Gopher basketball headed to Puerto Rico for the PR Tipoff

by GopherNation on Apr 16, 2010 11:03 PM CDT in Gopher Basketball

If you are looking for travel plans next November, you may want to consider a trip to watch the Gophers in Puerto Rico. Their 2010 early season tournament will be the Puerto Rico Tip-Off against a solid field of mostly BCS teams.

I'm sure many of you were well aware of the 2010 PR Tip-Off but let's take a quick look at the teams in the field...

Davidson does not have Steph Curry anymore but their top two returning scorers were freshmen so this team is building. Jake Cohen and J.P. Kuhlam will be sophomores and the kids to watch.
Hofstra was a 19 win team this past season and returns 5 of their top 6 scorers. Leading scorer Charles Jenkins returns his 20.6 ppg, but the Pride will be lead by a new head coach. Tom Pecora took the job at Fordham and Tim Welsh will be coming in to lead the 2010-11 Pride.
Nebraska has a really good football team! :) The Skers finished 2-14 in the Big 12 last year but they do return a young nucleus that promises at the very least a better season than they endured this past year.
North Carolina will be much better than they showed in 2009-10. Harrison Barnes and Reggie Bullock are going to be Tar Heels to go along with several other McDonald's All-Americans already on the roster. Roy Williams is the best coach in the country and this team will be good next year.
Vanderbilt is coming off a great season before they were upset by Murray State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Leading scorer Jermaine Beal will be graduating and A.J. Ogilvy will be leaving early but the rest of the team will return to go with a talented incoming recruiting class. Player worth watching? How about former Gopher target Festus Ezeli.
West Virginia obviously is coming off a Final Four season. Kevin Ebanks is heading to the NBA and obviously Da'Sean Butler is leaving because of graduation, but Bob Huggins has talent on this roster and they'll be very good. It appears as thought the Mountaineers are following us to a preseason tournament yet again.
Western Kentucky had their worst season since 2003-04 and they had 21 wins. The Hilltoppers are always dangerous and it would be a great test for the Golden Gophers.

Should be a fun tournament next November, I'll see you all there?

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My family always goes away for Thanksgiving

…and this past year we ended up in the same hotel as the players—it’s really a weird sight to go down to the pool and find Jim Larrananga getting a tan or any of the other players I was, admittedly, mostly unfamiliar with. The best was when I rode the elevator up with Tom Crean, and thanked him for Penn State’s two wins over Indiana the previous year. He replied, “yeah, that’s how you know you’re bad, you’re losing to Penn State.” Nice guy, and the access to the players and coaches is awesome. If you go down, I’d recommend staying at the hotel with the team.

Fiya Minaya.

by BringBackBobby on Apr 16, 2010 11:27 PM CDT reply actions