Tubby Smith sent two freshmen to meet with the media after yesterday’s 82-69 loss to No.1 ranked Ohio State.  It was the first time in memory that the Gophers coach has dispatched two first year players instead of upper classmen to participate in the post-game press conference.

It was freshmen guards Austin Hollins, Chip Armelin and Maverick Ahanmisi who won praise from Smith yesterday.  He “liked” the play of the three who totaled only three turnovers in 63 combined minutes in the game, while front line juniors Trevor Mbawke, Ralph Sampson III and Colton Iverson had 12 turnovers in 72 minutes.

Smith said he “didn’t like” the performance of that trio who not only turned the ball over but had foul problems, four each.  It was a very long afternoon for Iverson with five turnovers, four fouls, one rebound and no points in 14 minutes.

Mbawke, who had four turnovers in 25 minutes, picked up his third foul with about 13 minutes remaining in the second half, then got his fourth several minutes later and went out of the game not to return.  Sampson had three turnovers in 33 minutes and went scoreless in the second half after having 14 points at halftime.

Mbawke, Sampson and Iverson helped make the Gophers the No. 1 offensive rebounding team in the Big Ten going into the game, but Ohio State out rebounded Minnesota 39-33 including a 22-9 difference in offensive rebounds.  Buckeyes coach Thad Matta said his team prioritized rebounding before the game and that because the Gophers are aggressive shot blockers (have been league leaders) it “opens up some avenues” for his players to have second chances.

The Gophers (5-6 in the Big Ten) lost their third of four games without injured point guard Al Nolen.  Minnesota misses his playmaking, particularly the ability to drive to the basket and score or create an opportunity for teammates.  The Gophers perhaps took a small step toward solving the problem with Armelin who scored a career high 14 points, showing speed to the basket and ability to improvise his shot.

Hollins got his first start, played 32 minutes and scored eight points while Ahanmisi had only one turnover in eight minutes while directing the team.  Maybe Ahanmisi plays more in place of Nolen starting with Thursday night’s home game against Illinois, or perhaps even Armelin who has been a shooting guard in high school and with the Gophers.

“I am pretty much confident enough to try it,” Armelin said yesterday.

Nolen’s replacement in the last four games, Blake Hoffarber, hurt his knee yesterday and even though Smith expects him to be back for Illinois, Hoffarber, a shooting guard, is playing out of position.  Asked after the game if his freshmen will play more minutes against Illinois than they have been during the Big Ten schedule, Smith said they certainly will if his veterans don’t play better.

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Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor answered “that’s right” when asked by Sports Headliners if coach Kurt Rambis has job security with him.  Rambis reportedly is in the second year of a four-year deal with the Wolves.

The Wolves’ 11-39 record is the second worst in the NBA, and during the 2009-10 season, Rambis’ first year coaching here, the team finished at 15-67.  That record was worse than only one other team, New Jersey, 12-70.

But Taylor expressed support for his coach, formerly a long time assistant with the Lakers whose previous head coaching experience was a 23-14 record with Los Angeles during the 1998-99 season.  “I’ve had talks with Kurt,” Taylor said. “Mostly I just feel for Kurt, knowing how hard he’s working.”

The Wolves have the youngest roster in the league and Taylor agrees with observers who believe the team is playing better than last season.  The club has lost several games that could have been wins if the Wolves had finished with better execution in the closing minutes.

Taylor said the team needs to eliminate costly turnovers, not so much travelling or three second lane violations but mistakes like bad passes that lead to easy baskets by the opposition. Team defense is often also a concern.

However, Taylor is encouraged by team attitude.  He said Rambis has told him “he couldn’t be prouder of the guys’ efforts in practice.”  The coaching staff emphasizes teaching with a young team that often has three players 23 or younger in the starting lineup, 22-year-olds Kevin Love and Michael Beasley, and Wes Johnson, 23.

“He (Rambis) sees the guys not quitting on him,” Taylor said. “That would be a big concern if that were true.  On any team when you lose a lot of games, you don’t want players to stop believing in themselves.  Our guys are not there.”

The Wolves are within a few games of having played two-thirds of the 82-game regular season schedule.  Taylor views the season in one-third increments and is hopeful of improvement between now and the last game on April 13.

He said defining improvement is somewhat subjective but he and knowledgeable fans will recognize whether the club is playing better.  He’s never told a coach he had to win a specific number of games because of many variables that can determine the win total including injuries and schedule.  Still, Taylor will evaluate his team’s effort, execution and togetherness.

“We want the team in the last third of the year to look and show improvement,” he said. “We won’t be content if what we have today is the best we get.  We went into this (rebuilding the club) with looking for year after year improvement, asking the players and staff to find answers.”

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Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor was asked if he’s considered naming the team Minneapolis because of the city’s financial commitment to Target Center.  He replied that franchise support is from various areas and Minnesota is “appropriate.”

Wolves forward Kevin Love said in the mid-January issue of Sporting News Magazine that his worst habit is “biting my fingernails—but I recently quit.”

The University of Minnesota athletic department sent a mailing to men’s basketball season ticket holders announcing the annual team banquet will start with a 6 p.m. social followed by dinner on March 7 in the DQ Room at TCF Bank Stadium.

New Oakland football coach Hue Jackson was a quarterback on the University of the Pacific team that beat the 1986 Gophers in the Metrodome.

Mr. Basketball chair Ken Lien announced 20 names as finalists for the 2011 award: Thomas Schalk, Apple Valley; Marquel Curtis, Armstrong; Marcus Alipate, Bloomington Jefferson; Ross Travis, Chaska; Jake White, Chaska; Ben Figini, Chisago Lakes; Zach Lofton, Columbia Heights; Raijon Kelly, Cretin-Derham Hall; Jonah Travis, DeLaSalle; Joe Coleman, Hopkins; Marvin Singleton, Hopkins; Alex Richter, Lakeville South; Seth Hinrichs, MACCRAY; Kyle Noreen, Minnesota Transitions; Cole Olstad, Plainview-Elgin-Millville; Lucas Brown, Roseville; Roosevelt Scott, St. Paul Johnson; Estan Tyler, St. Paul Johnson; Shelby Moats, Waconia; Eric Robertson, Wayzata.

None of the last five winners of the Miss Minnesota Basketball award have become Gophers.  Cassie Rochel, the 2010 winner, is playing at Wisconsin and averaging 0.6 points per game.

Badgers men’s coach Bo Ryan has based part of his success on recruiting Minnesotans including his two best players on this year’s team, center Jon Leuer and point guard Jordan Taylor.  Ryan entered this season, his 10^th, with a winning percentage in Big Ten Conference games of .713, the best in league history. Ryan’s teams have lost only 11 home games, including six conference games, since he started coaching the Badgers in 2001.

VERSUS had its most watched NHL All-Star game in the network’s history on January 30, averaging nearly 1.5 million viewers, a 36 percent increase over the 2009 game, according to a league news release. The telecast peaked at nearly two million viewers, more than double the viewership for the 2007 game on VERSUS (691,000). VERSUS had the No. 1-rated cable network programming in the time period among men 18-34 and was No. 2 among men 18-49 and men 25-54.  VERSUS was the No. 1 rated cable network programming in several cities, including Boston, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia.

Steve Bellis, former coach at St. Catherine University, is the new Concordia-St. Paul women’s soccer coach.  He has over 15 years of soccer coaching experience and is a native of England.

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