Global Search

sports

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 @AmeliaRayno

Mbakwe addresses tweets vowing to repay scholarship if Gophers missed tourney

Posted by: Amelia Rayno under College basketball, Gophers players Updated: November 5, 2012 - 11:43 PM

  • share

    email

 

 

This year’s Gophers team has had high expectations all along, but after Trevor Mbakwe’s highly publicized tweet vowing to pay back his scholarship if the Gophers missed the tournament, the ante just got upped, Rodney Williams joked.

 
“I definitely like confidence in him. But now we definitely don’t have a choice, we’ve got to go make some noise, because that’s going to be tough to go pay back,” Williams said.
 
To make that clear: tough for Mbakwe to pay back. Asked whether the team would pool their money together in that circumstance, Williams was quick with the wit to make a distinction.
 
“We didn’t tweet that, he did,” he deadpanned. “So if something went wrong, it’s all on Trevor.”
 
The tweets, which disappeared from Mbakwe’s feed on Monday, were taken down on his own accord, the forward said, citing the (partly negative) media reaction.
 
“It wasn’t supposed to be anything negative, it was just me showing faith in this team,” he said. I know how hard they’ve worked and I believe we want to go farther than the NCAA tournament. But it’s just something I said and honestly I didn’t expect it to get the reaction that it did.
 
“I apologize if it was a distraction to my teammates or anybody but that’s just my confidence for the team this year.”
 

older post

Postgame: Gophers wrap up exhibition slate with blowout over Southwest Baptist

newer post

Gophers picked as 6, 8, 10 seeds in preseason brackets

  • 5

  • Comments

  • share

    email

from the homepage

ADVERTISEMENT

recent posts

Post By Category

Sports (2) Basketball (8)
College basketball (652) Vikings (2)
Gophers coaches (73) Gophers players (603)
Tubby Smith (37) Williams Arena (8)
Gophers game day (43) Gophers postgame (6)
NCAA (2) The Big Dance (8)
Gophers awards and honors (1) Gophers post season (4)
Gophers roster moves (5) Minnesota colleges (1)

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Connect with twitterConnect with facebookConnect with Google+Connect with PinterestConnect with PinterestConnect with RssfeedConnect with email newsletters

Links

ADVERTISEMENT

inside the StarTribune

lifestyle

Best of MN 2013: Guide to state's finest

projects

ST100: 2013 ranking of Minnesota's top companies

sports

New Vikings stadium section: The game plan

local

Follow Star Tribune on social media

home

Map to Twin Cities farmers markets

minnesota topics

Minnesota Topics: People, places and companies