Jan. 7, 2012
GAME INFORMATION
Date: Sunday, January 8, 2012
Time: 5:00 p.m. CT
Location: Minneapolis, Minn.
Arena: Williams Arena (14,625)
Television: BTN
Gus Johnson (Play-by-Play)
Greg Kelser (Analyst)
Radio: Learfield/1500 ESPN Twin Cities
Mike Grimm (Play-by-Play)
Spencer Tollackson (Analyst)
SERIES INFORMATION
Series: 163rd meeting (75-87)
Series (Home): 79th meeting (49-29)
Current Streak: L-1
Last Meeting: Jan. 29, 2011 (L, 61-73)
Tubby Smith vs. Purdue: 10th meeting (4-5)
Minnesota vs. Current Big Ten: 702-740
Tubby Smith vs. Current Big Ten: 53-55
Bring a Donation for Jack Jablonski Fund:
Gopher student athletes and Minnesota representatives will be at the main entrances to Williams Arena Sunday collecting cash donations for the Jack Jablonski Fund as fans enter the building.
Jablonski, a 16-year-old sophomore at Benilde-St. Margaret's, was severely injured last week when he was checked from behind in a local high school hockey game.
According to a post on Jablonski's CaringBridge.com site he had successful surgery on Wednesday to fuse his vertebrae, but, "Has limited mobility and no movement in his lower body. As we feared, he will not be able to walk or skate. This news is devastating to Jack and everyone who loves him. Our hope and dream is that he will be able to prove this prognosis wrong."
Fans are also able to send a donation to the Jack Jablonski Fund, P.O. Box 16387, St. Louis Park, MN 55416-2618. In addition, fans can also make a donation at any Wells Fargo Bank and should mention the "Jack Jablonski Fund" when doing so.
Game day Tid-Bits:
• The Gophers defeated Purdue last year at Williams Arena, 70-67. The Boilermakers came into the game as the eighth-ranked team in the nation. The win gave Tubby Smith his 30th career win over a top-10 team and his fifth at Minnesota.
• Purdue won the rematch, 73-61 at Mackey.
• The Boilermakers come to Minneapolis following a 65-45 defeat to the Penn State Nittany Lions on Thursday night in State College.
• Gopher junior Rodney Williams collected his second career double-double with 11 points and a career-high 12 rebounds in the loss to Iowa. It was Minnesota’s first double-double since Trevor Mbakwe contributed 16 points & 12 boards in a win over DePaul on Nov. 24.
• Fellow junior Julian Welch finished the Iowa game with a career-high six steals. Welch leads the team in scoring & assists since being inserted into the starting lineup following the Mbakwe injury.
• Minnesota has led the Big Ten Conference in blocked shots during the last three seasons, including three of the top four season block totals in the history of the Gopher program: a program leading 201 in 2008-09, 199 in 2009-10 and 169 last season. Senior Ralph Sampson III led the team in blocked shots last season and is currently fourth all-time in program history with 184 career swats. Minnesota has blocked 90 shots already this season for an average of 5.6 per game, tops in Big Ten, led by Rodney Williams with 25. Williams is tied for third in the conference with an average of 1.5 bpg. Sampson III is sixth at 1.4 bpg.
From the Line:
• Minnesota is shooting .702 (238-339) as a team, up from last season when the team finished at .660 (479-726).
• The Gophers have seven players that are shooting above 70% from the line and four players shooting above 80%, led by Ralph Sampson III at .875 (21-24).
• The aforementioned seven players are combining to shoot .792 (187-236) from the line.
• Julian Welch is currently fifth in the Big Ten Conference in free throw percentage at .857 (42-49). Sampson III doesn’t have enough attempts to qualify for the conference leaders.
• Gopher freshman Andre Hollins sits at .857 (24-28), which would tie him with Welch for fifth in the Big Ten, but he doesn’t have enough attempts to qualify for the conference leaders.
• Welch went into the game against Saint Peter’s (12/10) in the midst of a free throw streak He made his first two attempts to bring the streak to 25 straight but missed his next attempt.
• Welch’s streak of 25-straight was the longest Gopher free throw streak since Lawrence Westbrook hit 31 straight from the charity stripe.
• Terrance Woods (1986-87) holds the Gopher season free throw percentage record at .882 (45-51).
• The Gophers career free throw percentage leader is Voshon Lenard (.810).
Second Half Burst:
• Through 16 games of the 2011-12 season, Minnesota is outscoring its opponents at a plus-91 (5.7 average) rate in the second half of games as opposed to a plus-39 (2.4 average) in the first half.
• The Gophers largest second half plus-minus of the season is +14, Nov. 14 vs. South Dakota State and Nov. 25 vs. Indiana State.
• Minnesota has only been outscored in the second half four times this season, by four on Nov. 21 vs. Mount St. Mary’s and by seven against Dayton in Orlando, by one at Michigan (1/1) and by three against Iowa (1/4).
• The Gophers have been behind at the start of the second half six times this season, including down 10 points to DePaul and Illinois. Minnesota has won three of the six games.
• Minnesota has shot better than 60% in the second half of four games this season, .650 (13-20) against Virginia Tech, .609 (14-23) against South Dakota State, .636 (14-22) against Central Michigan and .625 (15-24) in the conference opener at Illinois.
• The Gophers are shooting .547 (202-369) as a team in the second half of games this season.
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