a handful of games that they won, but they allowed the other team to hang with them until the end. Right now, I am disappointed in the Memphis Tigers, but with that said, I am still a fan. I understand growing pains. They will come around and look like the Tigers I know. Hopefully, they can do this before tourney time. Go Tigers!

Gophers pick up big win over #8 Boilermakers

After a long drama-filled week for the gophers, they were able to bear down and grind out a much needed 70-67 victory against a very impressive Purdue squad.  Blake Hoffarber had 26 points and put the team on his back for several stretches of the game.  JaJuan Johnson had a monster night as he led all scorers with 29 points to go along with 11 boards and really showed that he has what it takes to play at the next level.
 The biggest storyline going in to the game was Trevor Mbakwe following his facebook fiasco earlier this week that had gopher nation in meltdown mode for a short time.  While Trevor did violate the no-contact agreement by sending a facebook message to his ex-girlfriend, Tubby Smith and Joel Maturi agreed that the message meant no harm and did not suspend him.  He was, however, forced to come off the bench in Thursday night's game against Purdue.  About four minutes into the game, the Barnyard began a loud "We want Trevor!" chant, followed quickly by Trevor checking into the game to a nice ovation.  While Tubby said in the postgame interview that he did not hear the chant, it is likely that he did not want to make it sound like he gave into peer pressure.  Trevor finished 3 points short of another double-double (7 pts. 10 reb.) but we still love him.  Chip Armelin gave the gophers energy off the bench, Ralph Sampson III hit two big shots in the last five minutes, and Al Nolen was a steady hand once again and hit a late three which proved to be the game winner.  For Purdue, while JaJuan Johnson was basically unstoppable, E'Twaun Moore was one of the best players on the court for the gophers' cause tonight as he shot 2-14 from the field and turned the ball over 3 times.  The loss for the Boilermakers is their first in the Big Ten and drops their overall record to 15-2.  They symbolically give the Big Ten the finger as they travel to West Virginia on Sunday to take on a Mountaneer team who the gophers beat in the Puerto Rico tip-off championship in November.  The gophers improve to 2-3 in the Big Ten and 13-4 overall.  They will stay in town to take on the laughingstock of the Big Ten in the Iowa Hawkeyes.  However, with the way the gophers have played down to inferior competition this year, I could see this one being close for much of the way.

T-Wolves get T'd Up

The timberwolves are in the middle of yet another frusterating season.  This year however, they are showing signs of life this season, and have proven to be competitive in the majority of their games.  Yet, their inability to finish in crunch time as made this season all the more frusterating for wolves fans.  In Tuesday night's 107-96 loss against the San Antonio Spurs, their frustrations appeared to boil over as referee Ken Mauer (oh yeah, he's a cousin of Joe Mauer) showed no mercy as he dealt 5 technical fouls in 10 seconds of game time while ejecting a livid Kurt Rambis.  See for yourself below

Welcome

Welcome to our first post on our newly created blog. We are just a couple Minnesota Boys who love basketball. We will  be talking about anything basketball from high school to the NBA. We hope you enjoy!