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The University of Minnesota men's basketball team has finished its past three seasons in the National Invitation Tournament. The Gophers' quest to change that begins late tonight with a Midnight Madness practice at Williams Arena.
This will be coach Dan Monson's fifth season with the Gophers, and he must replace
three starters from last season's 19-14 club: Rick Rickert, Jerry Holman and
Kevin Burleson.
Monson likely will have new starters in former Mr. Minnesota Basketball players Kris Humphries and Adam Boone. Humphries is a freshman from Hopkins High School, a McDonald's All-American released from his original scholarship commitment to Duke. Boone, a junior, sat out last season after transferring from North Carolina. Ticketmaster
Junior center Jeff Hagen is also in line for more playing time after averaging
10.1 minutes in a reserve role.
The doors at Williams Arena open at 10 tonight. Players from the men's and women's
teams will sign autographs until 11 p.m. Monson's team will scrimmage for 20
minutes beginning at 12:01 a.m., followed by a 20-minute scrimmage by Pam Borton's
women's team.
The men's team will hold its first full practice at 3 p.m. Saturday. It is closed
to the public.
Here are five questions facing the Gophers men's team as they prepare for the
2003-04 season, which begins Nov.17 against Missouri-Kansas City in the first
round of the Preseason NIT.
1. What style of play will the Gophers use this season?
Monson said Gophers fans will see a team that will try to feed the ball into
the paint as the first option, much as it did in recent seasons.
"In the past, we've gotten the ball inside to the Holmans and the Rickerts,
but they were more finesse type of players," Monson said. "Our inside
guys this year will be able to play on the block a little bit more with the
Hagens and the Kris Humphrieses. There will be subtle differences, and yet we'll
still be able to utilize the three-point line with guys like Bauer, Boone and
Moe Hargrow. We're still going to try to run and get early opportunities, but
maybe we will have more of an inside presence to us than we have been the past
couple of years." Ticketmaster
2. How will Humphries handle the expectations of making an immediate impact?
"One of the reasons he ended up here is that he wanted the challenge of
being an integral part as a freshman and not just a small piece in what somebody
is doing," Monson said. "That pressure from him coming here and being
local and everybody knowing who he is, he has accepted that and welcomed the
challenge. On the same regard, he's still a freshman in a new system. We think
Kris' learning curve will be a lot smaller than most incoming freshmen, but
there will still be some kind of adjustments for him to make. We think he'll
make those very quick."
3. How much did it benefit Adam Boone to practice with the club last season
after transferring into the program?'
"We think Adam knows our system and is ready to go," Monson said.
"He has a very high basketball I.Q. It's still different when you're actually
running the plays live vs. learning them last year in practice. He'll have to
make an adjustment, but we think because he was in our system last year, we're
hoping that adjustment will be minimal. We're counting on him to step right
in and be a huge factor in what we're doing."
4. Will Minnesota be a better rebounding team and a better defensive team?
"Last year's team was a very good offensive rebounding team," Monson
said. "I think this team will be a better defensive rebounding team. I'm
not sure if it will be as good an offensive rebounding team. The defensive rebounding
was so glaring to people because you don't come up with the basketball. Our
defense was a lot better last year than people gave it credit for when it came
on the initial shot. I think we changed a lot of shots and we blocked a lot
of shots. Our field-goal percentage on first shots was one of the best in the
Big Ten, but when you're not a good rebounding team, you get exposed on the
glass." Ticketmaster
5. Will Michael Bauer (ankle surgery) and Moe Hargrow (wrist surgery) be ready
for the Preseason NIT opener?
"Mike has been taking part in individual work, and he'll be doing a sizeable
amount starting on Saturday," Monson said. "He probably won't be doing
the full practice, but probably three-quarters of it. Moe is out of his cast,
but he's in a soft sleeve right now. He's doing exercises to get movement back
in it. He's probably a couple of weeks away from being able to do any kind of
practice where he can catch a ball. We expect Moe back for the Preseason NIT
game, but I don't know if he'll be playing in the exhibition games (Nov. 7 and
Nov. 12). I just don't know where he's going to be in the early part of November.
We expect him back by Nov. 17."