Jim Souhan: Barn no longer comfortable and quiet -- it was never meant to be

The Barn came alive Thursday night. Once again college basketball in Dinkytown gave you all of those conflicting emotions the best games bring, made you feel nervous and thrilled and lucky and cursed all at the same time.

Oh, and puzzled, too. The first big game of Tubby Smith's Gophers career produced a close loss to Indiana and a couple of big questions, one pointed and one philosophical:

Why would our esteemed coach, trailing by three points in the last minute, take his best three-point shooter out of the game and insert a defensive player, Lawrence Westbrook?

And who invented the free throw, anyway? Who decided that a game based on running, jumping and teamwork should so often be decided by a guy standing still and alone, flicking his wrist like a darts player?

In Smith's first big game in Williams Arena, he showed off a few different presses and half-court defenses, and took one of the most talented teams in the country into the last minute.

Big picture: The Gophers were doomed by 3-for-17 three-point shooting and 11-for-21 shooting from the foul line, with Spencer Tollackson going 0-for-7.

When it came to big shots, the Hoosiers were cool (hitting 12 of 14 from the free-throw line), and the Gophers went cold.

Asked about that decision, Smith looked perplexed. "We probably didn't have a chance to get him in there at that time," Smith said, admitting he wasn't sure he remembered the situation.

Actually, Hoffarber was already in the game, and there could be no good explanation for pulling him.

Neither the loss nor that questionable decision obscured the fact that Williams Arena was a different place Thursday night.

Attending Gophers basketball games used to be so much more pleasant, so much easier, before Smith came to town.

You could find parking anywhere. You could buy a discounted ticket from a depressed scalper on University Avenue, walk into the Barn a few minutes before tipoff, grab your dish of ice cream and settle in for a pleasant night of basketball, knowing you wouldn't miss much if you stepped outside to take a call.

Gophers fans now have to pay full price, or more, and once again there is no place to put your coat in the stands.

Smith's arrival has also meant that the Big Ten's star players no longer get to surpass their averages and please fans of high-scoring basketball. His defense even forced high-scoring Indiana into shot-clock violations.

Worst of all, with Smith invigorating the program, we once again are subjected to Minnesota students unashamedly screaming expletives in public.

These are the vices Tubby has invited back into the Barn. The place was packed and rowdy Thursday, and perhaps the atmosphere will encourage Tubby to reconsider his pleas for a new basketball arena.

Tubby's wrong about that, by the way: Williams is too unique, and provides too distinct a home-court advantage, to be razed and replaced by a McGym. College basketball should be about characters and character. Williams possesses the latter and has been the home to quite a few of the former.

Tollackson had 12 points and seven rebounds, and scored on a reverse layup that gave the Gophers a 60-58 lead with 1:46 left.

He also missed all those fateful free throws, one game after his free-throw shooting helped beat Penn State.

"I'm crushed right now, heartbroken," Tollackson said. "I really thought we were going to win. I thought they played better than us, but I thought we wanted it more."

About the free throws, Tollackson said, "I couldn't buy one. I need to figure this out pretty soon. I go 5-for-5 at Penn State and we end up winning the game. I go 0-for-7 here and we lost by four, by five? Obviously, it's not acceptable. ... It's disgraceful, bottom line, to say the least."

Smith and his players brought The Barn to life again Thursday, but by the end of the game we had questions for the coach, and the large crowd was filing silently into the cold.