A little clarification is in order. Dusty Rychart is NOT the face of Minnesota basketball. Sure, it’s the right thing to say, and an honor he more than deserves, considering how much he’s given to the Gophers program through some really crappy times. But Rychart, a fifth-year senior, also is the last holdout from an era coach Dan Monson can’t soon enough forget -- those Clem Haskins years, that Jan Gangelhoff academic scandal, the NCAA investigation, the sanctions, and the losing. For a program that’s trying to carve out a new, fresh identify, Rychart is at best, symbolically, a transitional figure.

No, the real face of Minnesota basketball is freshman Rick Rickert. Rickert is everything Dusty is not. Dusty is 6'7". Rickert is 6'11". Dusty feasts on putbacks and loose balls. Rickert has all kinds of slick post moves. Dusty can barely palm the ball, can barely outrun most centers, and he’s got 31" hops. Rickert can dribble the ball like a 2-guard, run the court like a 3-man, and ferociously dunk like a 4-man. Dusty is the unrecruited walk-on. Rickert is the McDonald’s All-American. Dusty is a link to the past. Rickert is the link to the future.

Dusty knows it too. This summer, we talked a lot about the rumors going around that Rickert was gonna come in this fall and take his starting spot. Even though Rickert assured him over the summer that he didn’t feel entitled to a thing, that whomever won the starting job was gonna have to earn it, Dusty was clearly worried. “Who wouldn’t be worried?” he said. “Every year, something’s bothering me. Every year, I have to go and prove myself.”

As it turns out, Dusty and Rickert both start, in a three-forward lineup alongside Mike Bauer (who, as a hotshot freshman in 1999, was also rumored to be taking Dusty’s starting spot. Delicious irony). Although he’s not Minnesota's first or second or even third option, Dusty is the leading scorer (13.2 ppg) and rebounder (7.2 rpg) because, as is his calling card, he’s always around the ball and plugging away. Meanwhile, Rickert (11.4 ppg, 5.1 rpg) has been brilliant some nights, as when he dropped 28 in Minnesota’s home win over Oregon (Minnesota’s best W on its Tourney resume so far). But on Wednesday night at Michigan, he got into early foul trouble, and gave the Gophers only 14 minutes.

Until Rickert learns what it takes to bring it every night, Rychart is gonna have to be the guy to carry this team to the Dance. What’s it gonna take? Illinois, Iowa and Michigan State look like the only Big Ten Tourney locks, with Indiana a notch below. That leaves Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin and maybe Purdue to make a run for the fifth and sixth bids. Minnesota, playing at claustrophobic Williams Arena, is always tough at home -- they dropped the Spartans there last weekend. But without one meaningful out-of-conference road win this season (witness: blowout losses at Georgia and Texas Tech), they’re gonna have to find four or five road wins to make their case. Saturday’s game at Purdue would be a nice start. More important: Feb. 9 at Iowa, Feb. 21 at MSU.

That’s the present. The future likely won’t be such a struggle. Rickert IS the future -- and in more ways than one. Beyond the obvious talent he brings to the floor, he represents rebirth. He is, likely the most important recruit Monson will ever sign, because his signature lifted the stigma of a tarnished program. “Where we’ve been most decimated,” says Monson, “is image, and the perception of us being so down and out. I think Rickert signing here puts a lot of that behind us. Because some other high-profile kids are now saying: It’s not so bad, I’m going to go there too. And that’s speeded up the time clock for our recovery.”

Little wonder Monson went to such ends to nail Rickert’s commitment. In case you didn’t follow along, Rickert, from Duluth, Minn., originally verballed to Arizona last fall. Minnesota was barely a consideration. But Rickert’s dad, a big Gophers backer, pleaded for Monson to keep recruiting Rickert -- something Monson said he’s never done for another kid before -- and Monson followed through: “I told him, you sign with Arizona, you make a few people in Arizona happy. You sign here, you’ll make the whole state happy.”

Monson’s pitch worked, and now Rickert is the Golden Boy, the franchise, the guy Minnesota can build its program around. The Face of The Future.

And Rychart? All he can do is make The Now count for everything.

Scott Burton writes college hoops for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at scott.burton@espnmag.com.