Wacky stats you want to know:

There were 17 lead changed and eight ties in the Gophers’ 70-67 victory over Western Carolina on Friday in the opening game of the Subway Classic.

The Gophers have won 65 consecutive games when they score 70 points or more.

Minnesota has started 3-0 in five of the six seasons Pam Borton has been the Gophers’ coach. So wait a little on talk of a Big Ten title this season.

Sophomore Katie Ohm from little Elgin-Millville came to the U witha reputation of being shooter. She had a career-high 10 rebounds Friday and was within one point of a double-double.

My opinion: So far Aussie Zoe Harper looks like the most improved player on the team. She has scored in double figures in every game coming off the bench.

Blue Star Basketball’s opinion: The Gophers’ 2008 recruiting class is the 14th best in the nation.

Signing on Wednesday were the Mastey twins of Becker, Brianna and Nicole; Kiara Buford of St. Paul Central and Jackiee Voigt of Park of Cottage Grove.

Only Purdue had a class Blue Star rated higher; the Boilermakers were No. 8.

The top five consisted of the usual suspects: Tennessee, LSU, Rutgers, Connecticut and North Carolina. The only other Big Ten schools rated were Ohio State at No. 20 and Wisconsin at No. 44.

Ratings in basketball, in my opinion, are hardly foolproof, but they are more accurate than in sports such as football. Many of the top players join the best AAU teams that travel and play each other in the summer.

I was worried for the Gophers women’s basketball team on Friday night when I left the game at halftime. I had to cover the Gophers hockey team across the street.

Minnesota was leading Western Carolina only 33-30 at halftime. And it should not have been that close. But the Gophers were having trouble adjusting to the way the officials were calling the game.

Emily (Emmy) Fox had picked up two late charging fouls. On consecutive possessions. Every Gopher seemed to have a charge and most of the key players seemed to have at least two fouls. And this is a team only eight players deep.

I had seen the Gophers in a exhibtion game. They have been impressive one half, pretty dreadful the next. Now, in a real game, against a pretty good veteran team, they were unable to pull away.

Minnesota won, of course, 70-67. This team can pound the boards, go to different players for points — three scored in double figures, two more had nine points and a sixth player had eight.

But Brittany McCoy, who had five assists, can not be in foul trouble every game. She has, for two in a row. And the team has to shoot better from the free throw line (9 of 16, boo), and find another three-point shooter besides Katie Ohm. She was 3 for 7, two other players 0 for 4.

Fox looks like a capable leader. Leslie Knight is hustling for rebounds; she had nine, and players are trying to share the ball. Three players had either five or four assists.

The schedule seems to be setting up nicely. Each successive opponent so far has been a little better. Next is Louisville, with an All-America forward. Tipoff is 2 p.m. Sunday. I’ll get to watch the whole game. Yeah. And won’t get to see any of the Vikings-Raiders game without AP. Double yeah.

If you have seen the U women basketball team, what do you think about them? You can be sure, I will keep offering you my thoughts on the team whenever I see them play.

The Gophers play the Western Carolina Catamounts tonight at 6 p.m. So what is a catamount? A wild cat, like a lynx or cougar. The school has had the nickname since 1933.

The Caramounts can play a little basketball, too. They are 2-0, including a win over Clemson.

U players at a press conference on Thursday said they did not know too much about WCU. “Western Carolina has a 6-4 girl,” said Zoey Harper. “Looks like they run, hits threes and crash the boards pretty hard.”

The U is coming off a 68-57 road win at Northern Iowa on Tuesday.

“It wasn’t a great game for me personally,” said senior forward Leslie Knight, a cocaptain. “But I think as a team we weathered the storm. Anda win on theroad, is a win. They were a good team. Give them credit. They could shoot the ball. Idon’t know how many threes they made, but it was a lot.”

UNI was 8-for-25 on threes.

“After playing UNI, we want tolimit three-point percentages,” Knight said. “I don’t remember what the rebounds were against UNI, but that will be a big factor against the two teams we play this weekend. And we want to play well because we are in the Barn. … We want to win as much as possible at home.”

Said coach Pam Borton, “We had a nice day off [Wednesday]. The players got some rest. We’ve got a lot of games coming up. We have three games this week, four games next week. It was a much needed dayoff for the players. We got home at 1:30 in the morning [from UNI]. And we have two really tough games this weekend that will reallygive us agreat test, to find out what else we have to work onand just where we are.”

And the UNI game? “We had great focus, great energy,” Borton said. “They hit five threes in a matter of four, five minutes” to rally.

But the Gophers withstood it. “We are getting a lot better as a half-court execution team,” Borton said. “Our team is moving in the right direction.”