Gophers' leaders are asked to lead

LINCOLN, NEB. - For better or for worse, Ralph Sampson III and Rodney Williams are what's left of the foundation of the Gophers men's basketball team. And when they stumble, the whole house shakes.

With a young team, the two upperclassmen are the ones that have been relied upon to root the Gophers, lead by example and steady the team on good nights and bad.

But with the Gophers struggling to stay relevant in the Big Ten as they head into Sunday's game at Nebraska, the team's biggest problem has been consistency, and recently the two anointed team leaders have been at the heart of the issue, contributing erratic performances -- particularly with rebounding -- in the last two games.

"Tell me about it," coach Tubby Smith said. "When you get outrebounded on the front line, that's a real problem. ... Ralph and Rodney -- if they're not doing it, we have to find guys that will do it."

At the beginning of the season, Sampson and Williams were given the roles of leaders, a senior and a junior on a team heavy with freshmen and sophomores.

Williams has been key in stepping up since Trevor Mbakwe suffered his season-ending knee injury, and Sampson, while up and down, has had big games.

But in the past two games, while the Gophers have struggled in stretches, the pair has been nothing more than two role players. Instead, it's been the bench and "B-list" starters that have been trying to pull the Gophers through adversity.

The Gophers have been unpredictable, and that's partly because their two remaining "reliable" players haven't been so reliable.

The two combined for four rebounds in the Gophers' loss at Iowa on Wednesday, and together contributed 11 points in the narrow victory over Illinois last weekend.

"These past couple games, I've been kind of sitting back," Williams said. "I still have to be aggressive, because when I'm aggressive, that opens things for my teammates.

"I could go a lot harder to the rim and try to get rebounds. Guys are hitting me a lot earlier before the rebounds come, and once I get hit, I have to keep moving and go get the rebounds."

Competing on the boards has been a big challenge for the Gophers since losing Mbakwe, one of the nation's best rebounders. The Gophers entered Saturday seventh in the Big Ten and 102nd in the nation in rebounding margin at plus-2.6 per game.

Iowa had a rebounding advantage of only 39-35 Wednesday, but that was with Gophers starting guards Joe Coleman, Julian Welch and Austin Hollins combining for 16 boards, and Elliott Eliason grabbing six off the bench.

"We definitely need to tighten up more on rebounds," Eliason said. "That's been the difference in the games we've lost. Too many offensive rebounds. ... In practice, you can see by the drills we're running that we're focusing more on rebounding. And we need to do that."

Because of the full-team effort that has marked recent games, the Gophers were able to steal one vs. the Illini last weekend, giving them an opening with two winnable road games to follow. But the ugly loss to Iowa has magnified the importance of the game against the Cornhuskers.

It also incited head-scratching about just who is leading this team anyway.

"You try to put them in situations where they have strengths and you try to camouflage weaknesses -- but opposing teams and players expose those weaknesses," Smith said of Sampson and Williams. "Rebounding shouldn't be a weakness, and it is. So that's a big concern ... it is what it is. It's not frustrating. That's who they are."

But if the Gophers are going to become a team that can be more consistent, they will need consistent leadership from their veterans.