At Williams Arena, Gophers basketball fans taunt Big Ten rival players as much as any other college fans in the country.
At Target Center Wednesday night, the taunting was directed mostly at former Gophers center Joel Przybilla.
The six other Big Ten players who followed Przybilla into NBA draft selection heard none of those things they normally hear when they come to Minneapolis.
Nothing but applause was directed at those Big Ten rivals this time around.
Michigan State point guard Mateen Cleaves led things off, as he was selected by Detroit with the 14th pick.
Cleaves, who led his team to the 2000 NCAA championship, showed as much emotion as anyone at the Target Center. Cleaves is from Flint, Mich., and said he grew up a Pistons fan. He was thrilled to be going home.
Cleaves’ teammate Morris Peterson was the next Big Ten player to go at No. 21. Peterson is headed to Toronto, where his flashy play should go well with Raptors’ showboat Vince Carter.
Indiana star A.J. Guyton was the first Big Ten player chosen in the second round. Guyton will travel north from Bloomington, Ind., to Chicago to suit up for the Bulls.
Following Guyton were Ohio State’s Michael Redd and Purdue’s Brian Cardinal. The two were selected back-to-back with the 43rd and 44th pick by Milwaukee and Detroit, respectively.
Rounding out the Big Ten picks was another Buckeye star, Scoonie Penn. The guard is headed south to Atlanta.
UConn to Chitown
Former Minneapolis North High School and Connecticut point guard Khalid El-Amin is on his way to Chicago to play in the house that Jordan built.
El-Amin, who verbally committed to the Gophers his junior year of high school and then decided on UConn, was taken by the Bulls in the second round with the 34th pick.
El-Amin ended up winning a national championship with the Huskies in 1999.

Underclassman everywhere
After Cincinnati senior Kenyon Martin was taken No. 1 overall by New Jersey, it was all underclassmen from there.
The next 10 picks (2-11) all entered the draft prior to their senior year of college. In the case of Darius Miles, the third pick overall, he’s making the jump to the NBA right out of high school.
Miles, who was heavily recruited by the Gophers, is compared to Timberwolves all-star Kevin Garnett. Not just for the fact they both came right out of high school, but also for their size and ability.
That’s a comparison Miles doesn’t mind.
“Kevin Garnett is my idol,” Miles said. “He’s a great man and a great player. Hopefully, I can be a lot like him.”