Weekly sports briefs

Mbakwe makes the cut

Gophers senior forward Trevor Mbakwe was selected for the 2011 USA Basketball Men’s World University Games team. The 12-man squad was picked during a training camp in Colorado.

With the roster now finalized, the team left for China on Aug. 8, where it will compete in the World University Games beginning Aug. 13.

Mbakwe is the first Gophers player to make Team USA since Vincent Grier made the cut following the 2004-05 season.

Men’s Basketball schedule released

The Gophers men’s basketball team announced its 2011 nonconference schedule last week.

The season opens with two exhibition games against Bemidji State and Augustana College on Nov. 1 and 7. The regular season kicks off with four-straight home games beginning Nov. 14 with Bucknell.

Other nonconference highlights include the Old Spice Classic tournament in Orlando, Fla. As part of the annual Big Ten/ACC challenge, the Gophers will host Virginia Tech on Nov. 30 at Williams Arena, which will be aired on ESPN2.

Only the dates of games were announced. Exact times — as well as the Big Ten schedule — will be released “sometime within the next week,” according to a team spokesperson.

Mndaily.com/sports will have updates as they become available.

Football lengthens future conference schedule

The Big Ten announced Thursday that it will move to a nine-game conference schedule starting with the 2017 season.

Three schools from each division will host five conference home games during odd-numbered years, with the remaining six schools hosting four.

The teams will then flip schedule formats for even-numbered years.

Minnesota, a member of the Legends division, will get five home games in even-numbered years beginning in 2018.

It is the first time since 1984 — when the Big Ten actually consisted of 10 teams — that the conference will play a nine-game schedule.

Football practice opens

The Jerry Kill era took its next step forward Monday, opening fall camps with practice at the Gibson-Nagurski Football Complex.

The practice was open to the public and Kill and his staff stuck with the fast-paced style with which they conducted spring practices.

The team will have three weeks of practices — a mix of afternoon, morning and two-a-day practices — to prepare for its season opener, a road test against Southern California on Sept. 3.