NIT 2012 Schedule: Why Minnesota Will Defeat Stanford in Tournament Championship

The Minnesota Golden Gophers pulled off a great upset in overtime against the Washington Huskies in overtime of the NIT semifinals and are now moving on to the championship game.

Their opponent, the Stanford Cardinal, will not be able to stop them.

Here are a few reasons why the Gophers are going to claim the NIT title.

Teamwork

Minnesota has lost two of their best players and is still persevering because they are playing as a complete unit.

They haven’t let the absence of star forward Trevor Mbakwe, who went down with a season-ending injury earlier in the year, and Ralph Sampson III, who is dealing with a sprained knee and not playing in the tournament, derail their dreams of ending the 2011-12 campaign on a high note.

Rodney Williams has stepped up huge and is averaging 21 points in four NIT games. The rest of the supporting cast is chipping in as well, and the team is scoring well above the 67.4 points per game they averaged during the regular season.

Coaching

Tubby Smith is no stranger to winning. He captured the 1998 NCAA Championship with the Kentucky Wildcats and has a career head coaching record of 490-212.

He’s only managed to take this Minnesota team to the first round of the NCAA tournament during his five years as the leader, but winning the NIT is a good way to keep his job and give them something to build on next season.

Smith will have his Gophers prepared and ready to play great defense and share the rock. It will ensure that they go back to Minneapolis as champions.