Minnesota Golden Gophers Basketball

A lot of you might be wondering where I have been. You probably thought I would have been blowing up the site with Minnesota Gopher writes ups, left and right.

Nope.

Truth be told, I’m afraid to write this.

As you know from reading my blog over at Sports Tears In Our Beers,  I’m a huge Gopher basketball fan. I’m the guy that sits in the same spot, wears the same clothes and drinks the same drink during each and every game that is played.

To say I’m superstitious would be a giant understatement.

This is why I have not written a single thing since they beat Indiana. I wanted to, but the girlfriend had some housework for me to do and I just never got around to it. Then, they won again, and again, no write up.

Two wins in a row and no write up? Maybe I should never write again I thought.

Now they have won three games in row and are on the eve of playing their biggest game of the year thus far. They play No.10 Michigan State on the road. A place, I’m sure I don’t need to remind you, has not been friendly to our lovable rodents.

So why do a write up now?

Well, one, I’m a third of this blog and need to hold up my end. Two, it’s one of my resolutions to not let Gopher Basketball effect my life as much as it does. So what better time than right now to get over my superstitions?

Oh sure, if they don’t leave East Lansing with a win, or at least put up a respectable fight, I’ll blame, and I expect you too as well, my write up as the reason. However, if they win, then I will know that it truly doesn’t matter what I do. It all falls on the players on the court.

Let’s get to the game.

Do I think they will win? Not sure. What’s that? You want an actual prediction? Fine, here it is. No.

They won’t win. The Spartans are feeling good after crushing Purdue.

So I predict that  final score will be 85-70 after all is said and done.

Calm down, calm down. See, the reason I say no is because if they do win, well, it’s time to party because I thought for sure they wouldn’t. If they don’t win, it was expected and bring on Illinois.

Pretty good way to look at it huh?

Now I know it seems stupid to look at it that way, but hey, it makes the games they don’t win that much easier to swallow. Who wants to think their team is going to win every game, just to see it fail to happen. Even Ben, a huge almost disgustingly so Duke fan, is going this route now.

My advice to all fellow Gopher fans is this: don’t let this win streak get you overly excited. On the same token, don’t let any loss from here on out take you to the ledge. Just have fun.

It’s college basketball, and it’s getting closer and closer to March. This is what we all want, a fun, young team that is showing promise and might actually make something happen. Let’s enjoy it.

And remember, if and when they lose again, feel free to put all the blame on my shoulders.

It is generally said that when a new coach takes over a college program, he should be given at least three or four years to bring in "his" players and develop his system before issuing a full judgement on that coach's abilities.

Now, almost five years into his tenure with the Minnesota Golden Gophers, I am ready to pass my judgement on Men's Basketball Coach Tubby Smith.

He needs to go.

When the rumors started floating around in 2007 that legendary, championship-winning coach Tubby Smith was considering coaching the Gophers, I was ecstatic. After the debacle of Don Monson's coaching tenure, a legend like Smith was exactly what this program needed to become relevant again.

I was sorely mistaken.

After Sunday's loss to the Purdue Boilermakers, the Gophers are now 0-4 in Big Ten play. Against the Boilermakers, the team never even looked capable of putting up a fight—going down 15 at halftime and never getting closer than eleven points in the second half.

This followed a loss to the ever-hapless Iowa Hawkeyes at home, and two losses to Michigan and Illinois. Clearly this team is unable to finish in the clutch.

Each year has been the same story for this program. An exciting early season, beating up on "Directional State" type schools and a couple bad major conference teams and then going nowhere once the big boys of the Big Ten start rolling around. So far in Smith's tenure with the Gophers, the team has gone 32-44 in Big Ten play.

He has not won an NCAA Tournament game either. That is simply not acceptable with the expectations made when he was hired.

The complaints with Smith have been the same since he won the NCAA Championship with Kentucky in 1998. The offense he runs is unremarkable and has no flow to it. The Gophers have averaged under 70 points per game under Smith. Last year he forced a pure shooting guard in Blake Hoffarber to awkwardly try and run the point for the first time in his life. Smith's substitution patterns baffle and surprise opponents, but not in a good way.

For a coach that generally relies on good defense to win games, the Gophers have consistently struggled to defend the perimeter. In the last game against Purdue, the Boilermakers shot ten-of-twelve from three in the first half. That is sadly not an uncommon performance against the Gophers.

Additionally, Smith has failed to recruit any star players, and has struggled to develop the players he has gotten. For a coach with a championship under his belt and coaching at a Big Ten school, Smith should be able to recruit a top class every year.

In his first two seasons, he was able to bring in two top-25 ranked groups, however he was not able to develop the players from the first class. The jewel of his second class, Royce White, never played a game for the Gophers, which brings us to another problem.

Smith has been unable to keep control of his players. From Royce White's announcement on YouTube and via Kare 11 that he was quitting basketball (YouTube video since removed), or Devoe Joseph leaving the team after eight games last year, Smith has not been able to maintain control over his locker room.

This could have something to do with my next point.

Every offseason, there are multiple rumors of Smith leaving the Gophers to take over another program. Rumors of Smith heading to Georgia, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Arkansas and Oregon—among others—make it difficult for recruits to commit to him, and makes it difficult for current players to trust him. If Smith truly was not interested in these teams, then he should immediately squash the rumors like a good coach would. Instead, he states that he would listen to any offer if they called.

Mind you, the University of Minnesota paid Smith about $1.8M last season, according to Joel Maturi via Minnesota Public Radio. That is a salary higher than Wisconsin's Bo Ryan, North Carolina's Roy Williams, Illinois' Bruce Weber and Purdue's Matt Painter.

The Gopher program is no better now than it was in Smith's first year with the team.

In five years, Smith has failed to post a better than .500 record in conference play or to win a single NCAA Tournament game. At this point in the season, it will take a miracle for either of those things to change.

Smith has been given ample opportunity to turn this program into something that hasn't been seen in Minnesota since the 1997 Final Four run (that was stricken from the official records). Instead, he has done nothing more than middle around the bottom half of the Big Ten and earn a large paycheck.

I know it sounds stupid to think the Minnesota Golden Gophers are better without Trevor Mbakwe, but it just might be true.

The Gophers are 3-0 (VTech, USC, Appalachian St) since Trevor suffered a season-ending ACL tear against Dayton in the Old Spice Classic Championship game—something, as a diehard Gopher fan, I didn’t see coming.

Not because I didn’t think the team had the capable players, more so because the shock of losing a leader could have destroyed such a young team.

However, it seems like this team has another leader to follow.

Rodney Williams.

That’s right, the kid that has been playing out of position his whole career at The U has stepped up in a big way. Maybe some good can come from the bad for once for the Gophers.

Rodney has been playing at the 3 pretty much his whole career at The University of Minnesota after predominantly playing at the 4 in high school. His game suffered from it. He thrives close to the basket, not out beyond the arc.

Williams is averaging 14.6 points and 7.6 rebounds (his best as a Gopher) a game since moving into Trevor’s old spot. Far better numbers than the 7.7 points and 2.7 rebounds he was averaging playing out of position.

Now, I know fans will be quick to say Tubby should have made the move sooner, but he couldn’t. He wasn’t going to take either Ralph Sampson III or Trevor out of position. He wanted Rodney to adapt to playing at the 3 because Rodney is a starter and had to be on the court. There was no other place for him.

His game now is more than numbers, it is his confidence.

He is active out there teaching the young guys, hitting the big shots and playing great defense. Everything he wasn’t doing in the first part of the season—hell, the first part of his career—he is doing now.

I can honestly say this is the best stretch of basketball Rodney has played in his two-plus years as a Gopher.

Will this be the year we finally see the potential all of those NBA scouts were talking about?

It’s early, but I say yes.

Now Rodney isn’t the only guy that has stepped up. There is another junior that is helping to carry this team right along with him: Julian Welch.

Welch has been outstanding pretty much this whole year, averaging 9.8 points and 2.3 assists, but he has stepped up even more since being inserted into the starting lineup. Welch, since being a starter, has seen his numbers jump to 15.6 points and 3.3 assists a game. Not only that, he is shooting 93 percent from the charity stripe.

The only two free throws he didn’t make (back-to-back against DePaul), his fellow leader Rodney was there for the put-back.

Fitting, isn’t it?

He needs to cut down on his turnovers (2.6 a game), but that is pretty much it. The JuCo transfer has the makeup to lead this team in a backcourt that is very young, and he might be the best scoring guard the Gophers have had in a while.

Combine that with great inside play from Rodney, and we just might have something special.

I know it’s only been three games, and the games haven’t been against the toughest competition and have been at home, but still, this is a good sign. This team could have easily climbed into its hole and stayed there for the winter.

But it didn’t.

It has done the exact opposite.

I know it’s hard to get your hopes up when it comes to Gopher basketball. But maybe, just maybe, this is the year to do it. It’s always a roller coaster ride with this team, and that accounts for half the fun.

Check back with me in December, and I could be singing a different tune. After all, this does have the makings of a few sports tears in my beer.

The Minnesota Gophers started tonight on a high note as slight favorites to win the Old Spice Classic Tournament Championship against Dayton. 

The night however ended badly as the Gophers not only lost to Dayton 86-70 but they may have lost Trevor Mbakwe for the season.

Mbakwe was injured at the 17 minute mark in the second half as he attempted to go up for an offensive rebound.  He immediately went to the floor and appeared to be in a considerable amount of pain.

Minnesota Coach Tubby Smith said “it didn’t look good” for Mbakwe after the game but didn’t give any specifics except to say that Trevor would undergo a magnetic resonance imaging exam on Monday.

Mbakwe, a preseason first team All-Big Ten player, tweeted from the locker room: “Lord please get me through this.”

Despite playing just 21 minutes tonight, Mbakwe scored nine points and grabbed four rebounds.  Mbakwe was named to the all-tournament team.

The Gophers can ill afford to lose Mbakwe as he is the heart and soul of the Gophers squad.  Mbakwe averaged a double-double last year and he is as fierce any interior post player in the Big Ten. 

After Mbakwe left the game, Minnesota never got any closer than double digits against Dayton.

Ralph Sampson III started but saw limited action as he was nursing a badly sprained ankle.  Sampson played only 10 minutes in the first half.

Minnesota could not generate any consistent offense in the second half without a credible lost post presence in the half court offensive set.

Gophers fans shouldn’t completely discount this loss to the injury suffered by Mbakwe. 

Dayton beat Minnesota because they exploited the inability of Minnesota’s guards to handle pressure or stop them from scoring easy transition baskets.

Dayton ended the first half with a 25-5 run over Minnesota to lead going into halftime 37-28.  Minnesota committed 21 turnovers because of the pressure applied by Dayton.

Minnesota will have to quickly regroup as Virginia Tech comes to Williams Arena on Wednesday as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge game.

Andre Ingram, a Minneapolis native, will likely get the start if Mbakwe is unable to play.  Ingram has seen limited action this season averaging less than ten minutes, two points and a rebound a game.

Gopher fans should not expect Maurice Walker to be pressed into action if Mbakwe is unable to play the rest of the season. 

The 6’10, 289 pound Walker suffered a knee injury last season and if healthy would have likely started at center this season.  Coach Smith has previously said that it might be better if Walker takes a medical redshirt this season.

After the game tonight, Coach Smith gave no indication that he had changed his mind.

“There is no telling how far Mo is away because he hasn’t done anything from a basketball standpoint since December,” Smith said, “And he’s not even running right now.”

Coach Smith will also likely give redshirt freshman Elliot Eliason more playing time.   Eliason, at this point in his career, is a nice player off the bench but he clearly struggles to match up with quicker and more athletic post players.

The first couple of weeks of December have just become much more interesting for Minnesota.

The Minnesota Gophers are off to a 4-0 start as they leave this week to play in the Old Spice Classic in Orlando.

Minnesota’s competition has not been the stiffest faced by a Big Ten team, but some positive trends have already have begun to emerge.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Gophers before they take on DePaul on Thursday.

First, the Gophers have enough athletes to play pressure man-to-man defense the entire length of the floor. Ten Gophers are averaging more than 11 minutes of playing time. As a result, the Gophers can finally create some offensive fast-break opportunities from their defense.

Second, Coach Tubby Smith appears to enjoy being on the bench more than he did last year as he has exhibited more smiles this year. Maybe he is having more fun because he has enough athletes to run the floor.

Third, UC-Davis transfer Julian Welch has been steady at point guard even though his assist-to-turnover ratio is 1:1. Welch will likely not generate many points, but he should be a steady influence when matters occasionally become frenetic during the season.

Fourth, Rodney Williams is off to his best start because of the up-tempo style of play. In the Gophers' 85-56 win over St. Mary’s, Williams had five dunks in the first half on the way to scoring 12 points in the first half.

Fifth, Trevor Mbakwe has improved his offensive game from last year. Mbakwe, a third-team preseason All-American, is averaging 16 points a game, shooting 60 percent from the floor and knocking down 76 percent of his free throws. 

Sixth, the Gophers may be relying on Mbakwe to carry too much of the rebounding load. Mbakwe has 39 of the Gophers 140 rebounds on the season, and as a team Minnesota is 210th in rebounding in the nation.

Seventh, the Hollins boys are a refreshing change of pace for Gopher fans over the Joseph boys.  No drama, just solid play. Austin is becoming a legitimate scoring threat at the off-guard position in his second year, and Andre as a freshman may end up playing 20 minutes a game while averaging 10 points.

Eighth, Ralph Sampson III may be the key to the Gophers success in the Big Ten as the Gophers will need to have someone emerge that can keep the opposing front line from constantly double teaming Mbakwe. Sampson has played well, but Gopher fans would love to see him emerge at the Old Spice Classic.

Ninth, the loss of Colton Iverson’s energy and effort will be offset by the play of redshirt freshmen Elliott Eliason and Oto Osenieks. Both Eliason and Osenieks are works in progress, but clearly, both worked hard in the offseason and are poised to get the most out of their respective game this season.

Finally, the Gophers appear to have enough depth to make it back to the NCAA tournament after last year’s failure to even make it to the NIT. First step, win the Old Spice Tournament Championship Trophy.   

Many basketball experts are predicting that the Gophers will win the Old Spice Tournament—music to the ears of Minnesota fans. 

Yes, Tubby appears to have many reasons to be smiling again.

Last year was a long and trying year for Minnesota Gopher Coach Tubby Smith. 

Al Nolen, Devoe Joseph and Maurice Walker were supposed to play prominent roles for Minnesota last year. 

However, the trio of players saw very limited action in Maroon and Gold as injuries limited the playing time of Nolen and Walker, and Joseph's decision to transfer. 

Instead of having two experienced point guards in Nolen and Joseph, the Gophers were left without a true point guard on the roster.

Sharpshooting three-point specialist Blake Hoffarber had to adjust his game to play the point guard position.  

Hoffarber was a wonderful soldier taking on the responsibility, but he simply was unable to consistently push the ball or put significant pressure on the opposing team’s point guard.

As a result, Minnesota’s up-tempo offense that feeds off of constant full-court defensive pressure was reduced to a slow stagnant half-court offense.

Minnesota managed to average just 63.7 points in Big Ten play and shot less than 30 percent from beyond the arc. 

The short-handed Gophers limped to the finish line losing 10 of their last 11 games and fell short of receiving an NCAA tournament bid. 

What occurred on the court last year clearly weighed on Coach Smith.  However, basketball wasn’t the only thing on Coach Smith’s mind last year.

Coach Smith was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year. 

Fortunately, Coach Smith was diagnosed early and it appears that he will make a full recovery. 

In responding to questions from reporters during Big Ten Media Day concerning his health, Coach Smith seemed to be someone who was taking the time to truly appreciate how blessed he has been to coach basketball. According to Amelia Rayno, the coach had this to say:

“It’s like, ‘You know what Tubby? You’ve had it pretty good for a long time.  And maybe you need to take heed and show some more appreciation.’”

Coach Smith added, “And show more—I don’t know.  Show more passion, maybe, to the get the job done.  Not that it was lacking, but maybe it was a wakeup call, because sometime you can get caught in a rut.  You’re in the business for 30—this is my 39th year—and all of sudden you go, ‘I better get energized,’ Because you can get the wind knocked out of you.  It’s like taking a blow when you hear the word cancer.  So you start feeling a little bit down, you feel sorry for yourself.  So you’ve got to overcome that.” 

I had the opportunity to briefly talk with Coach Smith at a celebration event for local Twin-Cities sports promoter and civic activist Kwame McDonald a couple of weeks ago.

In speaking with Coach Smith, he clearly appears to be appreciating the work before him and living in the moment. 

Coach Smith has been good to Gopher fans and there is no doubt he will continue to be good to Gopher fans.  However, Gopher fans are likely to see a different side of Coach Smith this season.

Coach Smith is energized and ready to return this season to his full-court, non-stop pressure defense style of play.

The Gophers basketball squad has reloaded this year with several athletic players who can rise to the challenge of playing man-to-man full court defense.

Gopher fans are likely to see some more smiles from Coach Smith this year as this year could be special for Minnesota.

Last summer Ralph Sampson III expressed interest in possibly declaring himself for early entry into the June draft.

At the time, all I could think was that Sampson was make a tremendous mistake. Sampson wasn’t ready to make the jump to the NBA.

Sampson has the size, at 6’11" and 245 pounds, to play in the NBA. Sampson also has enough of a deft shooting touch to play at the next level as evidenced last year by his free-throw shooting percentage of 74 percent and field goal shooting percentage of 48 percent.

Sampson however has never shown enough of the intangibles to demonstrate that he is ready to play at the next level.

Sampson seemed too content to blend in to the flow of the game instead of trying to dominate the action.

Ralph averaged two block shots a game last year but too often had mental lapses that led to either easy baskets or extended possessions for opponents.

Additionally, Sampson too often looked like he was winded and needed to substitute out of the game.

Last year against players at the NBA caliber talent level, Sampson was generally on the short end of the stick last year.

Harrison Barnes and Tyler Zeller of North Carolina forced Sampson to see most of the game for the vantage of the bench last year as both had Sampson backpedaling early and often.

Wisconsin’s Jon Leuer, not the most physically gifted player drafted, was also able to force Sampson into fouling out the game.

Purdue’s JaJuan Johnson faced little opposition from Sampson when his Boilermakers played Minnesota.

When Ohio State played Minnesota, Sampson also offered little resistance to the Buckeyes Jared Sullinger.

On the offensive end, Sampson never had a signature game against a quality ranked opponent. 

Unlike his teammate Trevor Mbakwe, Sampson never had more than 10 rebounds and 10 points against a ranked opponent.  Further, Ralph never scored more than 14 points against a ranked opponent last year.

Most telling, Sampson had more games in the Big Ten where he scored less than 10 points than he scored more than 10 points.

In fairness to Sampson, he was not always assigned the primary responsibility to defend the above players nor do many players score more than 15 points playing for Coach Tubby Smith. 

Nonetheless, when you looked at the talent on the floor during Gopher’s game last season and sought to project what players could be a first-round draft pick in the NBA—Sampson’s name rarely came up in the conversation.

Sampson likely heard the same comment from NBA league officials when he sought advice as to where he would likely be drafted. 

Leave early Mr. Sampson and you will at best be drafted late in the second round and be slotted in the journeyman role.

Hopefully, Sampson was humbled by the experience and dedicated himself to improving his game.

Will Sampson start the season in the best shape of his life such that he wears his opponent out as opposed to being worn out by his foe?

Is Ralph ready to step up his defensive game and become a solid defensive player in the same mold of Mbakwe?

Can Sampson finally become the consistent offensive threat where fans of Gopher opponents concede that their squad can’t stop him from getting at least 15 points each night?

Sampson has the tools to be a very good basketball player worthy of a late first round draft pick in the NBA.

Yes, Gopher fans have their fingers crossed this season hoping that Sampson will reach his potential and demonstrate that he is worthy of being drafted in the first round.

If Sampson reaches his potential, Minnesota will have one of the best, if not the best, front court in all of college basketball.

Tuesday, November 1 marks the start of the 2011-2012 Minnesota Golden Gopher men’s basketball season.

After a depressing season last year, all fingers are crossed that this will finally be the year that it all comes together. Fans appear to be getting over the Tubby hire, and rightfully so.

Under Tubby, the Gophers have improved, but it hasn’t been the upward progression fans had hoped for. Sure, the team now wins more than nine games a year, but they can’t advance past the first round of March Madness.

I’m not here to dwell on the past. It just isn’t worth it and, quite frankly, it will just make me angry.

No, I’m here to try and pump up our fan base for this year. The year that I think will be the best in the Tubby Smith (at Minnesota) era. So, if you want to jump on the wagon with me, do it now. I don’t think there will be much room come December.

First off, I’m not going to go player by player again. What I want to do is give a full season breakdown and what I think the team will end up accomplishing this year.

Let’s start with the non-conference. Now, I know to the naked eye it does appear a little weak, which seems to be a Tubby standard. Sure, we could use the excuse, “We have a lot of new guys playing. We don’t want to kill their confidence by playing a demanding schedule.” For once, this is a statement that holds true. However, I still would have liked to see more big name teams on the schedule.

So, let’s predict the games (not including exhibition):

Non-Conference Predictions

Bucknell – WIN

South Dakota State - WIN

Fairfield – WIN

Mount St. Mary’s – WIN

OLD SPICE CLASSIC

DePaul – WIN

Texas Tech/Indiana State – Win if Texas Tech. Lose if Indiana State

TBD – No matter whom they face here – WIN

Virginia Tech (Big Ten/ACC Challenge) – WIN

USC – Lose

Appalachian State – WIN

St. Peter’s – WIN

Central Michigan – WIN

North Dakota State – WIN

With my predictions, that would send the Gophers into the Big Ten season with an 11-2 record at worst, and a chance at 12-1.

Now, even though they come out of this at best 12-1, it isn’t all that great. Heck, even 13-0 wouldn’t be great. Yes, they would come out unblemished and have an Old Spice Classic Trophy, but in the end it won’t really matter.

That’s the problem with playing such a weak schedule. The only things that could come out of it are bad. You lose one game to any of the teams listed, outside of maybe USC or Virginia Tech, and that puts you behind the eight ball right away.

Now, the team could gel together during this stretch, be a beast entering the Big Ten schedule and be in the hunt for a title. If that happens, great, but we have used that logic before, only to have our heart’s broken.

Ok, moving on. It’s time for the Big Ten season. Hopefully, this year plays out much better than the last.

B1G Predictions

@Illinois – WIN

@Michigan – Lose

Iowa – WIN

Purdue – WIN

@Indiana – Lose

@Penn State - WIN

Northwestern – WIN

@Michigan State – WIN

Illinois – Lose

@Iowa – WIN

@Nebraska – WIN

Wisconsin – WIN

Ohio State – Lose

@Northwestern – Lose

Michigan State – Lose

Indiana – WIN

@Wisconsin – Lose

Nebraska – WIN

If my predictions hold true, and I think they will, the Gophers will finish the Big Ten season with a record of 11-7 (23-9). Not great, but that would be the best season under Tubby Smith in B1G play. Would it be enough to get us into the “Big Dance?" Not sure. We would have some quality wins, but also some bad losses.

Key Wins

Fairfield

Virginia Tech

@Illinois

Purdue

@Michigan State

Wisconsin

Bad Losses

Indiana State

USC

@Indiana

@Northwestern

My guess is, after all is said and done, we will be where we are every other year: Needing to win one or two games in the B1G Tourney. I do think they make the “Big Dance” and even with a game or two. If that happens, we should throw a mini parade in Dinkytown. After all, we could use an excuse to celebrate the Gophers after some down years.

If the Minnesota Golden Gophers and Coach Tubby Smith are to make a serious run at a Big Ten Conference title, Trevor Mbakwe is going to play a significant role. Mbakwe is a force to be reckoned with in the low post and worked hard to improve his outside shot this offseason.  He was named this week as a preseason third-team All-American and first-team All-Big Ten selection. Mbakwe’s legal troubles stem from an incident that occurred prior to his arrival in Minnesota and an incident earlier this year. While he was a playing basketball at Miami Dade College during the 2008-09 season, Mbakwe was accused of assaulting a coed.  Mbakwe denied the allegations against him, claiming it was a case of mistaken identity. In August of 2010, Mbakwe chose to forgo a trial and decided to enter into a pretrial diversion program.  Upon completion of the terms of the program, the State of Florida will drop its case against him and there will be no criminal conviction on his record. Mbakwe’s decision to enter the pretrial diversion program was not an admission of guilt.  The program requires Mbakwe to serve 100 hours of community service, donate $100 to a Florida shelter for abuse victims and not run afoul of the law for six months. In January of this year, Mbakwe was arrested for violating the terms of a restraining order in Minnesota issued by one of his former girlfriends when he sent her a post on Facebook. According to the University of Minnesota, the following Facebook posting got Mbakwe arrested: I know we haven't talked in forever and trust me I'm not trying to start any drama with nobody in your life or anything. I just wanted to wish u the best with everything and I hope all has been well with you and your family. I am still disappointed how everything played out and I do wish that in the future we could be cool again. Idk how u r going to take this msg hopefully its not bad but I just wanted to wish u a happy new year and send out a congrats for graduating. I've been well I'm finally playin bball again in everything down in miami finally got taken care of thank god. Well idk if u will respond or not but best wishes for 2011. Mbakwe was arrested on misdemeanor charges and was required to post bail in the amount of $500.  As a result of Mbakwe’s arrest in Minnesota, the judge in Florida stayed final resolution of the assault case. At the time of Mbakwe’s misdemeanor arrest, Coach Tubby Smith said, “[While] his actions were well-intended [he] had a lapse in judgment.”  The misdemeanor restraining order case in Minnesota is expected to go to trial in St. Paul in April.   The assault case in Florida is scheduled to be back before the judge on January 23, 2012.  Miami State Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Terry Chavez, however, has said that it is likely the matter will “drag on” or be continued until a decision is made in the misdemeanor case. When asked about the status of the cases during Big Ten Media Day, Mbakwe concurred with Ms. Chavez’s assessment in that he believes that “nothing is going to happen during the season.” During Big Ten Media Day, Mbakwe appeared to have a huge weight off of his shoulders.  “That had been following me for so long,” said Mbakwe.  “It definitely feels good to focus on basketball and being a student rather than all of the off-court stuff that’s going on.” Gopher fans are definitely ready for a season where all the drama is on the court instead of off the court. (Some of the quotes and information within this article initially appeared in, “Gophers’ Trevor Mbakwe says legal troubles won’t be an issue during season,” Marcus R. Fuller, Pioneer Press, 10/28/2011 and “Minnesota’s Mbakwe to play,” UPI, 1/12/2011.)

Trevor Mbakwe is one of the best players in the Big Ten and is the best player on the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers squad, now he is one of the 14 finalists in the competition to make the 12-man Team USA roster for the 2011 World University Games in China.

Mbakwe is one of two players on the squad that is from the Big Ten, the other being Michigan State forward Draymond Green. Team USA will play in two exhibition games before the actual tournament begins on August 13, before which two more players need to be cut from the squad.

This only will progress Mbakwe’s status as an elite player in the country. Last year in his first year under head coach Tubby Smith, Mbakwe’s averages were all on Big Ten leaderboards:

13.9 points per game – 15th in Big Ten

10.5 rebounds per game - 1st in Big Ten

1.5 blocks per game - Tied for 4th in Big Ten

.582 field goal percentage – 2nd in Big Ten

Mbakwe is gaining more national prominence with his Team USA experience and single handedly keep the Golden Gophers somewhat in the spotlight. After a promising start to the season, last year’s Gophers fell off the map after the season ending injury to Al Nolen which would result in Blake Hoffarber having to run the show. Now it’s a new year and a year to prove something for Mbakwe and head coach Tubby Smith, this national team play will only boost Mbakwe’s skill and hopefully the Golden Gophers performance next year in the Big Ten.