Coach finds worth in loss to Buckeyes

Gophers men's basketball coach Tubby Smith saw plenty of reason not to be disappointed about Saturday's road loss to Ohio State, only the team's second loss this season to a team not ranked in the Top 25.

Even though the Gophers, ranked 19th, lost 64-58 to the Buckeyes, Smith said he was pleased that the performance was better in attitude, intensity and toughness than Wednesday's 76-47 loss to Michigan State.

"We showed a little more toughness and a little more fight," Smith said. "We can do better, but this is kind of a sign of a youthful team. We've got to stabilize things and get them refocused, because [Saturday night] was a game we felt like going in we had a good chance to win even though Ohio State is probably the hottest team in the league right now.

"They've won four in a row, were shooting over 60 percent in the previous two games, and we held them to 42 percent, outrebounded them [38-31]. If we could have just gotten to the free-throw line more in the second half and made some free throws ... "

Smith said what is exciting about his team is that it bounces back from bad games.

"That's a sign of youthfulness, but it's also a sign of starting to mature that you don't stay down very long," he said. "I like the versatility of this team. We can go big on you, we can go quick. We're still not as physical as I'd like to be, but we have the ingredients to do that."

The Gophers have lost three league games to teams ranked in the Top 25: two to Michigan State, one to Purdue. The other conference loss was to Northwestern.

Turnovers had a lot to do with Saturday's loss after the score was tied 28-28 at halftime. Smith still has plenty of hope, pointing out that all of the conference's top teams have lost at least two league games and that most of the team ahead of the Gophers have played fewer league games than the Gophers, who are 6-5 in the league. Michigan State leads at 9-2, Ohio State and Illinois are 7-4, and Purdue is 6-4. Penn State is 6-5.

"We have an extra game there, and we have seven games left in the season," Smith said. "We've got to put together a good winning streak."

Well, the Gophers get Indiana at home on Tuesday, and then they face another road test Saturday in Penn State, a team that has been the surprise of the season even though the Gophers beat the Nittany Lions at Williams Arena. So everybody will know more about this team's chances to get to the NCAA tournament in a week.

Developing goalies Wild General Manager Doug Risebrough describes the Wild as a team that develops a lot of good goalies because "we play so well defensively."

It's easy to find evidence that the Wild can produce good goalies. On Sunday afternoon, the goalie for the Wild's opposition was Dwayne Roloson, who was traded to Edmonton in 2006 for first- and third-round draft choices. Then there is Manny Fernandez, who was sent to Boston in 2007 for a prospect named Petr Kalus, who is playing in Europe, and a 2009 fourth-round draft choice. And now the Wild has Niklas Backstrom, one of the best goalies in the NHL.

The interesting part of the story is that all three goaltenders will be free agents at the end of this season.

Fernandez is having a great year with the Bruins with a 14-3-2 record, Roloson is 17-13-4, and Backstrom is 26-17-2 after the Wild won 3-2 in a shootout Sunday.

Josh Harding, Backstrom's backup, is 1-5-1, and if he is to be the Wild goaltender next season, Wild goalies coach Bob Mason said he is going to have to get some ice time.

"We drafted him in '03 and he's got some potential and it's just been tough to get him in because Backstrom has been so good," Mason said. "It's probably a tight race until the end, so we're going to have to get him in a few games here and see what he can do. He was in 20-some games last year.

"If Backstrom is not back, we'd have to look to fill his spot. But certainly Harding's got that potential. We've liked him for years, and the next part of this phase is to get him more game time and see how he responds.

"He's got a sound game, he's not flashy, his positional game is real good, he's got a strong mental game, he's focused, he's alert on the ice, he does a lot of good things in the net, and he works at it. He keeps his fundamentals real solid, keeps his basics real good and you keep your fundamentals and your basics solid and if you ever do get into trouble you're not too far from your foundation and can get back to that quick."

Risebrough said that every attempt will be made to sign Backstrom but that if he isn't signed the Wild will have to look for somebody in free agency or a trade because the team has nobody to back up Harding.

Jottings One thing favorable about the Timberwolves' future is that everybody is signed through at least next year except Rodney Carney, Rashad McCants, Jason Collins and Kevin Ollie. The Wolves had an option on Carney that they didn't exercise.

After this year Brian Cardinal and Mike Miller will have one more year with the Wolves, Sebastian Telfair and Craig Smith will have two, Ryan Gomes will have three and Al Jefferson will have four.

If the students buy 10,000 season tickets, as Gophers athletic department officials are expecting, the 2009 football tickets will sell out, and there is a waiting list of 2,000. The Gophers athletic department has a group working on plans to solve the traffic problem expected at the new stadium. ...One thing that helped sell recruits for the Gophers this year is a tour of the new stadium, including the locker room and other such facilities that may be the finest in any college stadium in the country.

One of the candidates for Gophers defensive coordinator to whom Tim Brewster talked before hiring Kevin Cosgrove was Greg Hudson, who was a defensive coordinator under Glen Mason and is now with Skip Holtz at East Carolina. Hudson, who was recently interviewed for the Oklahoma State defensive coordinator job, would like to return to Minnesota.

Jim Hueber, current Vikings assistant offensive line coach, will be inducted into the Hall of Fame of Northeast Catholic High School in Philadelphia for being one of the top athletes in the school's history.

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on WCCO AM-830 at 6:40, 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. and on his Podcast once a week at www.startribune.com/sidcast. shartman@startribune.com