What was meant to be simply an honor to this year's seniors has turned into the Gophers' potential new starting lineup as they barrel toward the NCAA tournament.
On Saturday against Penn State, Minnesota coach Tubby Smith threw out a special starting five in ode to "Senior Day" -- all four seniors started, including Julian Welch and Andre Ingram, who have come off the bench all season.
Now, after watching that group's success -- albeit against basement-dweller Penn State -- Smith is perhaps ready to give it a try again.
"Those guys that we started played extremely well together, so they may get the nod tomorrow," Smith said. "I haven't really decided yet.. But I like the way Julian played – seven assists, no turnovers. He really defended. We were able to shut down their best players in [D.J] Newbill and [Jermaine] Marshall, and the reason was that we probably had our best defensive team on the court. Andre Ingram is one of our better, if not our best post defender. He's probably a pretty heady player in that area."
Smith praised the ultimate size of the lineup around Trevor Mbakwe as well, noting that it gave Rodney Williams the freedom to work more from the perimeter -- where the forward spends lot of time anyway. The coach also liked the spark he got from Joe Coleman -- who had stuggled offensively until the Penn State game, when the sophomore went off for 12 points in 13 minutes -- off the bench.
The real issue would be that in that lineup, Andre Hollins, often referred to as the leader of the team, would be a reserve. On Saturday, Austin Hollins was the lone non-senior to start with the bunch. Smith has been using Andre off the ball a lot more in attempt to re-energize the other things the point guard does well, like, for instance score, an aspect that has been up-and-down for the sophomore. But bringing him off the bench is a different story.
"Dre is our leading scorer and probably our best all-around player, so it's tough to keep a guy like him out of the lineup," Smith said.
Other notes from tonight's media access:
