The 2008–09 Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball team represented the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

in the

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

season of 2008–2009. The team's

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

was

Tubby Smith Orlando Henry "Tubby" Smith (born June 30, 1951) is an American college basketball coach who last coached the men's basketball team at High Point University, his alma mater. Smith previously served in the same role at the University of Tulsa, t ...

. This was Smith's second year as Minnesota's head coach. The Golden Gophers played their home games at

Williams Arena Williams Arena is an indoor arena located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the home arena for the University of Minnesota's men's and women's basketball teams. It also housed the men's hockey team until 1993, when it moved into its own building ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. The

Big Ten Network Big Ten Network (BTN) is an American sports network based in Chicago, Illinois. The channel is dedicated to coverage of College athletics, collegiate sports sanctioned by the Big Ten Conference, including live and recorded event telecasts, news ...

included the team in a two-and-a-half-hour special that featured Midnight Madness events from several Big Ten campuses on October 17, 2008; the Minnesota event to kick off the season was called "Tubby's Tipoff". The Gophers started the season on a twelve-game winning streak for the first time since the 1948–49 season. The team became ranked on December 22, the first time the team had been ranked since the 2002–03 season. Recruit

Royce White Royce Alexander White (born April 10, 1991) is an American former political candidate and former professional basketball player. He was the Republican Party's nominee in the 2024 United States Senate election in Minnesota. White was the 200 ...

signed with the Minnesota Golden Gophers, but did not play due to shoplifting and trespassing charges. He transferred to Iowa State in July 2010.

Roster

Incoming signees

2008–09 Schedule and Results

, - !colspan="8" style="text-align: center; background:#800000" , Exhibition , - ! colspan="8" style="text-align: center; background:#800000", Regular Season , - ! colspan="9" style="text-align: center; background:#800000", Big Ten Regular Season , - ! colspan="9" style="text-align: center; background:#800000", 2009 Big Ten tournament , - ! colspan="9" style="text-align: center; background:#800000", 2009 NCAA Men's Basketball tournament

Rankings

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2008-09 Minnesota Golden Gophers Men's Basketball Team Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball seasons

2008 in sports in Minnesota 2009 in sports in Minnesota