Bucknell center Mike Muscala grew up in Roseville, Minn., has played ball with several of the Gophers, and has been looking forward to this game on the schedule for more than a year. And as last year's Patriot League player of the year, the 6-11 center will be a handful for Minnesota.

"He's been on my Pulley team the last couple of years, so I'm pretty familiar with him," Gophers forward Trevor Mbakwe said. "I'm helping the coaches with the scouting a little bit – nah, I'm just joking. I'm pretty familiar with him. We've been playing together the last few years and we're pretty cool friends off the court. I know he's going to be excited to be back home in front of all his friends and family." I chatted with Muscala a little about what a return would mean. Are you excited to come back to Minnesota to play? Definitely. I've known the game is on the schedule for about a year now, so I know my parents and family are looking forward to it too. What did you think when you saw the matchup on the schedule? I found out a while ago. I found out at the beginning of last season, so obviously the whole season going on, but definitely this whole summer it's been on my mind. Especially because it's the first game. You know, you always get excited for the first game anyway, but the fact that it's Minnesota is cool. When was the last time you played here? I come back every year, but last time played here was senior year, a high school game. Will you have a lot of people at the game supporting you? I know a bunch of family is going to be there. I've been trying to coordinate getting tickets, helping my friends get there. I know my friends are really excited. I have a lot of friends that go to the University of Minnesota and surrounding universities. So are they going to be cheering for the Gophers or cheering for you? They've told me they're going to be cheering for me but I know some of them are pretty big Gophers fans, so I don't know. I guess we'll see.
Did you grow up a Gopher fan? I guess, they're the home town university or whatever. I only went to a couple of games when I was a kid, but I always followed them. Were you ever interested in going to Minnesota? I never had any interest from them. And I'm really happy with where I am. Obviously if they had shown me some interest, I would checked it out and thought about it. So they never recruited you at all? No. Nope. Does that add to the motivation to come back and beat them? No, it doesn't. A lot of people think that's how I'm thinking, but in reality I'm really really happy with where I am, and I'm lucky to have really great teammates and coaches. I think the biggest thing for me is just to be able to play in front of my family and my friends, and I know some of the Gophers players too. From what you know of the Gophers, how do you like your team's chances. Oh, I like our chances a lot. I think we match up really well against them. I think our coaches will do a really good job with the game plan. Obviously they have really good players down low in Trevor (Mbakwe) and (Ralph) Sampson (III), but I think if we come out ready to play and we get through those butterflies – everyone is going to have them, it's the first game – but if we stay loose and have fun out there, I think it will be a competitive game. Bucknell's strengths in the matchup? In this matchup, definitely our shooting ability. They're a really good rebound team so that's going to be a big thing for us, keeping them off the glass. Obviously, they're much more athletic than us but we're a good defensive team, so if we do a good job on the glass and are able to limit our turnovers then I think we'll have a good chance to put the ball in the hole and put points on the board.