A year ago, Minnesota won a total of nine games. Tubby Smith has already won a dozen games and we're just five games into the Big Ten campaign.

We took our share of shots at Smith while he was at Kentucky for not getting elite-level talent to Lexington, but one thing isn't up for debate: Smith can coach.

The Golden Gophers don't have much talent, but Smith has found a way to win the games that he should win (unlike current Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie) - and the five losses are all legitimate (two to Michigan State, a home loss to Indiana and road setbacks to Florida State and UNLV).

Smith has an outside shot to win 20 games in his first season at Minnesota and while he'll lose the core of this year's team - Dan Coleman, Lawrence McKenzie and Spencer Tollackson are all seniors - he'll bring in plenty of talent next season.

In fact, Smith will likely bring in the same caliber of players to Minnesota that he landed while in Lexington. And while it wasn't good enough for fans in Lexington, it'll be more than enough to keep the Gophers competitive in the Big Ten.

Smith and his staff were able to get a couple of quality big man in Ralph Sampson III and Colton Iverson - as well as scoring guard Devoe Joseph out of Canada. All three are legitimate Top 100 players.

ROAD WARRIORS

Lafayette became the first team in NCAA history to win five overtime road games in a season when the Leopards knocked off Navy, 103-99, on Saturday. Lafayette also beat Colgate in overtime on a putback from Bilal Abdullah with 3.5 seconds left.

Lafayette is 6-0 in overtime games this season - with one coming on its home floor. Only three other teams have played in four overtimes this year.

Lafayette, which is the last program in the Patriot League to use athletic scholarships (the Leopards added them in March of 2006), has won 13 straight regular-season overtime games since a loss to Holy Cross back in 2002.

The Leopards, who were picked to finish last in the league, are 12-6 - which already surpassed last year's win total of nine. Lafayette is also 3-0 in Patriot League play for the first time since 2003-04.

RANDOM NOTES: One of the classiest guys in the industry, South Kent's Raphael Chillious, will coach his final game at the school tomorrow against Brewster Academy. Chillious will leave to take a position at Nike. ... Oregon State interim coach Kevin Mouton's first order of business was to kick junior big man C.J. Giles off the team. Giles, who became eligible at the break after transferring from Kansas, averaged 6.3 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. ... Baylor cracked the national rankings for the first time since 1969. The Bears are 15-2 and off to their best start since 1946. ... Bucknell coach Pat Flannery was suspended for one game for his outburst against Holy Cross on Friday night.