The Gophers announced a crowd of 8,232 for Friday night's men's basketball contest with St. Francis Brooklyn. There were crowd shots texted that indicated the ticket counters must have included the near full house for volleyball on the other side of Williams Arena's big wall to reach that number.
The result was a 72-54 victory over the Terriers that put the Gophers at 2-0. This was recorded as a considerable upgrade over the 61-60 win over Western Michigan in Monday's opener.
St. Francis Brooklyn stayed in town and will play at St. Thomas on Sunday. The Tommies' first victory as a Division I team was 91-73 over the Terriers in Brooklyn a year ago.
"St. Francis had the return game with us and it was able to work out a 'pay' game with the Gophers on the same weekend trip, so that was perfect for them,'' said John Tauer, the St. Thomas coach.
This was before the Tommies' Friday night home opener against Chicago State. A year ago, St. Thomas' first game as a Division I participant was a 77-72 loss at Chicago State.
The Cougars will be back in the Twin Cities to play the Gophers on Dec. 22. Again, there will be a tiny crowd in the cavernous barn — and again, we must ask:
Why are the Gophers paying 10s of thousands to bring in St. Francis Brooklyn and Chicago State and being required to pad their attendance doubly to avoid feeling sheepish, when they could be scheduling St. Thomas from 4.1 miles away and draw an actual 12,000?
Coach Ben Johnson said emphatically before last season that the Gophers had no intention of playing the Tommies. He's hearing that from above, obviously.