It was a terrible shooting weekend for the title contenders. Collectively, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Michigan were 14 for 76 from three this weekend. Two of those teams nonetheless found a way to win.

Yes, the object in basketball is score. You need athletes, shooters, passers and rebounders. But good teams also possess toughness.

It took Trevor Mbakwe most of the nonconference season to work his way back from last year’s season-ending knee surgery. Either that, or Tubby Smith just decided to bring him back slowly. It was probably the latter, come to think of it, but the sixth-year senior sure looks good now.

As we finish up non-conference play, we’re getting a better picture of where the teams stack up, and where they have holes to fill. No team is perfect, so everyone could stand to benefit from some gifts from Santa (or whoever). Here’s a rundown of what everyone needs.

Trevor Mbakwe is very confident in his team, to the point that he’s making a guarantee. The Minnesota power forward tweeted Saturday night that he’ll pay back this season’s scholarship if the Gophers don’t make the NCAA tournament. See the tweet in this post, plus a couple follow up ones.

BTN.com’s Brent Yarina is in the middle of unveiling his 2012-13 preseason Big Ten Player Rankings one by one. The countdown goes in reverse order, of course, and each installment includes player stats and one video highlight from last season. Once the season starts, Yarina will release a weekly Player Rankings every Monday. Up next, at No. 4: Minnesota’s Trevor Mbakwe.

Indiana’s Jordan Hulls and Minnesota’s Trevor Mbakwe were listed on Andy Glockner’s 10 most important seniors for the 2012-13 season. Hulls, one of the nation’s elite shooters, is a career 47.4 percent from the field, while Mbakwe, who missed all but seven games last year due to a knee injury, owns 23 career double-doubles. See what Glockner says about both players in this post.

What were you doing around 1 p.m. ET Monday? Chances are, you weren’t having as much fun as Minnesota basketball player Trevor Mbakwe. In the wake of announcing he will use his sixth year of eligibility and return to the Gophers for the 2012-13 season, Mbakwe went to Twitter (@TMbakwe 32), started a hashtag, #imgetting2old4college, and got to tweeting. The result: Hilarity. See the 23-year-old star’s entertaining series of self deprecating tweets in this post.

It’s been expected for a while now, but Trevor Mbakwe announced Monday afternoon that he will use his sixth year of eligibility and return to the Minnesota basketball program for the 2012-13 season.

Every Sunday night during the hoops season, BTN.com web editor Brent Yarina recaps the week that was on the men’s hardwood and hands out his weekly honors. See Brent’s latest installment, for action from Nov. 21-27, in this post.

Every Sunday night during the hoops season, Brent Yarina recaps the week that was on the men’s hardwood and hands out his weekly honors. See Brent’s first installment, for action from Nov. 14-20, in this post.