Patrick Reusse: Tubby was left with a little to work with

Iowa coach Todd Lickliter walked into the interview room on the second level of Williams Arena at midafternoon Saturday. The Georgia Tech-Connecticut game was on a nearby television with the volume playing.

"Just turn the thing off," someone said.

Lickliter gave a frustrated look at his audience and said: "No, leave it on. It's probably a little more interesting than this one. In fact, can I get you guys to move over back there, so I can see that other television?"

Twenty minutes later, Minnesota's Tubby Smith, the winning coach, entered the same room and in a better frame of mind. He saw Sid Hartman, the venerable Star Tribune columnist, sitting nearby.

"You just can't hide your money, can you?" Smith said. "That beautiful camel-hair jacket you're wearing. You think I could borrow that someday?"

Smith's Gophers returned to .500 in the Big Ten for the first time in three weeks with a 63-50 victory over Iowa. There were several revelations during the sold-out matinée, including this:

For all of the well-deserved ridicule aimed at Dan Monson, he left the talent reservoir overflowing for Smith, in comparison to what Lickliter inherited from Steve Alford in Iowa City.

The Hawkeyes are 4-8 in the league, 11-14 overall and demonstrated that their standing at No. 142 in the Ratings Percentage Index (through Friday) was legitimate.

"It's really impossible to win if you can't catch and pass the ball," Lickliter said. "If we can catch and the pass the ball with authority, we could compete in games like this."

The authority belonged to the Gophers' energetic defense. They used full-court pressure frequently, lured the Hawkeyes to the sidelines and attacked with double teams and came up with 10 steals as part of Iowa's 21 turnovers.

And yet, after Iowa's Justin Johnson and Tony Freeman had a brief run of tossing in three-pointers, the Gophers found themselves trailing 42-41 with 11:16 remaining.

"It kind of hit me by surprise," center Spencer Tollackson said. "I didn't really see how they got back in it, the way we had played defense."

All this quickness was too much for Lickliter's slewfoots, and the Gophers' small lineup finished with a 22-8 sprint to victory. The trigger for this burst was Nolen, the freshman guard who had seen reduced playing time since missing the Michigan State loss on Jan. 20 because of a bruised thigh.

"He came off a screen, and I put my big, gargantuan knee into his thigh," Tollackson said. "He couldn't move for two days. That set him back a little, but I really appreciated everything Al gave us today."

Tollackson's two free throws (the second on a bank) put the Gophers in front 43-42, and then it was Nolen: Steal and a layup. A three-pointer. A pass from McKenzie for a layup. A drive and a slick pass to Johnson for a dunk.

Nolen's variety four-pack came in less than three minutes and pushed the Gophers' lead to 52-45 with 6:01 remaining. It was easy from there.

Nolen went from a scoreless 10 minutes in Wednesday's blowout of Northwestern to 11 points, eight assists and three steals in 29 minutes Saturday.

Whatever, the freshman guard was back as a high-impact player Saturday, after four games in which he averaged 15 minutes and totaled three points. This made the Gophers more intense on defense, more creative on offense and kept alive their visions of an NCAA tournament berth.

"That's still the goal," Tollackson said. "It's still there."