College Basketball: Digital Big Ten Preview, #4 Minnesota

Let's continue our digital minded journey through the Big Ten Conference, from less best to best. We know these programs are out there, waiting for potential recruits to click in. And we'll see who gets it and who doesn't. Thus far, our tour has shown us #11 Northwestern, #10Michigan, #9 Ohio State, and #8 Wisconsin, #7 Indiana, #6 Purdue, and #5 Iowa.

Here we go.

#4: Minnesota

The Digital Scouting Report

Strengths: Tubby Smith.com is more than solid, with video highlights for each player.

Weaknesses: Not easy to follow the Gophers. Plus a Twitter site with nothing but scores?

Full Scouting Report:

As I entered into to the Minnesota home page, here, my eyes are quickly drawn to the large YouTube button in the center. But before I move there, don't overlook the middle window. It looks like there was a live blog set up for the Minnesota-Purdue women's volleyball match. As we saw with Iowa and their football blog, this is a nice sign for basketball coverage this winter.


So there's two things worth calling out in this promotion window. First, the Gophers YouTube channel (available here and shown below). As you can see, the site is well designed, and offers an easy way to sign up and receive new Gophers video content... It just is limited to athletics as a whole; there's no way to sign up for your sport of choice.



The other highlight from the home page's promotion window is, well... weird to put it nicely. You can sign up to get Gopher Scores by Twitter. This is thoroughly explained when you click in (shown below). Really? Is there a market for getting nothing but Gopher scores, across all sports, dropped into your Twitter feed?


Apparently someone thinks so. Here's the link if you're interested... but as you can see below, when they say sign up for Scores, that's what they mean. No commentary. No emotion. Nothing but scores. Weird.



What makes this all even more weird to me is that, as you can see below or by clicking here, the Gopher Athletics department has a pretty active Twitter site - with around 1400 followers... I mean, couldn't these be merged? Give a little analysis with these scores? And, if you don't want to merge them, why not promote this Twitter site from the athletics home page?



So you're wondering how Minnesota leaps up into the top four of the Big Ten? Let's dive into the basketball section by clicking here. You'll see a pretty prominent callout for TubbySmith.com, which we'll get to in a minute.



But, first, you'll notice a couple things. The Gopher Insider section offers access to two key things: a call out to former players and access to the men's basketball newsletter. (the image rotates, see below:)



First, clicking on Newsletters takes you here, to a collection of what seems to be quarterly updates on Gopher Basketball. I really like this. It's simple, but it gives prospective athletes a chance to both learn about the program and see your style of communication.


Diving into one of the issues shows you that not only does it focus on the current squad, but each newsletter takes a look at what former Gopher basketball players are up to now -- whether they're in the NBA or Europe or Australia. It's simple, but it gives players a chance to envision what this program can lead to.


When you combine this with the button we highlighted earlier, "Former Players Click Here" (shown below) you get a good feeling that you matter as a player even when your days of lacing up in the Maroon and Gold are over. I think it's a subtle touch but an important one, and I think many programs underestimate how valuable mentors and supporters former players are. It's a family, and I love seeing this.


OK, we've waited long enough. It's time to click to Tubby Smith.com (you can click as well, by doing so right here). In case you can't read this, at the top of the page you're hit with callouts for Tubby Smith, The Gophers, Minnesota Basketball, City of Minneapolis, and Life as a Gopher. Solid. The page itself feels extremely alive as you're enveloped inside a world of video. Oh and they have a blog as well, here, which was pretty active in season last year. Really nice.



Clicking on Tubby Smith takes you here, to an absolutely great page. The headlines include "The Teacher" and "The Winner". You can select from a number of videos that show Coach Smith on the court teaching athletes and discussing his philosophies. I think this is amazing, as it really gives you an in-depth feel for how Coach Smith works with players.


Moving along and clicking on the Gophers takes us here, to a great page. You can click on each player and see a bio, photo gallery, and video gallery for key returning players. I'm a monster fan of this -- you get a chance to watch and feel connected to the team.


Also in the Gophers, you can click and meet the Assistants. As you can see from the image below, the assistants also have bios and video content. I'm not sure I've come across a site with video content on the assistant coaches, but it just makes sense. After all, it's not just the head coach who as a player you need to connect with. And this goes an extra step to help you see what they're like as individuals, what they stand for. Nicely done!


I'll close this with what's missing. Coach Smith does a great job on Twitter (click here.) Tubby has over 2500 followers now, but I expect it to grow quickly as he keeps this updated frequently and really does a nice job showing his personality - pulling for the Twins and Minnesota football this fall. I just wish he hyped this somewhere - on TubbySmith.com or GopherSports.com. Again, if you have it, show it off.


That's a wrap. We're down to 3. Tune in tomorrow as we keep this moving.

Andy