Reggie Lynch probably should already be considered the best shot blocker in Gophers history.
The 6-foot-10, 260-pound senior center has 320 career blocks to lead all Division I active players and is nearly 100 ahead of Kevin McHale's Minnesota program career record. Lynch played his first two college seasons at Illinois State, so he'll have to wait a little longer to pass McHale.
But the Edina native is chasing the U career mark and other block records this season, including the Big Ten single-season mark of 161 set by Ohio State's Ken Johnson in 2000 and the NCAA Division I single-season mark of 207 set by Hall of Famer David Robinson at Navy in 1986.
Lynch currently leads the Big Ten and the nation in blocks per game (5.67) and total blocks (17) after three games. It's early, but he's on pace to finish the season with 187 blocks if he plays 30 more games, which includes the rest of the regular season and at least two postseason games. If the Gophers make runs in both the Big Ten tournament and NCAA tournament it might be possible for Lynch to catch Robinson's NCAA record. But again, it's still early.
Since his Minnesota debut last season, Lynch had a game with 11 blocks against Penn State and two nine-block performances against St. John's last year and in Wednesday's 107-81 win against Niagara.
"It was kind of like the Penn State game last year where they were gift wrapping the blocks for me," Lynch said. "Sometimes I can't control myself when they just hand it to me like that. So I had to give a little chuckle."
Lynch, who had 18 points, 12 rebounds, nine blocks and six assists in his last game, came one block away from the Gophers' first triple-double since Mychal Thompson's against Ohio State in 1976.
He also was a block and four assists away from becoming only the second player in NCAA history (yes, that's right) to record a quadruple-double in a game. That record belongs to Tennessee-Martin's Lester Hudson in 2008.
