Gophers Go On The Road To Face Colorado State

The Minnesota Gophers, who opened their regular season with a 3-0 start in the NABC Classic, will go on the road for the first time this season to face Colorado State Saturday night. The Rams are off to a 2-0 start this season.

Colorado State went 7-25 a year ago and were 0-16 in Mountain West Conference play in head coach Tim Miles’ first year in Fort Collins. Miles had great success at North Dakota State, Minnesota’s opponent next Saturday, where several Minnesota natives shine for the Bison.

The Rams defeated Montana 85-55 last Friday in their opener and Northern Colorado 85-74 Tuesday.

Marcus Walker, a 6-foot senior guard, is averaging 24.0 points per game. Walker, who started his career at Nebraska, became the first CSU player to score 40 points or more in 20 years after scoring 43 for the Top of the World Classic Tournament record against Tennessee State. Walker scored in double figures 25 times last year, including 23 of the last 26 games and 14 of 16 Mountain West contests. He finished first in points per game in the MWC.

Mississippi transfer Andy Ogide is averaging 16.5 points and a team-best 11.5 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-9, 245-pounder is shooting 70.6% from the field.

Harvey Perry was recruited out of high school by the Gophers. He spent a prep season at Brewster Academy before signing with Washington. He landed at JC power College of Southern Idaho before signing with the rams. He is averaging 8.0 points per game, but is shooting just six of 19 from the field and has failed to make any of his four three-point attempts.

Andre McFarland, like Perry, is a Vegas native who went to Brewster Academy and got some recruiting interest from Minnesota. McFarland, who averaged nearly 29 minutes per game and started in 31 of the 32 games as a freshman, is averaging 8.0 points per game.

Willis Gardner started 28 of 30 games at point guard last season and is averaging 7.0 points per game.

Freshman guard Jesse Carr is averaging 10.5 points per game coming off the bench.

The Rams also have another familiar face for many Gopher fans. Dan Vandervieren, a 6-foot-10 sophomore, attended Hopkins and picked Big Ten rival Purdue out of high school. He played sparingly as a freshman before deciding to transfer to Colorado State.

This is the first time since 2003 that a Big Ten team has come to Moby Arena, and the Rams’ marketing department is playing up the head coaching angle. The first 2,000 fans on Saturday will receive a free "Timmy vs. Tubby" T-shirt, promoting the matchup between Tubby Smith and Rams head coach Tim Miles.