Memories from The Barn

Williams Arena has held Golden Gopher basketball since February 4th of 1928. For 80 years it has been the home to college basketball excitement and hundreds of players and staff have exited the Williams Arena doors with stories to tell. Today we start a new series by listening to a few of the best memories from alumni that spent countless hours in one of basketballs most traditional venues.

Steve Esselink was a small forward for the Gophers for three years from 2000 to 2003. He started his career at Augustana before transferring to Minnesota only to leave to play his senior year at Sioux Falls University where he became an All-American. Steve currently has a couple part time jobs here in the Twin Cities as he's not ready to hang up the hopes of basketball just yet. Next summer or fall he's hoping to land another professional job after playing in Mexico last year.

"I've got a lot of Barn memories. My first and most individual memory is when we were playing Wisconsin. We got off to a bad start and (Dan) Monson subbed 5 new guys in. We still hadn't scored at this point, but when we got in I was able to steal a pass, take off the other way and I yammed it. It was the first two points of the game and the Barn was packed and ready because of the Wisconsin rivalry, so the crowd just went crazy. That was my first dunk as a Gopher too.

"My favorite team memory is a game against Indiana. I think it was the '01-'02 season. We were down by 13 points with about 3:00 minutes to go in the game and we ran a full-court press, led by Travarus Bennett, and we ended up coming back to win. It was the most fun three-minute stretch I've seen at the Barn."

Dave Thorson is currently the head coach at DeLaSalle High School and three times he has coached the Islanders to Minnesota state basketball titles. Prior to his days at DeLaSalle Thorson was an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota under Clem Haskins.

"I have lots (of memories), but two games stand out in my mind.

"The first was February 27, 1994, when we steamrolled the ranked Indiana Hoosiers 106-56, which is still Indiana's worst loss in the history of the Big Ten. Voshon Lenard hit every open shot he had, and Ron Felling, one of Indiana's assistant coaches, took out his white handkerchief and waived it in submission in the second half.

"A second (good memory) is the triple overtime victory that same year against Iowa, when Arriel McDonald played 52 out of 52 minutes in an incredible Gopher win.

"In each case, the Gopher Fans were instrumental, and always in a frenzy, waiting for Coach Haskins to take his coat off and throw it onto the bench in disapproval of an official's call.

"I also witnessed Ricky Birdsong, Northwestern's coach, go into the Williams Arena crowd and "direct" the Gopher Pep Band during the second half of a Gopher victory over Northwestern. When the game was finished, Birdsong demanded that the score 43-42 Northwestern be put back on the scoreboard. In respect to one of Northwestern's assistant coaches who begged me to do it, I had our managers put the score up to calm Birdsong. Birdsong resigned a few days after that."

Kevin Ellich was a student manager from 1993 to 1997 and today is the Vice President/Research Analyst for RBC Capital Markets which follows small-to-midcap healthcare service companies. He currently lives in Prior Lake, MN with his wife, Shonda. Kevin was a senior during the Big Ten championship season.

"My most memorable moment at the Barn, there's quite a few as you can imagine, especially all the practices and things Coach Haskins used to say. The most memorable was coming back from San Antonio after the Elite Eight and coming up to the floor to the packed crowd - it was crazy! I've never seen Williams as packed as it was that night and it was probably close to or after midnight. Watching the guys grab the microphone and say a few things to the crowd was great, I remember Eric Harris beat-boxing on the mic because on the bus ride from the airport to Williams, Big John (Thomas) and I were asking if he could beat-box since he was from "da Boogie Down" (Bronx). That excitement and energy that night was amazing and I'll never forget it.

"Early in my days as a manager, we played Cincinnati at home - it was an ESPN game. I remember going up the steps to the court and you could just sense and smell basketball in the air. There seemed to be a little mist or haze around the lights too. The crowd was great and as usual, the Barn was rocking and thundering, literally. I still get sweaty palms thinking about it.

"Home game against Indiana, I can't recall the year, but I believe we blew them out by 50 points. Bobby Knight was so pissed at half time that he benched his starters for the remainder of the game. It was that game when I was walking down to the Indiana locker room to ask Coach Knight to sign my dad's copy of "Season On A Brink". One of the Indiana assistant coaches saw the book in my hand and asked where I was going. When I mentioned I was going to ask Coach Knight to sign it, they told me, "If you value your life, you'll turn around, he hates that book". Needless to say, I turned around and didn't get the book signed.

Other games of note for Kevin included "Michigan State, Judd Heathcoate's last game, I think he got a rocking chair or a stool, he always hated sitting up on the court in front of everyone,"

"Long Island, the Miles Tarver fight, enough said," and, "Iowa, "the Voshon Lenard days, I think it was a double or tripe overtime game and yes, we won, but all I remember is Vo or Townsend Orr laying down, spread out at the free throw line after the game exhausted".

Kyle Sanden was a national top 40 or 50 recruit coming out of Thief River Falls High School and he had Dean Smith trying to get him to take a visit to UNC before choosing the U for good. Sanden played four seasons but had to quit after his junior year due to health concerns. Kyle currently lives in Burnsville and is working for a company called Integrity Acoustic Solutions based out of Rochester. They are an exclusive representative of IAC (out of the Bronx) and he's a project manager and lead installer of audiometric exam booths (where you get your hearing tests done) and recording studios. He travels across the country selling and installing.

"I would have to say the best memory from my days in basketball at Minnesota is when we came back from San Antonio the Final Four year. There were people everywhere inside and outside of the Barn, and people on overpasses on the way to the Barn from the Airport. It was complete chaos.

"Other than that Final Four memory just running up those stairs on a Saturday afternoon with a packed, frenzied house onto the raised floor of the Barn, that was a continual memory itself."

Kevin Burleson was a combo guard recruited by Clem Haskins to come to the University of Minnesota. He was a five year Gopher arriving in 1998 and playing through 2003. Kevin has experience playing internationally and here in the states with stops in the NBA as well as the NBDL. He is currently playing in Turkey with a team called Mersin in their First division. In the off-season Kevin lives in his hometown of Seattle.

"My favorite memory was the win we had over Indiana my freshman year (1999-2000, Dan Monson's first year as Minnesota coach). I remember I hit a three to get us close and then Joel (Pryzbilla) got a pass from I think Terrence (Simmons) and Joel dunked it. It put us up with a couple of seconds left. It was a sold out crowd and they went wild when Joel dunked it and I remember my ears ringing.

"We couldn't hear coach Monson in the timeout because it was so load. All I thought was thank God I came to Minnesota. The fans were so load it gave me goose bumps. Indiana still had 3 seconds left and I had to shut AJ Guyton down for three seconds and we would win. So after an Indiana time out AJ came down and pulled a three. I was right in his face and it rimed out and the crowd went wild again. Seeing the fans like that was the best fan experience I had at Williams! I will never forget that game!"

And I can't do this article without adding a few things of my own.

"As a freshman you can understand my excitement as an 18 year old sitting up front seat to watch the talented 96-97 Gophers. During my freshman year as a manager I had to do the grunt work before doing the good stuff behind the coaches in the years to come.

"So here I am totally green and new to college when Courtney James catches an alley-opp pass for a thunderous one-handed jam in the first game of the year versus Stephen F. Austin. In pure excitement I stood on the stool and started spinning the towel in the air. I was quickly told to sit down and cool it from assistant Brent Haskins and from then on I was a little more chill.

"Then there was the time my freshman year where I could have ended the Final Four and Big Ten run all by myself. All-American point guard Bobby Jackson is on the bench with his fingers taped up and draped across the top of the bench. I was behind him and during a time-out I had to jump over the bench quickly to get the team huddle set up. So here I go pressing all my weight on Bobby's formerly broken fingers that forced him to miss so much time the year before. He quickly jerked them away in pain before I put down all my weight on them. And that is my story on how I almost ruined the Final Four run."