MinnesotaSportsScene.com

Today was the first time I’ve had a chance to see a Minnesota Gophers game inside Williams Arena. It’s a great atmosphere and Coach Tubby Smith had the kids playing well against Penn State. I came away with a few impressions. You can’t really get without being there in person.

First is that Lawrence McKenzie is far too streaky and out of control as a player. Perhaps it was just how he played today, against Penn State, but it certainly is something that comes across when you can see the kid in action.

Second is that freshman point guard Al Nolan is the real deal, a true point guard in the sense that he’s a pass first, set up other guys style of player with great speed and solid defensive skills. The rest of the Gophers simply play better when Nolan’s on the floor. That means that not everything next season has to ride on Devoe Joseph’s passing abilities, and perhaps with both him and Nolan on the floor, Joseph can think of scoring as well as passing.

Third is that they desperately need to rethink the restroom situation at Williams Arena. When sitting in the upper deck, men have to walk all the way to the ground floor to find a restroom; women have TWO restrooms on the second floor, but men have none. That’s just not good planning. The least they could have done for this inconvenience is to offer up some Gamefly coupons, but no such luck. Oh well.

People who read my blogs tend to know that I’m not in favor of Al Gore-style weirdness when it comes to environmental issues. However, that doesn’t mean I’m against eco products that help folks save energy and manage resources better at the same time.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be a “the polar ice caps are melting and the sky is falling” type to appreciate the things GreenAndMore.com are doing. For example, a lot of people have gardens and like to keep some lights on out there at night; GreenAndMore.com offers some solar-powered lamps that store energy from the sun so you can turn on those lamps when you need them and not just when it’s sunny out and such lighting would be without a practical use.

Then there are recycled products, such as lawn chairs. No harm in that, and no Chicken Little element to it, either. Just a solid use of reusable resources.

I do have some problems with the price of some items; their energy and water-saving showerheads, for example, start at about $55. Surely there has to be a way to make a showerhead smart on resources and easier than that on the pocketbook. I mean, sure, ultimately what you save on your water bill will make the investment worthwhile, but you still have to afford the investment to start with. We can do better, folks!

I like saving energy as much as anyone; not because I thiink I’m saving the planet but more importantly because I think it saves my pocketbook. Fortunately, some items are more affordable than others. Take their air purifiers, for example. My wife and I both have allergies and on top of that, she has asthsma; but neither of us can afford to pay a fortunte to breathe cleaner air.

That’s where GreenAndMore.com is good; their prices range from as low as $99 to as high as $1,595, so there are a large number of choices, one of which will fit almost any budget. When you add in that GreenAndMore.com are good stewards of their profits, supporting charities like Oceana and Healthy Child, Healthy World, you have an appealing retailer to do some business with.

Don’t worry, faithful readers; I’m still anti-extremist and anti-Algore; but that doesn’t mean I’m anti-conservation. Being good stewards of our resources is just common sense; why waste? You don’t have to believe the sky is falling to see the sense in that.

OK, so it has no Minnesota ties, but the trade of Shaquille O’Neal by Miami to the Phoenix Suns makes no sense. And I’m not saying that because I’d rather have O’Neal in Minnesota; at this point, I absolutely would not want O’Neal in Minnesota.

Yes, Shaq’s health has kept him on the shelf most of this season, so I can see how that, plus his $20 million a year makes him a liability for a team that’s competing with the Wolves for the honor of being the worst in the NBA. By jettisoning O’Neal, they are guaranteed to keep losing and perhaps beat Minnesota out for the top pick in the NBA draft. Plus they get rid of that load on the salary cap. Only trouble is, there’s no clear succession plan at center in Miami.

Still, it’s hard to imagine O’Neal’s going to rebound enough this season to make a difference for the Suns, who are getting an old and potentially at the end of his career center who might never regain his former greatness. It loads up their salary cap and robs them of younger players with potentially more upside for the long term.

Sure, it’s a lot like the Garnett trade in some respects. Except it’s not. Garnett is five years younger and in far better health than O’Neal; and the Celtics are the best team in the NBA right now, even despite Garnett sitting out the last three weeks or so with a minor injury. Garnett has five good years left in him; O’Neal may have none left, despite two more years on his contract.

At least the Garnett trade offered a value-for-value deal; I’m not sure either Phoenix or Miami will come out of this one looking like winners.

Whether someone gave them a bunch of sugar energy pills to rile them up, or the team just decided to play better, the Minnesota Gophers banished a decent Iowa team on Saturday, helping Tubby Smith’s team to a 15-7 overall record, including a 5-5 mark in the Big 10. With eight games left, the Gophers would need to go 5-3 the rest of the way to reach the magic number of 20 victories and maintain a winning record in the Big 10 schedule. If they can do that, the Gophers have a chance to make the NCAA tournament in Tubby Smith’s first season at the helm of the program.

Yet the road ahead won’t be easy. The team next faces Illinois, who they have yet to face this season, at Williams Arena. They then travel to Wisconsin, who they lost to 63-47 at Williams Arena, so an upset is not likely. At best, the Gophers will be 1-1 after those two games.

A two-game home stand follows that, with the Gophers facing Michigan and Penn State. The Gophers won by 12 on the road at Michigan and won by three over Penn State on the road earlier this season, so let’s be optimistic and say they win both of those. Now they’re 3-1 the rest of the way.

Where it could all fall apart is in the last four games. They face Purdue on the road, a team they haven’t seen yet this season. This it’s Ohio State at William Arena, but the Gophers lost on the road to the Buckeyes by 16 points earlier this year. The team then finishes our with Indiana on the road - a team they couldn’t beat at home, and a rematch with Illinois in Champaign.

The Gophers will likely need two of those games, and it doesn’t look good; if they fall to the last four opponents, their best record would be 18-12, but with four losses at the end; even if they get hot in the conference tournament, unless they win the automatic bid by taking the tournament, it could still be long odds for the Gophers to make it to the NCAAs this season; at best, with a finish like that, they might earn an NIT bid.

But if they can go 3-1 in the next four, and take two of the last four, the Gophers would be in good shape at 20-10. Anything less and too much is left in the hands of the NCAA Selection Committee

Basketball coaching legend Tubby Smith recruited over the summer like a man possessed and landed one of the best Gophers recruiting classes for his mens’ basketball team, possibly in Gophers history. However, Smith had a longstanding reputation to fall back on; no matter where he coaches, his name is nearly a brand name for quality coaching, just like Nike is a brand name for athletic footwear.

Gophers football coach Tim Brewster, not to be outdone, has worked tirelessly recruiting for the U as well, but with fewer advantages. First, Brewster’s a first-time head coach, not a living legend or a brand name coach. Second, in his first season as Gophers coach, his team posted a miserable 1-11 record. Nevertheless, Brewster proved hard work, enthusiasm and never taking no for an answer can produce results; depending on who’s doing the ranking, Brewster’s first recruiting class is a beaut.

Rivals.com ranks Brewster’s recruiting class for next fall as 16th in the nation and third in the Big Ten, while Scout.com ranks the Gophers class 24th nationally and fourth in the conference. Either way, it’s probably the best recruiting class any Gophers coach has put together since 1984, when Lou Holtz put together a great recruiting class following a 1-10 season.

The fact that the Gophers are set to debut in a brand-new on-campus football stadium in the fall of 2009 played a factor, I’m sure; recruiting top-notch football classes is about a lot more than handing out customized cheap pens. So a tip of the hat to Tim Brewster; with a lot fewer assets to work with and a much larger recruiting class to fill, Brewster has shown he can recruit right along with the best of ‘em… including Coach Smith of the basketball Gophers.

Gophers center Spencer Tollackson stands 6′9″ and 260 pounds, and before Wednesday’s game, the burly senior had never had a perfect game; that’s no longer true. Against the Wildcats, it was Tollackson who went wild, shooting a perfect seven of seven from the floor and five of five from the charity stripe.

It was Tollackson who led the way against Northwestern as the Gophers offered Tubby Smith win number 401 of his career as part of the 92-72 victory. Minnesota now stands 14-7 overall, 4-5 in the Big 10, and they’ll need to finish a little better than .500 the rest of the way to secure a spot in post-season play. While the Williams Arena crowd was sparse for the midweek match-up, if the place had been packed, one would have needed Bose headphones to keep the roar to a manageable level.