The Gophers are ranked 15th in the country in the early goings of the season. At this point, that's nice but it really doesn't mean anything since basically all the top 60+ teams make the NCAA tournament at the end.
No, the reason I'm writing this is because of the odd occurrence that happened in yesterday's preseason tournament finals game against Alabama. The Gopher's won, just barely, but what was cool at the end was that there were just EIGHT players on the court. 5 for the Gophers and just THREE for the Alabama squad.
What happened? Well, bench players who aren't supposed to be on the court, are kicked out of the game if they come on the floor during some kind of foul or dispute situation. That rule's in place to prevent brawling.
Yesterday, late in the game, during a tense situation, Alabama's bench emptied. And they were ALL kicked out. That left Alabama with just the 5 active players on the court. One fouled out shortly after that. And another sprained his ankle so badly that he couldn't continue.
That left a 5 on 3 game at the end. The NCAA allows that as long as the team short of players wishes to continue. Since it was a close game to the end, Alabama elected to keep playing.
That was a first.
But you could see it happening again IF a team's benched gets riled up.
The Gophers? They are now part of a cool trivia question somewhere down the line.
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