Tubby Smith doesn't have a go-to guy, and it worries him.
"Absolutely," he said.
Some teams the University of Minnesota will face in the last six games of the Big Ten Conference men's basketball season will have two or three players to rely on for consistent offense. He is still searching for one.
"I don't know, maybe it's because people are taking certain things away from us," said Smith, who takes the Gophers (19-5, 7-5) on the road Saturday to play Penn State (17-8, 6-6) in State College, Pa. "When you're not making shots, and you let it affect other parts of your game, I can't go with you very long."
The lack of a consistent scorer has become a growing concern, as the Gophers have lost four of their past seven games. They escaped with a 62-54 victory Tuesday at home against the Big Ten's worst team, Indiana, thanks to 26 forced turnovers and sophomore forward Paul Carter's career-best 22 points off the bench.
Carter was the sixth different player to lead the team in scoring in the past seven games.
Minnesota's top three scorers — Lawrence Westbrook, Damian Johnson and Al Nolen — combined to score eight points on 2-for-16 shooting Tuesday. Westbrook, the team's leading scorer this season at 12.7 points a game, has scored fewer than double figures in three straight games.
"He tried some bad shots inside that he should have passed," Smith said of Westbrook. "He drove it to the basket against three or four guys, and you have to pass
the ball. When you do that now, those bad shots are turnovers, and we just can't live with that."
Westbrook and Johnson combined to shoot 0 for 11 against the Hoosiers. But Johnson also had as many fouls (four) as field-goal attempts.
"Damian was just fouling guys," Smith said. "It was just poor defensive position, and he did that in the Ohio State game. He did it in the Michigan State game. We work on it every day. I don't know whether it's something he's been doing all along and now it caught up with him. He's got to stop reaching and play smart, sound basketball. And if he's not defending, he's no offensive juggernaut, so we have a problem there."
With an athletic 6-foot-8, 195-pound frame, Carter is similar to Johnson in that he uses his quickness and athleticism to play more of a defensive role, but he also displayed a well-rounded offensive game Tuesday.
Carter, who averages 7.2 points a game in Big Ten play, showed three-point range. He finished strong with three dunks, one on a fast-break alley-oop pass from Johnson. He also made 7 of 8 free throws.
The Gophers obviously were trying to establish Carter as an offensive threat late against Indiana. He finished shooting 7 for 13 from the field, 6 for 7 in the second half. Nobody else on the team attempted more than three shots in the second half.
"Westbrook, Al and Damian, we always turn to those guys, but some nights it doesn't go their way," Carter said. "Coaches were just telling me to take my time, to go out there and just play. My teammates were telling me the same. In the end, it was just really them getting me the ball on open cuts."
Who will step up next for the Gophers?
Sophomore Blake Hoffarber had his first double-figure game in conference play with 19 points, behind six second-half three-pointers, in a 64-58 loss at Ohio State last weekend. But he had two points on 1-for-4 shooting Tuesday.
Earlier this season, Nolen looked like he could become a breakout player for the Gophers. But the sophomore point guard has not scored in double figures for five straight games while shooting a combined 7 for 23 from the field.
Freshman Devoe Joseph had a team-high 11 points on 5-for-8 shooting in an embarrassing 76-47 loss at Michigan State on Feb. 4, but that's his only double-figure-scoring game in the Big Ten.
Joseph's solution for Nolen is to force turnovers, allowing him to get out and run.
"I think that's when we're at our best," he said. "Then we can get out on the break where (Nolen) can get layups and we can all be in transition."
