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.