The University of Minnesota (UM) was founded in 1851 as a college prep school, 7 yrs before statehood. In 1867, received land grant status through Morrill Act of 1862. With lands taken from Dakota people, the university was able to revive itself after closing in 1858. An 1876 donation from flour miller John S. Pillsbury saved the school; Pillsbury is known as "The Father of the University." Pillsbury Hall is named in his honor
Today UM has 2730 large city acres in Minneapolis-St Paul, enrolls 56,666 (31,855 undergrad), a $5.5 B endowment, USN&WR No. 53 public school, WSJ No. 85
Famous alumni include 14 Nobel Laureates, 3 Pulitzer Prize winners, US VPs Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, US Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, fmr ‘Purple People Eater’ & retired MN Supreme Court judge Alan Page, NFL HOF’rs Bronko Nagurski, Bobby Bell, Leo Nomellini, Bud Grant, Charlie Sanders, Tony Dungy, fmr Purple People Eater Carl Eller, MLB HOF’rs Dave Winfield, Paul Molitar. 1980 Olympic Gold medal winning hockey coach Herb Brooks -The Miracle on Ice. Oscar winners Henry Fonda, Jessica Lange, actors James Hong (SC grad prior to UM), M.I.’s Peter Graves, Ron ‘Hellboy’ Perlman, Grey’s Anatomy’s TR Knight, Green Acres Eddie Albert, David ‘Hutch” Soul, Loni Anderson, John Astin, EG Marshall, singer Bob Dylan, Greek composer/performer Yanni, wrestler Ric Flair, Mercury Seven astronaut Deke Slayton, Cardiac surgeon Christiaan Barnard performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant, Cray Supercomputer founder Seymour Cray, news anchor Harry Reasoner, journalist Eric Sevareid
UM Athletics: 29 NCAA championships: 7 Football (last 1960), 7 Women’s Hockey, 5 Hockey, 3 Baseball, 3 Wrestling, 2 Basketball, 1 Golf, 1 T&F, 216 Conf titles, 42 conf tourney titles; 26 Olympic Gold medals, 40 Silver, 17 Bronze
Colors – Maroon & gold, Nickname – Golden Gophers (MN became Gopher State in 1857, later UM adopted the nickname; fight songs Minnesota Rouser & Hail Minnesota, Mascot – Goldy Gopher
Basketball started 1896 (1602-1231, .565), 3 pre-NCAA titles, 1997 Final Four, 2 Elite Eight, 5 Sweet Sixteen, 14 NCAA appearances (last 2019), 9 Conf. titles, 3 Naismith Basketball HOF – Kevin McHale, ‘Sweet Lou’ Lou Hudson, Coach John Kundla; 10 retired numbers: 14 – Hudson, 30 – Charley Mencel, 32 – Trent Tucker, 34 – Willie Burton, 41 – Whitey Skoog, 42 Mychal Thompson, 44 – McHale, 45 - Randy Breuer, 52 – Jim Brewer, 53 - Dick Garmaker; 3 Consensus AA’s: National COY – Clem Haskins 1997, 3 Big Ten COY - Jim Dutcher, Clem Haskins, Richard Pitino; 3 Consensus AAs – Jim McIntyre, Garmaker, Thompson; 55 NBA draft pks ,4 Current NBA players: Jamison Battle, Cameron Christie, Amir Coffey, Liam Robbins
Winningest coaches: LJ Cooke 250-135, .649, Dave McMillan 196-156, .556, Jim Dutcher 190-113, .627. Other coaches - Bill Fitch, Bill Musselman, Clem Haskins, Don Monson, Tubby Smith, Richard Pitino
Current – Ben Johnson 4th yr, 1st head coach job (53-65, .449, 1 NIT)
Currently: 12-12 (4-9) W: Oral Roberts Omaha, Yale, Cleveland St, Central Mich, Bethune-Cookman, FDU, Morgan St, No. 20 Mich, Iowa, No. 15 Oregon, PSU; L: NTX, Wichita St, Wake Forest, MSU-2, Indiana, No. Purdue, Ohio St, Wisc, Maryland, UW, Illinois
All-time: (since ‘60) UM leads 4-2 (last 2012 – In 71-57 loss to #14 UM (Tubby Smith’s 500th win), Omar Oraby led SC w/ 15 pts, Byron Wesley 13, Jio Fontan 9)
UM NET 100, KenPom 92, SC NET 61, KenPom 56
UM Scores: 69.0 ppg (-0.07), 44.8% FG, 32.9% 3FG, 6.7 3’s/g, 65.2% FT. Rebounds 33.5 pg (-1.4), Assists 15.8 pg, TOs 10.4 pg (+0.3), Steals 6.0 pg, Blks 5.0 pg
UM Leaders:
Scoring: Dawson Garcia 19.8 ppg (50% FG, 36.5% 3FG, 75.2% FT), Lu’cye Patterson 11.2 ppg (37.8% FG, 27% 3FG, 75% FT), Mike Mitchell 10.2 ppg (36.6% FG, 36% 3FG. 73.7% FT), Femi Odukale 6.8 ppg (43% FG, 32.4% 3FG, 48.5% FT), Parker Fox 6.6 ppg (60.2% FG, 25% 3FG, 55.9% FT)
Rebounding: Garcia 7.4, Odukale 4.5; Assists - Patterson 3.6, Odukale 3.5; Steals – Odukale 1.4; Blks – Fox 1.2
SC scores: 77 ppg (+4.0), 48.4% FG, 35.6% 3FG, 6.8 3’s/g, 72.8% FT; Rebs 32.7 pg (-0.8), Assists 15.7 pg, TOs 11.5 pg (+1.0), 15.2 ppg/TO, Steals 6.1, Blks 2.8
SC Leaders
Scoring: Claude 16.2 ppg (50.6% FG, 33.3% 3FG, 75.2% FT), Yates 10.6 (48.9% FG, 40.7% 3FG, 76.5% FT), Agbo 11.9 (39.8% FG, 37.6% 3FG, 83.9% FT), Saint 10.1 (45.5% FG, 32.9% 3FG, 63.6% FT), Cohen 7.1 (61.1% FG, 16.7% 3FG, 77.1% FT)
Rebounds: Saint 6.0, Agbo 4.6; Assists Claude 4.4, Saint 4.3; Steals Saint 1.3, Yates 1.3; Blks Knowling 0.6, Patton 0.6, Agee 0.5
Pregame
SC is a -7.5 pt favorite w/ the O/U set at 139.5. SC’s slim NCAA tourney hopes require a sweep of the home games (UM, Ohio St, UW) and stealing a couple of Quad 1 wins on the road.
Muss’ keys to the game are: Stop B1G leading scorer Dawson Garcia, guard for the full shot clock, defensive rebounding. 6’11” Garcia was All-Big Ten 2nd Team last yr and is Preseason All-Big Ten, Naismith Top 50 Trophy Watch List & Preseason Finalist for Center of the Year
In the house is SC legend, career scoring leader Harold Miner & wife Pamela. Miner was a 3x All-American, Pac-10 FOY, 3x All Pac-10, 1992 Pac-10 POY & SI’s National POY, the Miami Heat’s 1st rd pick in ’92 draft. “Baby Jordan” was a 2x NBA Slam Dunk champ. Despite his dunking prowess, he never lived up to expectations as a player and multiple knee injuries forced him to retire. He became something of a recluse until in a 2010 interview expressing a desire to reconnect with SC. In 2011 he appeared at the Pac-10 Tourney to be inducted into the Pac-10 Hall of Honor and in 2012 attended his jersey retirement ceremony at Galen during half-time of a rivalry game. One of his greatest moments was vs the bruins
Also here are Drew Peterson (Boston Celtics), De’Anthony Melton (Brooklyn Nets), 5-star PG from Inglewood HS Jason Crowe.
The Game
Starters: Des, Saint, Yates, Agbo & Josh Cohen (100th career start).
SC opened with a turnover by Wes, but Des hit 2 3FGs and Josh’s bucket at 16:43 gave SC a 8-0 lead. A rare 4-pt play by Agbo at 8:31 gave SC it’s largest lead of the half 24-10, matched minutes later when a 3FG from Wes put SC up 14, 31-17. SC seemed to be cruising and took a 38-29 lead into the half-time locker room.
Muss’ philosophy is to contain the opponent’s best player, SC limited Garcia to 1-2 shooting and 3 pts in the half! For the game Garcia had 7 pts (3-10 FG, 1-3 3FG), 8 rebs, but no offensive. You can check off Muss’ first key to the game. Offensively, SC continued its hot streak from distance making 6 - 8 3FG atts. Agbo had 12 pts, Yates 10, Des 8.
For the half:
UM shot 38.7% FG (11-27), 27.3% 3FG (3-11), 100% FT (4-4)
SC shot 54.2% FG (13-24), 75% 3FG (6-8), 83.3% FT (6-7)
2nd half:
Despite knowing this was a ‘must-win’ game, the Trojans came out flat in the 2nd half. UM outscored SC 23-13 run to take its first lead of the game 52-51 at 7:30 on a layup by freshman Isaac Asuma. The run was enabled by the 4th foul on Des, sending him to the bench at 13:31 with SC holding an 8-pt lead 47-39. SC is a different team when Des is not in the game. They have a hard time creating and scoring. Knowing this Muss sends Des back onto the floor at 10:17, but Des can’t play the same way he would w/o the foul trouble. After his return SC went 4 minutes without a FG until Agee ended the drought.
The ref’ing was inconsistent to say the least. They let the teams play in the 1st half but in the 2nd, called a bunch of questionable touch fouls on SC, taking away their edge.
SC always fights until the end and pulled ahead 63-59 at 3:00 on a Saint FT. With 23 seconds left in the game and SC up 66-65, the game would be decided by the referees, unfortunately. After Mitchell’s tip-in, UM Coach Johnson wanted a timeout, except SC had already inbounded the ball and Des had taken several dribbles down court, when an ‘inadvertent whistle’ stopped play as Johnson had come out onto the court. Instead of Des running the clock out or getting sent to the FT line to add to SC’s lead, the ball had to be inbounded near half-court. Muss subbed in Clark Slajchert who had not been in the game since 2 mins at the end of the 1st half. The move was puzzling as Clark is shooting 65.2% FT this season, compared to Agee’s 74.4%.
The ball was inbounded to Clark who was immediately trapped by UM, the ball came lose, Agbo drew a phantom foul and game-high scorer Lu’cye Patterson (25 pts) was sent to the line for the go-ahead FTs at 0:13. SC still had a chance for the win, the ball was in Des’ hands when Patterson slapped his arm causing Des to lose the ball out of bounds. Not only there was no foul call, the refs reviewed the play to see if Garcia had touched the ball on the way out, but he clearly had not. It was the last of Des’ 6 turnovers for the game. After the inbounds pass, Agbo fouled out and Patterson knocked down another pair of FTs giving UM a 69-66 lead with 3 secs left, enough time for a desperation heave by Yates at the buzzer to tie the game, but he slipped and didn’t have a good effort. Too many unforced errors, too many missed layups, too much unfocused effort to get this must-win game at home. The loss effectively ends SC’s tournament hopes.
For the game:
UM shot 40.7% FG (25-57), 27.7% 3FG (3-11), 70% FT (14-20)
SC shot 43.8% FG (21-48), 60% 3FG (9-15), 83.3% FT (15-18)
SC falls to 14-11 (6-8) and UM moves to 13-12 (5-9). SC played itself off of the bubble and now plays to make the B1G tourney.
Next Up: Maryland (College Park, MD), Feb 20th, 5:30 pm PST, FS1
Fight On! Beat the Terps!
Today UM has 2730 large city acres in Minneapolis-St Paul, enrolls 56,666 (31,855 undergrad), a $5.5 B endowment, USN&WR No. 53 public school, WSJ No. 85
Famous alumni include 14 Nobel Laureates, 3 Pulitzer Prize winners, US VPs Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, US Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, fmr ‘Purple People Eater’ & retired MN Supreme Court judge Alan Page, NFL HOF’rs Bronko Nagurski, Bobby Bell, Leo Nomellini, Bud Grant, Charlie Sanders, Tony Dungy, fmr Purple People Eater Carl Eller, MLB HOF’rs Dave Winfield, Paul Molitar. 1980 Olympic Gold medal winning hockey coach Herb Brooks -The Miracle on Ice. Oscar winners Henry Fonda, Jessica Lange, actors James Hong (SC grad prior to UM), M.I.’s Peter Graves, Ron ‘Hellboy’ Perlman, Grey’s Anatomy’s TR Knight, Green Acres Eddie Albert, David ‘Hutch” Soul, Loni Anderson, John Astin, EG Marshall, singer Bob Dylan, Greek composer/performer Yanni, wrestler Ric Flair, Mercury Seven astronaut Deke Slayton, Cardiac surgeon Christiaan Barnard performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant, Cray Supercomputer founder Seymour Cray, news anchor Harry Reasoner, journalist Eric Sevareid
UM Athletics: 29 NCAA championships: 7 Football (last 1960), 7 Women’s Hockey, 5 Hockey, 3 Baseball, 3 Wrestling, 2 Basketball, 1 Golf, 1 T&F, 216 Conf titles, 42 conf tourney titles; 26 Olympic Gold medals, 40 Silver, 17 Bronze
Colors – Maroon & gold, Nickname – Golden Gophers (MN became Gopher State in 1857, later UM adopted the nickname; fight songs Minnesota Rouser & Hail Minnesota, Mascot – Goldy Gopher
Basketball started 1896 (1602-1231, .565), 3 pre-NCAA titles, 1997 Final Four, 2 Elite Eight, 5 Sweet Sixteen, 14 NCAA appearances (last 2019), 9 Conf. titles, 3 Naismith Basketball HOF – Kevin McHale, ‘Sweet Lou’ Lou Hudson, Coach John Kundla; 10 retired numbers: 14 – Hudson, 30 – Charley Mencel, 32 – Trent Tucker, 34 – Willie Burton, 41 – Whitey Skoog, 42 Mychal Thompson, 44 – McHale, 45 - Randy Breuer, 52 – Jim Brewer, 53 - Dick Garmaker; 3 Consensus AA’s: National COY – Clem Haskins 1997, 3 Big Ten COY - Jim Dutcher, Clem Haskins, Richard Pitino; 3 Consensus AAs – Jim McIntyre, Garmaker, Thompson; 55 NBA draft pks ,4 Current NBA players: Jamison Battle, Cameron Christie, Amir Coffey, Liam Robbins
Winningest coaches: LJ Cooke 250-135, .649, Dave McMillan 196-156, .556, Jim Dutcher 190-113, .627. Other coaches - Bill Fitch, Bill Musselman, Clem Haskins, Don Monson, Tubby Smith, Richard Pitino
Current – Ben Johnson 4th yr, 1st head coach job (53-65, .449, 1 NIT)
Currently: 12-12 (4-9) W: Oral Roberts Omaha, Yale, Cleveland St, Central Mich, Bethune-Cookman, FDU, Morgan St, No. 20 Mich, Iowa, No. 15 Oregon, PSU; L: NTX, Wichita St, Wake Forest, MSU-2, Indiana, No. Purdue, Ohio St, Wisc, Maryland, UW, Illinois
All-time: (since ‘60) UM leads 4-2 (last 2012 – In 71-57 loss to #14 UM (Tubby Smith’s 500th win), Omar Oraby led SC w/ 15 pts, Byron Wesley 13, Jio Fontan 9)
UM NET 100, KenPom 92, SC NET 61, KenPom 56
UM Scores: 69.0 ppg (-0.07), 44.8% FG, 32.9% 3FG, 6.7 3’s/g, 65.2% FT. Rebounds 33.5 pg (-1.4), Assists 15.8 pg, TOs 10.4 pg (+0.3), Steals 6.0 pg, Blks 5.0 pg
UM Leaders:
Scoring: Dawson Garcia 19.8 ppg (50% FG, 36.5% 3FG, 75.2% FT), Lu’cye Patterson 11.2 ppg (37.8% FG, 27% 3FG, 75% FT), Mike Mitchell 10.2 ppg (36.6% FG, 36% 3FG. 73.7% FT), Femi Odukale 6.8 ppg (43% FG, 32.4% 3FG, 48.5% FT), Parker Fox 6.6 ppg (60.2% FG, 25% 3FG, 55.9% FT)
Rebounding: Garcia 7.4, Odukale 4.5; Assists - Patterson 3.6, Odukale 3.5; Steals – Odukale 1.4; Blks – Fox 1.2
SC scores: 77 ppg (+4.0), 48.4% FG, 35.6% 3FG, 6.8 3’s/g, 72.8% FT; Rebs 32.7 pg (-0.8), Assists 15.7 pg, TOs 11.5 pg (+1.0), 15.2 ppg/TO, Steals 6.1, Blks 2.8
SC Leaders
Scoring: Claude 16.2 ppg (50.6% FG, 33.3% 3FG, 75.2% FT), Yates 10.6 (48.9% FG, 40.7% 3FG, 76.5% FT), Agbo 11.9 (39.8% FG, 37.6% 3FG, 83.9% FT), Saint 10.1 (45.5% FG, 32.9% 3FG, 63.6% FT), Cohen 7.1 (61.1% FG, 16.7% 3FG, 77.1% FT)
Rebounds: Saint 6.0, Agbo 4.6; Assists Claude 4.4, Saint 4.3; Steals Saint 1.3, Yates 1.3; Blks Knowling 0.6, Patton 0.6, Agee 0.5
Pregame
SC is a -7.5 pt favorite w/ the O/U set at 139.5. SC’s slim NCAA tourney hopes require a sweep of the home games (UM, Ohio St, UW) and stealing a couple of Quad 1 wins on the road.
Muss’ keys to the game are: Stop B1G leading scorer Dawson Garcia, guard for the full shot clock, defensive rebounding. 6’11” Garcia was All-Big Ten 2nd Team last yr and is Preseason All-Big Ten, Naismith Top 50 Trophy Watch List & Preseason Finalist for Center of the Year
In the house is SC legend, career scoring leader Harold Miner & wife Pamela. Miner was a 3x All-American, Pac-10 FOY, 3x All Pac-10, 1992 Pac-10 POY & SI’s National POY, the Miami Heat’s 1st rd pick in ’92 draft. “Baby Jordan” was a 2x NBA Slam Dunk champ. Despite his dunking prowess, he never lived up to expectations as a player and multiple knee injuries forced him to retire. He became something of a recluse until in a 2010 interview expressing a desire to reconnect with SC. In 2011 he appeared at the Pac-10 Tourney to be inducted into the Pac-10 Hall of Honor and in 2012 attended his jersey retirement ceremony at Galen during half-time of a rivalry game. One of his greatest moments was vs the bruins
Also here are Drew Peterson (Boston Celtics), De’Anthony Melton (Brooklyn Nets), 5-star PG from Inglewood HS Jason Crowe.
The Game
Starters: Des, Saint, Yates, Agbo & Josh Cohen (100th career start).
SC opened with a turnover by Wes, but Des hit 2 3FGs and Josh’s bucket at 16:43 gave SC a 8-0 lead. A rare 4-pt play by Agbo at 8:31 gave SC it’s largest lead of the half 24-10, matched minutes later when a 3FG from Wes put SC up 14, 31-17. SC seemed to be cruising and took a 38-29 lead into the half-time locker room.
Muss’ philosophy is to contain the opponent’s best player, SC limited Garcia to 1-2 shooting and 3 pts in the half! For the game Garcia had 7 pts (3-10 FG, 1-3 3FG), 8 rebs, but no offensive. You can check off Muss’ first key to the game. Offensively, SC continued its hot streak from distance making 6 - 8 3FG atts. Agbo had 12 pts, Yates 10, Des 8.
For the half:
UM shot 38.7% FG (11-27), 27.3% 3FG (3-11), 100% FT (4-4)
SC shot 54.2% FG (13-24), 75% 3FG (6-8), 83.3% FT (6-7)
2nd half:
Despite knowing this was a ‘must-win’ game, the Trojans came out flat in the 2nd half. UM outscored SC 23-13 run to take its first lead of the game 52-51 at 7:30 on a layup by freshman Isaac Asuma. The run was enabled by the 4th foul on Des, sending him to the bench at 13:31 with SC holding an 8-pt lead 47-39. SC is a different team when Des is not in the game. They have a hard time creating and scoring. Knowing this Muss sends Des back onto the floor at 10:17, but Des can’t play the same way he would w/o the foul trouble. After his return SC went 4 minutes without a FG until Agee ended the drought.
The ref’ing was inconsistent to say the least. They let the teams play in the 1st half but in the 2nd, called a bunch of questionable touch fouls on SC, taking away their edge.
SC always fights until the end and pulled ahead 63-59 at 3:00 on a Saint FT. With 23 seconds left in the game and SC up 66-65, the game would be decided by the referees, unfortunately. After Mitchell’s tip-in, UM Coach Johnson wanted a timeout, except SC had already inbounded the ball and Des had taken several dribbles down court, when an ‘inadvertent whistle’ stopped play as Johnson had come out onto the court. Instead of Des running the clock out or getting sent to the FT line to add to SC’s lead, the ball had to be inbounded near half-court. Muss subbed in Clark Slajchert who had not been in the game since 2 mins at the end of the 1st half. The move was puzzling as Clark is shooting 65.2% FT this season, compared to Agee’s 74.4%.
The ball was inbounded to Clark who was immediately trapped by UM, the ball came lose, Agbo drew a phantom foul and game-high scorer Lu’cye Patterson (25 pts) was sent to the line for the go-ahead FTs at 0:13. SC still had a chance for the win, the ball was in Des’ hands when Patterson slapped his arm causing Des to lose the ball out of bounds. Not only there was no foul call, the refs reviewed the play to see if Garcia had touched the ball on the way out, but he clearly had not. It was the last of Des’ 6 turnovers for the game. After the inbounds pass, Agbo fouled out and Patterson knocked down another pair of FTs giving UM a 69-66 lead with 3 secs left, enough time for a desperation heave by Yates at the buzzer to tie the game, but he slipped and didn’t have a good effort. Too many unforced errors, too many missed layups, too much unfocused effort to get this must-win game at home. The loss effectively ends SC’s tournament hopes.
For the game:
UM shot 40.7% FG (25-57), 27.7% 3FG (3-11), 70% FT (14-20)
SC shot 43.8% FG (21-48), 60% 3FG (9-15), 83.3% FT (15-18)
SC falls to 14-11 (6-8) and UM moves to 13-12 (5-9). SC played itself off of the bubble and now plays to make the B1G tourney.
Next Up: Maryland (College Park, MD), Feb 20th, 5:30 pm PST, FS1
Fight On! Beat the Terps!
