Sampson to coach against good friend Tubby Smith

Last year, Kelvin Sampson and Tubby Smith were good friends coaching teams that are bitter rivals. Now, they’re good friends coaching conference rivals.\nSmith, then the coach at Kentucky, bested Sampson last season when the Wildcats topped the Hoosiers 59-54 in Rupp Arena. \nBut Smith left Lexington, Ky., last year for colder pastures. \nHis new team, the Minnesota Golden Gophers, will host Sampson’s No. 9 Hoosiers today in the pair’s first matchup as Big Ten coaches.\nSmith’s Minnesota team has surprised many by jumping out to a 12-3 start this season. But it came as no surprise to Smith’s good friend Sampson.\n“Looking at Minnesota going into the year, that was one of the teams that a lot of people thought had a chance to be pretty good because of their seniors,” Sampson said after IU’s 62-58 win against Illinois. \nSampson and Smith’s friendship dates back to their early coaching days when Sampson was a student teacher at a junior high school in Raeford, N.C., the same town where Smith was the high school basketball coach. Their relationship, which became well publicized when IU and Kentucky squared off last year, has produced just two head-to-head matchups – last year’s game and a 1994 contest where Sampson, then coach of Oklahoma, beat Smith, then coach of Tulsa, 76-61.\nConsider tonight’s game as somewhat of a rubber match. \n“Minnesota’s a good team,” Sampson said. “That will be one of the tough stops on the road in the league.”\nIU fans know all too well how cruel Williams Arena, or “The Barn,” can be to the cream and crimson.\nThe Hoosiers have won just two of the past 10 games played in the Barn, dating back to Bob Knight’s reign in Bloomington.\nSampson acknowledged Minnesota, who improved to 3-1 in conference play with a road win over Penn State Saturday, will be ready to feed off the home crowd.\n“I just like they way they play,” Sampson said during a teleconference with reporters Monday. “They play with a lot of confidence. I’m sure playing at home in front of their crowd coming off a big road win, they’ll have a lot of momentum.”\nSampson is particularly impressed with Minnesota seniors forward Dan Coleman , center Spencer Tollackson and guard Lawrence McKenzie, who have led the Gophers to their best start since the 2000-2001 season. \n“They have really good seniors,” Sampson said. “Those three guys have started there for a while.”\nSmith returned the gushing when the topic of IU freshman guard Eric Gordon, the conference’s leading scorer, came up in Monday’s teleconference. \n“In Eric Gordon, you have one of the best freshmen in the country, if not one of the best players,” Smith said.\nAnd as more and more people realize how good the Hoosiers can be with Gordon playing well, IU will have to be more vigilant to prevent upsets, said IU senior guard A.J. Ratliff after the Illinois game. \n“Every night we play it’s going to be a big game because everybody’s going to be coming at us,” Ratliff said. \nTonight, “The Barn” is \nno exception.