As Amelia Rayno reported earlier, it appears as though Ralph Sampson III is going to miss tonight's Gophers game vs. Mount St. Mary's. He never shed his warm-up gear as the Gophers shot around; instead, Sampson -- who turned his ankle in Thursday's victory over Fairfield -- stood on the sideline next to fellow injured big man Mo Walker. Sampson has been replaced in the starting lineup by redshirt freshman Elliott Eliason.

Sampson's injury is not believed to be serious; I'll hope to have an update postgame on his status for this week's Old Spice Classic, which starts Thursday in Orlando.

As Amelia also mentioned, I'm your beat writer for the week, including the Old Spice Classic (though Amelia will still blog occasionally from Hawaii because she's JUST THAT DEDICATED). Follow me on Twitter via @RandBall. Come for the in-game updates. After the week is over, stay for the witty banter.

If I was in the prediction game, I'd say the Gophers win big tonight even though they haven't had a blowout yet. Mount St. Mary's has a ton of key players missing for various reasons, so let's just say that if this isn't a blowout, it could be telling.