This is Amelia Rayno's second season on the Gophers' basketball beat. She learned college basketball in North Carolina (Go Tar Heels!), where fanhood is not an option. In 2010, she joined the Star Tribune after graduating from Boston's Emerson College, which sadly had no exciting D-I college hoops to latch onto. Amelia has also worked on the sports desk at the Boston Globe and interned at the Detroit News.
 Follow Rayno on Twitter @AmeliaRaynoFormer Kentucky player Desmond Allison was killed Monday in Columbus, Ohio. New details in the case suggest that Allison, 31, might have lost his life over a dispute about a hat. Sad.
Allison played for Gophers coach Tubby Smith - he was assistant Saul Smith's teammate - for two seasons at Kentucky before he transferred in 2000 after he was suspended following a drunken-driving arrest.
Smith released the following statement about Allison's death Wednesday: "I am deeply saddened by the news that Desmond Allison has passed away," Smith said in a statement released by the university. "He was a gifted athlete that was taken from us way to soon. He will not be forgotten. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.”
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