CORRECTION: Things I noticed from SPORTING NEWS

[MaroonGopher]

...Gophers were projected to be the final team in the conference to make the NCAA Tournament as a No. 10 seed while being tabbed for 8th in the league.
...Penn State and Northwestern are projected ahead of Minnesota in the conference, which makes no sense in my opinion, especially since Coble is gone. I think the national writers are making way too big of a deal of Westbrook being gone.
...The Big Ten has three teams in the pre-season national top 5 (1. Michigan State, 3. Purdue and 5. Ohio State). The Gophers, of course, beat all those teams last season.
...Minnesota also beat pre-season top 25 Illinois (15), Sconny (18) and Butler (19).
...Hoffarber is ranked as the Big 10's "Best Shooter"

 

[Sparlimb]

While Westbrook may have been the leading scorer, I still think it may end up a net positive that he's gone. He had moments of excellence, but he, in general, was too incosistent. Although the only way it will be a net positive is if someone else is able to consistently take over hitting the big shots while being well defended to win games. Projections aren't anything that is going to get me down. We have a very solid team with a very solid coach and I expect we'll see that on the court this year. I believe we'll be a top 4 team in the Big Ten.