MINNEAPOLIS -- It's amazing what a new coach can do.

	After one season at Minnesota, Brenda Oldfield left for Maryland.

With virtually the same squad as last year, the Minnesota women's basketball team is off to a 13-3 start, compared to an 8-20 finish last year. And the three losses came to opponents who were nationally ranked at the time.

The Golden Gophers are already 3-2 in the Big Ten, compared to a 1-15 finish last year. And they're 7-1 at home.

The difference is coach Brenda Oldfield, who left Ball State to take over Minnesota in June after Cheryl Littlejohn was fired. Oldfield created a more balanced offense with better ball distribution.

Players say they're even more impressed by the positive attitude Oldfield instilled in a team that hasn't been above .500 since the 1993-94 season.

"The attitude they bring, it trickles down to the team when you see a coaching staff with confidence," guard Lindsay Whalen said Wednesday. "They're ready to go to battle for us every day. It just shows they have our backs and we're ready to go out there every day and play for them."

Littlejohn was fired in May after a university investigation found she gave money to a player, bought clothing for others and interfered with an earlier probe by telling players to lie. In Littlejohn's four seasons, the Gophers went 29-81 overall and 7-57 in the Big Ten.

"It was just kind of frustrating to watch the team, with as much talent as we have, to not be successful," junior forward Corrin Von Wald said.

	“	"The attitude (the coaches) bring, it trickles down to the team when you see a coaching staff with confidence. They're ready to go to battle for us every day. It just shows they have our backs and we're ready to go out there every day and play for them." ”
		—Guard Lindsay Whalen

The Gophers' offense is still led by Whalen's 20 points per game.

But Oldfield, who at 31 is the youngest head coach in the Big Ten, has run more plays to get the ball into the low post to Von Wald, Kadidja Andersson and freshman center Janel McCarville. All three are averaging in the double digits. Andersson averaged seven points last season.

"There is an unbelievable amount of talent on this team," Oldfield said. "They know where they need to go and what they need to do. Each one of them has their roles defined and it's been clearly communicated to them."

The Gophers are averaging 15 more points and nearly five more assists per game this year than last.

"I think we've show we can make a difference in the Big Ten. We're not just a team that everybody's going to walk in here and beat," Whalen said.

"It's amazing the adversity they've went through with what's happened in the past year," said Oldfield, who was 35-22 at Ball State from 1999-2001. "You really have two ways to go: You can fall apart as a team or you can come closer together. And it's just been unbelievable, their team chemistry. We've never had to question or doubt how hard this team is going to work."

With 11 regular-season games left, Whalen said the team can only get better.

"There's only one place to go from where we were last year and that's up," she said.

Added Von Wald: "We've always had the team chemistry. I just don't think we had the players believing in the coaches like we do this year with the system that we're running."

And that attitude has the players believing they can win every game they play and -- equally as important -- having fun again.

"I love to hear that these players are smiling again and that they're having the time of their life. That truly what it is all about," Oldfield said.