Live from Florida, folks. This Florida State team looks very athletic, and they definitely have a lot of frontcourt depth. Freshman centerSolomon Alabi is definitely a legit 7-1, but he may not play much because he’s recovering from a stressfracture.

Minnesota junior guard Travis Busch will not play tonight because of a left leg injury.And the rumor swirling around the Leon County Civic Centeris that Al Nolen willstart in the point guard spot, an obvious attempt by Tubby Smith to match up with FSU’s talentedbackcourt core of Isaiah Swann, Toney Douglas and Jason Rich, whohave averaged close to40 points per contest.

The key to this game will be the performance of Minnesota’s big men. Spencer Tollackson, Dan Coleman and Jon Williams have to show up big for the Gophers tonight, and they also have to stay out of foul trouble in order for Minnesota to pick up a solid win on the road. Nolen need’s to have a breakthrough game tonight, too. And Westbrook has to have a high school flashback and showcase the scoring ability that made him the nation’s top prep scorer as a junior at Chandler High School in Arizona.

And the Gophers can’t play second-half basketball the way they have throughout the season. A slow start will likely cost them against FSU, which jumped out to a 25-9 lead in a victory against Florida Friday.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 6:11 pm and is filed under Gophers men's basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.