-With Minnesota months away from finishing up a brand new football stadium - one that Tubby Smith can see from the Williams Arena club room - ideas about a potential basketball practice facility continue to be discussed, in hypothetical terms of course. One source close to the team recently threw out the idea of turning the Sports Pavillion, which is adjacent to Williams Arena, into a new practice facility for Gophers basketball.

Makes sense. I spoke with Joel Maturi a few months ago, and he talked about possibly building some kind of a facility across University Avenue next to Williams Arena. Again, it was just an idea. Nothing is in the works, to my knowledge. But it seems that building a facility near or adjacent to Williams Arena is favored.

We’re at point in college basketball where practice facilities are no longer extras. They’re essentials. Every Big Ten team, except Minnesota, has either a practice facility or plans for one. Even schools like New Mexico have one.

-Check out the latest edition of Medcast here at noon.

-Just in case you missed it, a replay of Blake Hoffarber’s last-second turnaround jumper to beat Indiana in the Big Ten Tournament last season will air Thursday at 7 p.m. on the Big Ten Network. And if you pay close attention, you’ll see an amazed reporter in a yellow shirt standing up after Hoffarber sank the shot and my game story with 1.5 seconds on the clock.

-Robbinsdale Cooper’s Rodney Williams is on the cover of ESPN RISE Magazine’s December issue.

-Purdue’s Robbie Hummel was named Big Ten Player of the Week Monday, after scoring 25 points (career high) against Indiana State last week and leading the Boilermakers to two victories. He also surpassed the 500 career points.

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