Coleman, Gophers tame Wildcats

MINNEAPOLIS -- One sure sign of demise for the Minnesota men's basketball program was the shrinking crowds and waning advantage at hallowed Williams Arena.

Just as glaring, perhaps, for the Gophers was their recent inability to beat Northwestern, the Big Ten's traditional weakling.

Well, that trend has finally ended.

Dan Coleman had 19 points and 14 rebounds for Minnesota to help end a three-game home losing streak to the Wildcats and give Tubby Smith his first Big Ten victory, 82-63 on Wednesday.

"Northwestern's like a tricky team," Coleman said. "Usually if they beat you, it's because you didn't execute well and you didn't play well."

The Gophers (11-3, 1-1) didn't let that happen. They denied the back cuts to the basket, used their full-court pressure to keep the Wildcats from getting comfortable, and used their size and athleticism advantage for 31 shots in the paint and a 40-31 rebounding edge. This came after losing the battle on the boards to sixth-ranked Michigan State 45-25.

"Defense was the key," Smith said.

Blake Hoffarber found openings on the edge of Northwestern's zone to score 15 points on a perfect first half from 3-point range. Spencer Tollackson added 12 points, and the Gophers improved to 8-0 at Williams Arena by bouncing back from consecutive defeats.

Coleman, a senior, became the 17th player in the program's history to reach 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in his career.

Kevin Coble had 17 points, and Craig Moore contributed 11 points for the Wildcats (5-7, 0-3), whose last loss here was nearly five years ago. Minnesota leads the all-time series 84-56, but Northwestern won six straight until a win by the Gophers in Evanston last Jan. 31.

Those struggles were perfect examples of Dan Monson's failure to revive the program after taking over in 1999 following the infamous academic fraud scandal.

The 1-3-1 zone defense the Wildcats have typically used under coach Bill Carmody frustrated the Gophers in the recent past, frequently making their offensive sets muddled and fruitless. In those 3 defeats here over the last three years, Minnesota averaged only 47.3 points.

With Smith, the Gophers have looked better prepared. They used several high-low passes to exploit their advantage underneath, and Hoffarber was sent to play with the starters during his sizzling first half with instructions to find those shots and take them.

"They were aggressive, and they knew what they wanted to do," Coble said. "I think we let them do it too much. I don't think we were aggressive enough taking it at them. I think we reacted to them instead of going out and doing what we wanted to do. That's something we need to work on."

Monson did leave Minnesota with two impressive freshmen from his final recruiting class. Hoffarber hit 3 of his 5 long shots during a 16-0 run that lasted more than eight minutes in the latter part of the first half to give the Gophers a 30-20 lead.

Then after halftime, Al Nolen -- who leads the conference in steals -- swished a 3-pointer and used a quick pick in the backcourt by Lawrence McKenzie for a layup during a 12-second sequence. Coleman scored on the next possession to make it 58-41.

The Gophers played with a lot of emotion, highlighted by a hoop-and-harm play inside by Tollackson that gave them the lead for good midway through the first half. The bearded senior pumped his fist and jumped as high as he could to bump bodies with Jamal Abu-Shamala.

Northwestern's best finish under Carmody came in the 2003-04 season, a tie for fifth place in the conference with an 8-8 record. Only once have the Wildcats finished with a winning mark overall in Carmody's seven years, and never in the program's history have they been invited to the NCAA Tournament or picked up more than 18 victories. The last Big Ten title came in 1933.

This is one of his youngest teams, so he's trying to stay patient and focus on developing good habits rather than the record. After lamenting a "very uncharacteristic" 19 turnovers by the Wildcats, Carmody said he doesn't have the right team right now to use the 1-3-1 zone. In the past, he's had taller teams -- largely built by his recruitment of Croatia -- with longer arms to make that defense more effective.

"We're searching to see if we can stop somebody, so we're trying different things," Carmody said.