On Wednesday evening, coach Tubby Smith addressed the media and praised Ralph Sampson III for being more aggressive, fighting on a gimpy ankle and being an excellent passer.

Then he called him out on another aspect of his game – one that should be another on the checklist of strengths, but instead has been nearly non-existent this season.

"Like I told him, we've got to get you to the basket now so you can get to the free throw line," Smith said. "He's 8-for-9, something like that, on the year. So he's got to get more."

Sampson must have been listening in.

After getting to the line just nine times heading into Thursday's game, the center got there eight times against NDSU, sinking seven of those. The solid performance from the charity stripe boosted him to another solid statistical game -- finishing with 15 points, six rebounds, four blocks and two steals – and helped the Gophers manage the clock just as the Bison were starting to dictate the game's tone and pace.

It's an area of Sampson's game that has been lax all season. While Trevor Mbakwe dominated in the paint early on and often lived on the free throw line, Sampson would edge to the outside, seemingly unsure at times of his place under the basket.

Without an extra big man to occupy space down low, Smith has hoped to see an increase in Sampson's aggressiveness there – leading to more time spent at the line.

"Now there's a lot of space available for him to get to the basket and get inside," Smith said. "And I think as he gets stronger with his ankle, he'll be able to do a better job of that, holding his position, exploding up inside, something he wasn't able to do over the last month and a half, because of that bad ankle sprain."

Sampson will need to repeat that performance a couple of times to form a trend, but doing so could indeed make him the intriguing playmaker the Gophers need him to be as they head into conference play.