Gophers win big, take Puerto Rico tourney title
Talking about the Minnesota Vikings lately is just too depressing. I like talking about winners. That’s why I’m glad to blog about the Gophers men’s basketball team; coach Tubby Smith opened a lot of eyes this weekend by winning the entire Puerto Rico tournament, but mainly because of who his team had to take out to achieve the title. It’s this kind of winning that produces a frenzy for team merchandise during a Cyber Monday event, to be sure.
While their first-round opponent wasn’t a serious threat, the Gophers knocked of #8-ranked North Carolina in the second round of the tourney, and then won the championship by four points over West Virginia on Sunday. Both were very worthy opponents, despite North Carolina suffering a second loss in the tournament Sunday, and should draw some additional respect to the Gophers.
Unfortunately, the next seven games for the Gophers between now and the beginning of the Big Ten conference schedule are against less prestigious teams, meaning they’ll be expected to go undefeated until late December just to maintain whatever respect these victories have earned them.
Being able to pull this off despite the loss of Devoe Joseph to unspecified team rules violations makes the early-season success especially nice, and proves that a team like the Vikings, hit by a lot of injuries, could probably overcome and succeed to a greater level than they have, under the right leadership.
