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MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota coach Richard Pitino started this season with a rule many college coaches have used before -- no media interviews for freshmen.It didnt take long for Amir Coffey to force Pitino to change his mind.Coffey scored 30 points on just 14 shots to lead Minnesota to a 92-86 over St. Johns on Friday night.When you play like that, youve got to change that rule, Pitino said, later adding that it was as impressive a freshman performance as Ive seen.Dupree McBrayer had 18 points, five rebounds and five assists, and Nate Mason added 13 points, seven assists and five rebounds for the Golden Gophers (4-0), who only turned the ball over six times.Marcus LoVett scored 31 points on 11-for-27 shooting and Shamorie Ponds had 23 points and eight rebounds for St. Johns (2-1). The Red Storm led by 13 points midway through the first half, but shot just 37 percent to let the lead slip away.We didnt get the quality shots I would like, St. Johns coach Chris Mullin said after his team had just nine assists on 29 field goals. When you get down, guys start trying to do it themselves. I would like more ball movement with some high pick and rolls, which was working.Coffey made 9 of 14 shots and was 11 for 12 on free throws.Just trying to find myself. Its a new system, new offense, new teammates, said Coffey, the son of former Minnesota standout Richard Coffey and a star at Twin Cities prep power Hopkins. Just getting comfortable playing with these guys.St. Johns blitzed the Gophers out of the gates, leading 22-9 eight minutes into the game. But Coffey keyed the Gophers response, a 32-9 finish to the half that helped them take control.I thought we helped him a little bit. We got him going, Mullin said. But hes got nice length. Hes got a nice touch. He killed us.Bashir Ahmed added 15 points and 10 rebounds for St. Johns, which pulled within three points in the second half but couldnt get closer.BIG PICTURESt. Johns: Its back to the drawing board after falling flat in its first real test of the season. The Red Storm cruised to victories in their first two games against Bethune-Cookman and Binghamton by a combined 63 points. It only gets tougher from here for a team that went 8-24 in Chris Mullins first season last year, including 1-17 in the Big East.Minnesota: The momentum continues for a program badly in need of it. After going a disastrous 2-16 in Big Ten play last year, the Gophers are struggling to put fans in the seats at once-raucous Williams Arena in Richard Pitinos fourth season. Those who did show up on Friday night saw an entertaining and fast-paced brand of basketball with local standout Coffey trying to inspire the masses to return to the Barn.LYNCHS BULKReggie Lynch grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked nine shots for Minnesota. Seven of those swats came in the first half as the Gophers climbed back into the game. Its been a long road back for Lynch, who sat out last season after transferring and endured a knee injury that kept him from playing for most of the summer.Hes a game-changer for us in the back of the defense, Pitino said.TOUCHING MOMENTAs the crowd stood for the Star Spangled Banner, the singers microphone appeared to malfunction. So she just kept right on singing and the entire crowd joined in.UP NEXTSt. Johns stays in the Big Ten with its next opponent, facing Michigan State on Wednesday in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas. 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Just as Montreal was settling into the first full working week of a new year, the Impact announced the appointment of their new head coach.This story appears in ESPN The Magazines November 14 Playing Through Pain Issue. Subscribe today!Jordan Clarksons brow furrows. Lets get after it, he says. You hear me? Yup, its over, DAngelo Russell replies, his eyes narrowing. Im gonna light his ass up. The it theyre getting after? Uh, thats me.Its a balmy evening at a paintball course in Bellflower, California, and the heirs of a Lakers backcourt relinquished by Kobe Bryant are armed to the teeth and feeling good. Theyve fine-tuned their craft over the past 12 months in regular games with teammates at Hollywood Sports Park, this world-class paintball facility 18 miles south of Staples Center. Its like a team-building exercise with high-velocity projectiles. And theyre about to inflict their team-building all over me.I owe all of this to former Laker Roy Hibbert, who introduced paintball outings to the team when he signed with LA in the summer of 2015. Now its Russell and Clarkson, 20 and 24, respectively, who serve as torchbearers of the teams top pastime, which they believe will play a role in building chemistry on a remodeled roster of recent draft picks and league transients, among them free agent signees Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov.It gets us talking, trying to get to the same goal of beating the other team, so it all transfers over, Clarkson says. But mostly its us bonding, something where we can get away from the basketball stuff and have fun.FUN HAS BEEN at a premium for the once-mighty Lakers, now division doormats coming off a franchise-worst 17-65 season. Further jangling their nerves last season: former head coach Byron Scotts tough-love brand of tutelage, which often led to pine time for a young core that included 2014 lottery pick Julius Randle.But its a new dawn in LA, and with it comes hope in the form of two offseason acquisitions: No. 2 pick Brandon Ingram, the gifted Duke swingman whom Kevin Durant has likened to himself, and new head coach Luke Walton. The former Lakers forward and Warriors assistant returns to LA toting a modern offense predicated on pace of play and ball movement-not to mention a reputation as something of a millennial whisperer.Coachs style of play is run-and-gun and try to make the right play, Russell says. He wants us to learn from each other, play off each other, and hes always encouraging us in practice, whether its to shoot the ball or to get a stop so we can have fun on the other end. Hearing that from your coach is the best feeling in the world.Perhaps Waltons most pressing task will be to develop floor leader Russell, the No. 2 pick in the 2015 draft, who has shown flashes of stardom (see his eight-game run of 18.3 points and 4.8 assists per game after the All-Star break) as well as questionable maturity (see his entanglement in teammate Nick Youngs infidelity saga). Only a teenager last season, Russell appears to be a new man after strong performances in both summer league and preseason action, and his passing, penetration and shot from both outside and the midrange give the Lakers hope that they might have found their point guard of the future.Meanwhile, a new team philosophy-and a Kobe-sized hole in the game plan-has Clarkson, at least, envisioning a Warriors South in LA.dddddddddddd Were all about playing together now, he says. Its not about one guy anymore. Its about sacrificing for the team. Adds Russell, Kobe deserved every bit of attention he got in his last year, but theres freedom in Kobe not being around. Theres also a leadership vacuum that they plan to fill as a unit. Theres no one leader, no face of the Lakers, Russell says, citing the Spurs as the template. When we traveled to San Antonio last season, I noticed that its about everybody-they had all those household names, but the 15th guy got the same amount of attention as Tim Duncan, whos a legend. I feel like were all buying into that concept. Were a team now. And thats exciting.Interestingly enough, the Spurs had a favorite pastime of their own during their title run. That pastime? Paintball.WE ARRIVE AT Cajun Terror, one of the facilitys 11 courses, a dystopian hellscape of graves and Creole cottages. The contest: a free-for-all elimination game. The wager: First man out takes two shots to the backside with water-soluble missiles that travel at the alarming rate of 175 mph.Anything else I should know? Usually, you say All right, Im out once you get hit, Russell says. That doesnt exist. Come again? We dont play no outs, Clarkson explains. So youll have to run out the park.Before I can file for a rule change, the players scatter. Wait, dont shoot! I yelp. Too late. Russell, in full backpedal, drills me. I hit you in the head! Russell bellows. He did, and it hurt. But I insist it doesnt count, and Russell relents.Game on-for real this time-and I waddle through the course like a short, fat, terrified duck, scanning the field for my opponents as yellow paint drips from my aching head. I was expecting a high-volume offensive. What Im facing instead is a disciplined game plan that is maddening to counter. Whats worse, I can hear their chatter.D-Lo, Im trailing! D-Lo! Finish him! Russell barks back, in a tip of the cap to either Mortal Kombats fatalities or Cobra Kais John Kreese. In either case? Super unnerving.Spotting Clarkson 20 yards away standing in plain sight, I gather my breath and aim over a headstone. Pop-pop. I miss, but Im feeling good enough to send a message: Youre nothin! I speak too soon. Thwap-thwap-thwap ...Pellets to the posterior! The scene was a setup, an ambush, Clarkson revealing himself only to draw me out as his fleet-footed friend sneaked around behind. Thwap-thwap-thwap ... and still they come like a hailstorm of thumbtacks across my back and neck.Im out, Im out! I shout repeatedly, though its possible that Russell cant hear me over his laughter. Plan B: scream like a baby and literally beg for a cease-fire. No more, no more!Reminder: The Lakers dont do cease-fires.New plan: run like hell. And so I do, dropping my gun and fleeing toward shelter. Clarkson shouts from ahead: Run him out this way! Engulfed in hellfire, I reverse course, sprinting through an exit door toward the parking lot. Game over.As Russell will tell me afterward while I lick my wounds, Thats our chemistry right there. ' ' '