Al Nolen was fun to watch. A true floor general, Nolen was always a pass-first, shoot-maybe point guard. On defense, he was tasked with defending the opposing team’s best guard. He fit Tubby Smith’s lockdown defense and fundamentals-first mentality to a T. And it served him well. He finished his four-year career with the fourth-most assists and third-most steals in Gopher history.
His numbers weren’t eye-popping, but they revealed few weaknesses. When Nolen was on the floor you knew things were under control, and he was one of the faces of the promising Tubby Smith teams of the late aughts.