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The Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball team represents the University Of Minnesota in Minneapolis , Minnesota . The Golden Gophers have played in the Big Ten since the conference began sponsoring basketball in 1905. The team plays their home games in Williams Arena and is currently coached by Tubby Smith . The Gophers had great success in the early years of basketball, but have been largely overshadowed by other programs since World War I . The team has also had several instances of NCAA sanctions on the program that have affected performance and recruiting, the most severe being the mid-1990s scandal under then-coach Clem Haskins that resulted in the forfeiture of a Final Four appearance. COACHES Initially, the Gophers team formed without any organized coach. L.J. Cooke took over the team in 1897. Cooke was put on the University payroll on a part-time basis in early 1897 and full-time by the fall; this made him one of the earliest professional coaches.1 Cooke remained the coach of the Gophers for 28 seasons, and his .649 winning percentage is the second highest in school history. Dave McMillan , who coached the team from 1927 to 1942 and 1945 to 1948, had the second longest tenure as coach at 18 seasons. Interestingly, Hall of Fame coach John Wooden almost succeeded McMillan as Gophers head coach; Wooden claims that a dispute over retaining McMillan as an assistant coach and a delayed phone call led him to accept the job at UCLA instead.Hugunin and Thornley, pg. 78 The Gophers have had several NBA coaches grace the sidelines. John Kundla took over as Gophers head coach after the Minneapolis Lakers departed for Los Angeles . Bill Fitch and Bill Musselman both coached the team for a couple seasons before departing for the NBA and ABA respectively, where each had success and coached for many years. The program has had a fair degree of stability with their coaching staff. Tubby Smith became the 16th head coach in Gopher basketball history when hired in 2007; this total includes interim coaches , Jim Dutcher , and Clem Haskins. PLAYERS The Golden Gophers have had many talented players come through the program throughout its history. In the early years of basketball, when the Gophers were a powerhouse, they recruited some of the best talent in the country. George Tuck was a dominant center, and the first All-America for the Gophers in 1905.Hugunin and Thornley, pg. 9 Frank Lawler was another early star: he led the Big Ten in Scoring in 1911 and was also named to the All-America team, and helped the Gophers to a contested conference title. With the decline of the stature of the Gophers program, there have been less elite players to come play for the school. That did not, however, prevent some elite players from coming to Minneapolis to play for Minnesota. , Sam Jacobson , Quincy Lewis , John Thomas , and Trevor Winter . Currently several former Gophers play in the NBA, including Joel Przybilla , Kris Humphries , and Kevin Burleson . HISTORY Early Years Program Establishment The precise founding of the Gophers men's basketball program at the University of Minnesota is somewhat nebulous. Unlike many other universities with later foundations, the team did not form as a conscious act of the campus administration. The University's student newspaper at the time, the ''Ariel'', reported on basketball throughout 1895 as the sport was introduced to the campus from a rival school, Minnesota A&M in St. Paul , later incorporated into the larger University of Minnesota Twin Cities.2 In 1896, a team from the school began to participate in a league with the Agriculture school, YMCA teams, and other local associations. The establishment of the Armory on campus gave the team a new place to play. In February 1897, L.J. Cooke, a director of the Minneapolis YMCA, was hired on a part-time basis to coach the basketball program, and became the full-time coach and director of physical education by the fall of that year.Hugunin and Thornley, pg. 6 Cooke was one of the first full-time professional coaches in all of college basketball and would remain at the program for 28 seasons. Cooke began to improve the team significantly. Moreover, he was responsible for shifts in the Gophers' scheduling that foreshadowed changes to come. The team never played a YMCA team after the 1903-04 season, and beginning in 1900, began to schedule large neighboring universities that would join Minnesota in Big Ten competition.Hugunin and Thornley, pg. 6 This shift to playing similar competition helped the Gophers to become one of the premier programs in the nation. From the 1899-00 to 1903-04 seasons, the Gophers had a 59-6 record. The 1901-02 squad has been retroactively named the national champions by both the Helms and Premo Polls; the Premo Poll also names the 1902-03 Gophers as national champs. When the Big Ten established basketball in 1905, the Gophers won the first two conference titles. After 1907, Cooke's dominance of the national basketball scene was greatly reduced. He led the team to two more conference titles (1916-17, 1918-19), and one consensus retroactive national championship for the 1918-19 season, but the team was never the consistent winner that it was in the first decade under Cooke. He retired after the 1923-1924 season. His successor, Harold Taylor , had little success as coach and never finished higher than sixth in the conference in three forgettable seasons. Dave McMillan and beyond Following the firing of Harold Taylor as coach, the program underwent a national search for a successor. Many of the candidates for the job were high profile coaches of other conference foes.Hugunin and Thornley, pg. 50 The team opted, however, to hire Dave McMillan, who had been coaching the University Of Idaho for the previous seven seasons. Additionally, McMillan played for the New York Celtics during the 1910s, further adding to his basketball repertoire.Perlstein, pg. 18 McMillan would dominate the program for the next thirty years, coaching the team from 1927 to 1942 and again from 1945 to 1948. McMillan's teams in 1928 began to play in the University Of Minnesota Field House , a new on-campus arena. Basketball had been off-campus for several seasons when the team moved downtown. McMillan's teams had middling success. His 1930-31 and 1931-32 teams competed near the top of the Big Ten, but his teams dropped off again for the until 1936. John Kundla joined the team for the 1936-1937 season and helped the team to the Big Ten Championship, which was ended up being its last until 1972. McMillan's squad also competed in a tournament in 1936 to represent the United States in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin ; the team advanced several rounds before being ousted by DePaul .Hugunin and Thornley, pg. 52 Many Gophers players in this era were recruited from Minneapolis public high schools, and in some seasons this even constituted a majority of the roster.Hugnin and Thornley, pg. 56 McMillan resigned in 1942, but returned in 1945 after three poor seasons for the Gophers in the interim. When he resigned for the second time in 1948, he was replaced by O.B. Cowles . Cowles was known for playing slower tempo basketball like was most common in the 1920s and 1930s and was known as a defensive-minded coach, especially early in his career.Hugunin and Thornley, pg. 79 His squads were led by two-time All-American Jim McIntyre and three-time NBA Champion Whitey Skoog for the early years of his career and Big Ten MVP Chuck Mencel for the middle ones. Another notable Gophers star from the era was Pro Football Hall Of Fame coach Bud Grant . Cowles squads were consistent winners, and he had a .612 winning percentage at the school. The Gophers were unable to win a Big Ten title, however, despite a solid nucleus in Cowles' early seasons. The team finished fourth or better in the conference seven times in Cowles eleven seasons as Gophers head coach. Kundla, Fitch, and Musselman since 1928.]]In 1959, John Kundla stayed behind in Minneapolis as the Lakers prepared to leave town and succeeded O.B. Cowles as head coach of the Golden Gophers. Kundla remained head coach until 1968. In 1963, he broke the Color Barrier in the Minnesota program and recruited three African-American players to come to the school. One of these first three players was Lou Hudson , who played in the NBA and is one of only four Gophers to have his number retired by the school.Perlstein, pg. 55 The other two players recruited by Kundla, Archie Clark and Don Yates , also both played in the NBA. That trio helped the Gophers to a third place Big Ten finish in 1963-64 and a second place finish in 1964-65, but those were the high points for Kundla's collegiate career. Kundla's personal assessment of his Gophers career was that his personal weaknesses in recruiting were marring the team by the end of his tenure.Perlstein, pg. 61 Kundla was succeeded by Bowling Green head coach Bill Fitch . Fitch remained with the Gophers for two seasons before being hired by the Cleveland Cavaliers as their first head coach in 1970 and making the leap to the NBA, where he later won an NBA title as coach of the Boston Celtics . Fitch did recruit Jim Brewer before he left, laying the first seed for the 1972 Big Ten title. George Hanson , a longtime assistant coach at the school, was hired as his replacement, but lasted only one season. The Gophers hired Cal Luther away from Murray State to coach the team in 1971, but he changed his mind and turned the team down after accepting the position.Hugunin and Thornley, pg. 124 Instead, Bill Musselman took over the program. Musselman was a defensive minded coach and designed his team around Brewer, recruiting several junior college players and University of Minnesota baseball star Dave Winfield to support him.Hugunin and Thornley, pg. 128 The starters on the 1971-72 squad became known as the "Iron Five". Musselman's strategy succeeded, and the team took the Big Ten title, the first since 1937. This was achieved despite and ugly brawl against Ohio State on January 25, 1972, in which several Gophers players attacked Ohio State center Luke Witte after a game of physical play and an especially hard foul against Gophers point guard Bob Nix. The brawl was publicized in '' Sports Illustrated '', and some Ohio State players alleged that the Gophers players were going after white Buckeyes.Hugunin and Thornley, pg. 126 This was not to be the only scandal of Musselman's tenure as coach. In 1973, former player Greg Olson accused Musselman of having attempted to strike him in a practice.Hugunin and Thornley, pg. 130 It was also revealed that Olson had sold complimentary season tickets to a booster named Harvey Mackay , which prompted NCAA investigations.Hugunin and Thornley, pg. 130. Musselman's coaching style also brought about significant transfers away from the Minnesota program to other schools.Hugunin and Thornley, pp. 130, 131 In 1975, Musselman resigned and was named the head coach of the San Diego Sails of the ABA. After his resignation, Musselman admitted to giving money to players for rent and transportation.Hugunin and Thornley, pg. 131 These charges, coupled with the earlier ticket selling scandal and other transgressions regarding payments and aid revolving around Harvey Mackay, resulted in a list from the NCAA of more than 100 rule violations in Musselman's four seasons at the school.Hugunin and Thornley, pg. 131. The extent of the consequences would not be known until early in Jim Dutcher 's eleven season tenure as Gophers head coach. Modern Era Scandal Under Haskins Clem Haskins was hired as the Gopher basketball coach in 1986, expected to clean up and rebuild the Gopher program which had been torn apart by the Madison Sexual Assault allegations (of which the players were later acquitted) during the final year of coach Jim Dutcher.3 Though wins didn't come easily in the first couple years of Haskins regime, by the 1988-89 season he had the Gophers in the NCAA Tournament as a #11 seed, and directed a Cinderella Run into the Sweet 16 . In the 1989-90 season Haskins led the Gophers to the Elite Eight , and the team came within a basket of reaching their first ever Final Four . In only three years, Haskins had once again made Gopher basketball a hot ticket in town. However as it turns out, the 1990 Elite Eight appearance would be the last time under Haskins the Gophers would "officially" appear in the NCAA tournament.4 On March 10 , 1999 , the day before the #7 seed Gophers were to open the NCAA Tournament against #10 Gonzaga , the '' St. Paul Pioneer Press '' ran a story detailing allegations of massive academic fraud in the men's basketball program.5 Former basketball office manager Jan Gangelhoff had gone to the newspaper claiming she had written over 400 papers for at least 20 Gopher men's basketball players over a period of several years, ending in 1998. When the Gophers played Gonzaga on March 11 , the University suspended players Antoine Broxie, Kevin Clark, Jason Stanford, and Miles Tarver since they allegedly had papers written for them by Ganglehoff in previous seasons. With their roster depleted, the Gophers lost to Gonzaga, the season came to an end, and an internal investigation at the University began. By June of 1999 and in the midst of their investigation, the university had negotiated a Buyout of the remainder of Haskins Contract , worth $1.5 million dollars over three years.6 In the summer of 2000, Haskins came forward and admitted that he had paid Gangelhoff $3,000 for her services; this revelation came to light after Haskins turned his financial records over to the NCAA.7 In addition, more details were emerging in which Haskins was also accused of Mail Fraud in an incident regarding a recruits Transcript , giving players cash, dismissing Sexual Harassment concerns against his players, as well as his staff trying to persuade Professor s to give his players inflated grades they had not earned.8910 After the details of Haskins' ever-growing involvement became more clear, the University initiated legal action to recover the buyout money.1112 A judge ultimately ruled that Haskins must return just over half of the original $1.5 million buyout.13 During this time an NCAA investigation was also underway. They agreed with the University that massive fraud took place under Haskins watch, and stripped the Gophers of all awards and titles dating back to the 1993-94 season citing "Lack of institutional control". The banners and records stripped included:
In addition, the basketball program was hit with massive sanctions, including a loss of five Scholarship s over the following three seasons, recruiting limitations, and department-wide probation lasting four years.14 There was no post-season ban instituted by the NCAA, however then- University President Mark Yudof ordered a self-imposed post season ban for the 1999-2000 season. In addition to the resignation of Coach Haskins, Athetlic Director Mark Dienhart , Vice president for Athletics, Student Development McKinley Boston, Associate athletics director Jeff Schemmel and academic counselor Alonzo Newby also resigned.15 The University also agreed to return 90% (approximately $350,000) of the profits earned by the basketball program during their appearances in the NCAA tournament, including the 1997 Final Four run. Recovery and Revival |
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