Two Ex-Gophers Struggle in 2007 College Debut

While Minnesota rolled 84-53 in their season opener under new head coach Tubby Smith, things did not go as smoothly out west for two people who were formerly in the Gophers program. Rico Tucker was just one of nine from the field in his first game with Pepperdine in their 100-70 loss to Oregon and former Gophers head coach Dan Moson lost his debut with Long Beach State 74-34 to BYU.

Rico Tucker, who played two seasons for Minnesota, made just one of nine shots as he finished with just two points as the Waves fell behind 53-23 at halftime. He added eight rebounds, five assists and two steals. He sat out the 2006-07 season and will have two years of eligibility remaining at Pepperdine.

Fellow San Diego native Tyrone Shelley, who was high on Minnesota until Tucker left the program, was just three of 16 from the field.

Dan Monson saw his Long Beach State team fall behind 32-6 as they lost to BYU 74-34.

“Obviously it was a reality check for our guys, compared to playing ourselves and Division-II’s,” said Monson. “I’m not concerned at where we are at right now, but where we are going. I told our guys our only chance was to play hard and get them out of rhythym. They had a lot of experience and were grown men, we are still young. We just need to get our guys to settle down. Our offense is going to be ragged for awhile. We don’t have a choice (but to play hard) and we need to get better defensively. Our measure is not by the scoreboard... we need to use every minute of the game out there (to get experience). We have a lot of guys that are not ready to play, but we have to throw them in there anyway. That’s going to get them better.”

The 49ers hit the road for the first time this season as they play at Montana State on Tuesday night at 6 pm Pacific.