Tubby Smith’s Gophers men’s basketball team is the talk of a sports landscape that is suffering, succumbed to negativity and well, generally, victims of the loss column. On Thursday night, I was reminded of why sports are sports in the first place: to be f-u-n.

Why Thursday night (against Indiana), three rows behind the west basket, was fun:

- The energy in the building. I was reminded of the atmosphere of real, genuine collegiate athletics. Every offensive possession for the Hoosiers was a struggle, as the student section didn’t once sit down. There is something special and engaging when the home team drives on a two-way street: 35-second shot clock violation+too loud to hear whistle signifying such=basketball at the barn is back. Once it’s necessary for NBA assistant coaches to possess a white board in order to call a 2-3 zone, we can chat.

- The mixture of defenses. Any team that can play 94-feet of defense nearly entire game is worthy of mention and praise. Against a far more athletic and talented team in Indiana, and one that possesses the terrific freshman presence in Eric Gordon, Smith stuck to his style: full-court pressure, mixture of man-to-man and 2-3 zone half-court defenses. Minnesota was superb defensively, creating 26 turnovers. The times that Indiana made shots, they were forced to work deep into the shot clock.

- The elderly gentleman sitting beside me. Dressed in full Gopher garb, this man represented fun. He high-fived me after Kelvin Sampson was forced to call a late second-half timeout after a smothering Smith-propelled defense forced yet another turnover. The Gophers were up by one at this time, and I certainly couldn’t hear what he had to say to me as he attempted to scream into my ear. A minute or so later, Tollackson missed his seventh free-throw attempt in seven tries … It was slightly quieter now, he turned to me, and yelled, “I could do better.” Never met the man, but we had a special bond on this particular frigid night. Fun.

- The postgame press conferences. Kelvin Sampson was confused: 26 turnovers and a victory normally don’t accompany each other, but he paid much-deserved respect and admiration for what Smith has done with his group of inspired young men. When asked about what could be gained from the loss, Smith said, “We would have taken a lot more if we had won. I hope we learn that lesson. It was a tough loss, a tough task. You’ve got your home crowd here, you’ve got everything going your way, we were defending like we should.” As a fan, this was a moral victory, the game was played like it should be played: with passion, energy and a sense of preparedness. I think Tubby would disagree. When Tollackson came to the podium, he looked like he had been punched in the stomach. “I couldn’t buy a free throw, he said. “I have to figure this out pretty soon. Go 5-5 at Penn State and end up winning the game with five seconds left. Go 0-7 here and end up losing the game by five. Obviously it’s not acceptable and it’s disgraceful bottom line.” Free throws can be corrected, individually, with repetition. But was more impressive with Tollackson’s performance was his ability to not only get to the rim, but finish around it. We haven’t seen this part of the Chaska native before. “What Coach has tried to instill in me this year is to try to get to the rim. Making my moves in there, trying to draw contact, being more physical, and get to the free throw line,” Tollackson said. “I’ve tried to get their big men in foul trouble and I think he’s done a great job getting our big men the ball where they should get it running plays. It’s kinda sickening that I cannot produce the way that he wants and wishes I could. It’s really hard for me to say that but you can’t come away empty.”

- A team bought in. What’s key about this last quote from Tollackson is that Smith has his players believing in not only him, but the system in which he is developing. The word “sickening” is strong, yet really shows how much respect Tubby has creating surrounding his gameplan for success. Successful teams are bought in to what they are taught and execute because they believe this gameplan is the right way of doing things.

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