UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA GOLDEN GOPHERS ARE TAKING ON HIGH POINT UNIVERSITY

The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers are currently ranked number 23 in this week’s ESPN/USA Today poll. Tubby Smith is a graduate of High Point University. In fact, that is where Tubby Smith met his wife Donna. So this game will be a sort of a home coming for Tubby Smith. We will have to wait and see what the Gophers can do against his alma mater.

The Gophers enter this game with a record of 11-0. High Point comes into this game with a 4-7 record.

We are about to get this game underway here and the atmosphere in this game is electric. There was kind of a buzz about this team in the hall way when I was walking around out there earlier. We are underway here. High Point has started in a tough man to man defense. They don’t want the Gophers to get any easy shots here.

The Gophers are looking to get the ball out and push the ball up there court. The Gophers have gotten out to a quick lead here but as it is way too early to tell how this will play out they have been able to make shots here. Lawrence Westbrook has just hit a long three point shot here in the early goings. Al King Nolen Jr has been able to run the show here early in this game.

With 15:44 left to go in the first half the score in Minnesota 13 and High Point 5.

Lawrence Westbrook has gotten the hot hand here to star this game off tonight. He has been able to make some nice shots so far in this game. He just needs to slow down on the offensive end as he has had a couple of costly turnovers but it is just first half jitters.

The Gophers are trying to get the flow of the game. If they are able to control the tempo of this game they will be able to come away with the victory tonight. I think that turnovers will be the key tonight. If the Gophers keep turning the ball over and handing the game to High Point that will give the game to High Point. No team wants a lot of turnovers. That has been a concern of Tubby Smith’s all season long.

With 11:57 left to go in the first half the score is Minnesota 16 and High Point 11.

Tubby Smith has gone with the wholesale substitutions here in this game. He has subbed in all 5 players in different parts of this game here tonight.

Devoe Joseph has looked good in this game. He has been able to make a couple of good defensive stops here in this game.

The Minnesota Gophers are still looking to push the ball up the court here. High Point has played the Gophers well here in this game tonight. They have been able to disrupt the Gophers on the Gophers offensive end.

High Point has played well here in this game so far tonight. They have been quick and scrappy on both ends of the court here tonight.

With 7:46 left to go in the first half the score is Minnesota 26 and High Point 16.

The Gophers are still playing really tough man to man defense here in this game. They have really looked good here so far in the first half. The Gophers have played well on both ends of the floor so far in the first half.

For High Point Steadman Short has looked good so far in this game. He has made some nice moves around the basket. He has also done a good job battling the Gopher big men down in the low post. It should also be noted that he is wearing a full plastic face shielded that covers his whole face except his mouth.

The Gophers continue to play touch man to man defense. And they have also been able to find the basket here in the first half. They can’t get lackadaisical here and think that they have this game one because as you know any team can go on a run at any point of time. Deveron Bostick has looked sharp here in this game so far. He has been able to get a couple of nice shots up here in the first half.

At half time the score is the University of Minnesota Gophers 49 and High Point University 23.

In the first half High Point is shooting 8-28 (28.6%) from the field and 2-10 (20%) from three point range. The Gophers are shooting 18-34 (52.9%) from the field and (8-14) 57.1 % from three point range. High Point has committed 10 turnovers and the Gophers have committed 4 turnovers.

As the second half gets underway here the Gophers come out fired up ready to play. High Point is looking to take its time on the offensive end. They have really let the shot clock wind down before they think about taking the shot that they want to take.

High Point is looking to run there offence here they get it and swing the ball around the three point ark. Eugene Harris has looked good in this game so far. The other high point players look for Harris for their spark.

With 15:23 left to go in regulation the score is Minnesota 55 and High Point 35.

Both of these teams continue to play scrappy and hard here in the second half. They each want a win but Minnesota has to stay sharp here in this game because they don’t want to lose their focus.

The Gophers keep at it here and they continue to work and play hard. I don’t even think that these players know what the score is as they keep going after this High Point team. Colton Iverson continues to work hard in the low block.

With 11:48 left to go in regulation the score is Minnesota 64 and High Point 40.

High Point is playing a zone defense here in this game. They want to try to slow this Minnesota team down but it does not seem to be working. Kevin Payton who does not see much time has made an appearance in the game tonight. I think Tubby Smith is going to be giving his bench some time here with the score so out of hand at this juncture of the game.

With 7:30 left to go in regulation the score is Minnesota 75 and High Point 45.

The Gophers continue to play hard and well here. Both of these teams have gotten after loose balls here and they have players diving on the floor after them.

Eugene Harris has looked good in this game tonight. He has been a vocal leader here in the game tonight. High Point is looking to push the ball up the court here in a stretch here but they also have caught fumbles.

With 3:13 left to go the score is Minnesota 77 and High Point 54.

As this game winds down here the Gophers just wind down the clock here was they continue their winning streak here. They have finished the non-conference part of their schedule undefeated with a record of 12 -0.

The Gophers end up beating High Point by the final score of 82-56.

In a game that the Gophers won hands down and was considered a confidence builder for this team. In the victory tonight Ralph Sampson was the leading scorer tonight with a total 17 points. Lawrence Westbrook also came up big for the Gophers and he had 13 points. For the game the Gophers ended up shooting 52.5% from the field and 45.8 % from the three point line. The Gophers were also 58.3% from the free throw line.

High Point shot 33.9% from the field and was 33.3% from the three point line. They also shot 68.8% from the free throw line. For High Point, Eugene Harris was their leading scorer with a total of 18 points.

After the game Blake Hoffarber talked about how this team has really came around during the non conference part of the schedule. He though that a lot of guys stepped up and played well in the game this evening. Everyone is clicking right now. He really hasn’t thought too much about the Big Ten season as him and his team only tries to look toward the next game. He knows that his team has to be focused on their next opponent and can’t get too far ahead of themselves. He thinks that this team is ready for the Big Ten opponents. And this game was a confidence builder for the program.

Devon Bostick also thinks that this team is ready for the Big Ten season. He likes this system and knows each one of the players is doing their best in Tubby’s system.

Tubby Smith liked what he saw on the court this evening. He thought that they played with a purpose and he wanted to know how each of these guys would react in different situations. Even though Al King Nolen Jr was held scoreless in the game this evening, Tubby Smith give Al King Nolen Jr credit on leading the team in assists in the game tonight. Al King Nolen Jr was the leading assists man this evening with a total of 7. This is what Tubby Smith had to say about the game this evening. “I thought our guys played with purpose. We played with good concentration and good focus tonight. You're always worried that the team might be looking ahead to the holiday break, but this was a good performance for us.”

"A lot of guys had a chance to get out there and perform tonight. I think that will give us a lot of confidence, especially going into Big Ten play against Michigan State. Blake [Hoffarber], Devron [Bostick] and Devoe [Joseph] were the ones that really helped us to pull away. That shows that they're getting better; they're learning the system. They are starting to understand where their shots are going to come from and how hard we're going to play.

"High Point is the second-youngest team in the country. I've scheduled and played High Point a number of times before coming to Minnesota; they're athletic and they were able to get up and block shots at times. They're pretty physical, too. I think they'll do pretty well in the Big South this year. We're like every other team. We're battling with the hope that we're getting better. A school like High Point plays some guaranteed games and I'm grateful that they came up here."