Winter storm affecting Gopher hoops travel plans

• University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The strong winter storm hitting portions of the eastern Midwest is impacting the travel plans of the University of Minnesota men's basketball team, which is scheduled to play at Indiana tomorrow night.

Minnesota moved up its scheduled departure time by about four hours today in order to make it to the Indianapolis airport before the possibility of it closing. The Gophers traditionally fly directly into Bloomington's airport when they take on Indiana, but that landing strip is already closed. The team even considered leaving late last night, but head coach Tubby Smith preferred to practice his team in the Twin Cities this morning before leaving. The snow storm blowing through Indiana is expected to be one of the worst of the last three decades. The Gophers are slated to play the Hoosiers at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow night at Assembly Hall.

Minnesota dropped two places in this week's coaches poll to No. 20. The Gophers split a pair of games last week to see their record move to 16-5 overall and 5-4 in the Big Ten. Ohio State remains the nation's top-ranked team. The Buckeyes visit Minneapolis on Sunday to take on the Gophers.

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In related University of Minnesota basketball news: Golden Gopher women's basketball player Kionna Kellogg of Ames, Iowa has been named the Big Ten Freshman Player of the Week. Kellogg helped the Gophers to back-to-back wins last week, including an impressive victory over first-place Michigan on Sunday. Kellogg averaged 14 rebounds in the two games, along with eight points per game. The Gopher women play at Indiana on Thursday. Minnesota has won two straight Big Ten games after dropping its first seven conference tilts.

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