Bill Musselman was a wired-up basketball coach and a relentless promoter. He was hired as the Gophers coach on the rebound, after Cal Luther took the job, took a closer look at Williams Arena and the rest of Minnesota's athletic facilities, and reneged.

How bad were things with Gophers basketball at that moment? Luther decided to turn down this chance to coach in the Big Ten in favor of returning to Murray [Ky.] State and the Ohio Valley Conference.

There were 3- or 4,000 season ticketholders and crowds in five digits were extremely rare when Musselman arrived. He brought in junior college players Ron Behagen, Clyde Turner and Bobby Nix and recruited baseball player Dave Winfield from an intramural team to shore up the roster.
Then, he started the "Sweet Georgia Brown'' exhibition of ball-handling before games and soon Williams Arena was bursting.

Musselman lasted only four years because of his creative recruiting, but another of his innovations in that time was to develop a four-team holiday tournament that was played at Met Center in Bloomington.

The tournament started in December 1974 and lasted through 1981. It was held at Williams Arena in its final two years.

The Gophers went 16-0 in the eight editions of the Pillsbury Classic. They defeated worthy opponents such as Clemson, Creighton, Florida State, Houston, Georgia Tech and Texas A&M during this run.

Jim Dutcher, Musselman's replacement, dropped the tournament because of the inability to attract a name opponent or two to fill out the field.

The Gophers had defeated Yale and Texas Tech to win the final Pillsbury Classic in 1981. It's a lesson in how schedules have changed that teams such as Yale and Texas Tech were considered low-grade opponents in the early ‘80s.

A year ago, the Gophers hosted an in-season tournament for the first time since the end of the Pillsbury Classic. It was the NABC Classic and the Gophers played games against Concordia-St. Paul, Bowling Green and Georgia State.

In 1981, the Gophers followed the Pillsbury Classic by going to Los Angeles to play in the Winston Tire Classic. They defeated host Southern Cal 74-67, then hammered No. 6-rated North Carolina 76-60.

Twenty-eight years later, the Gophers are returning to the L.A. area to play in an eight-team tournament that includes UCLA, Butler, West Virginia, UCLA and Miami. This is a tremendous upgrade in opposition over recent seasons, yet it does nothing for the Williams Arena ticketholders.

Back in 1981 (when the Pillsbury Classic was being put to rest), the other nonconference games in the Barn were against North Dakota State, Florida State, Loyola (Chicago) and Marquette. There was a road game at Louisville, as well as the trip to L.A.

This highly competitive nonconference schedule was followed by an 18-game round robin in the pre-Penn State Big Ten.

Did the Williams Arena faithful celebrate the attractiveness of this home schedule? Not at all. We took it for granted.

And now look at what the Barn denizens are getting for their money: Friday's opener against Tennessee Tech, followed by Stephen F. Austin, Utah Valley State, Brown, Morgan State, St. Joseph's and Northern Illinois.

Seven nonconference games and one prestigious opponent: St. Joe's.

Minnesota ticketholders (and for most every team in a major conference) have been beaten into submission with nonconference schedules such as this. Even if they are mad as hell, they wind up talking.

There was this e-mail of protest from a fellow named Steve J.:

"I have been a season ticket holder for over 20 years (two seats) and still do not have a seat with a back on it. I did a little research and using RPI rankings from RealTimeRPI.com. As of March 16, 2009, here are those rankings for the Gophers'nonconference home game opponents for this year:

"Tennesse Tech -272; Stephen F. Austin-74; Utah Valley-237; Brown-307; Morgan State-130; St. Joseph's-105; Northern Illinois-328; South Dakota State-283.

"There were a total of 343 Division 1 teams listed. We ticketholders are paying "full boat" for each of these games''

Yes, Steve, and you are getting robbed.