As the Gopher basketball team continued their non-conference play last week, it felt as if not much had changed since game one. They continued to piece together decent defensive performances, but were only able to pick up one win as the offensive has been slow. The Saturday win brings Minnesota to 3-1 on the season, however multiple ways to score continues to be an issue. After game recaps from Wednesday and Saturday we will look at upcoming competition and the start of Big Ten play.
Wednesday night the Gophers took on the University of North Texas at The Barn. When looking at Ken Pomeroy’s college basketball rankings the teams were very similar. Today, the Gophers are listed as the 75th ranked team in the country. While their defensive ranking is 59th, their offensive ranking is 111th. On the other hand Pomeroy has North Texas as the 74th ranked team in the country with a defensive ranking of 50 and an offensive ranking of 121. While this puts the teams neck and neck with each other, you would have hoped that home court advantage and being in a power five conference would have produced a win for Minnesota.
That was not the case. The Gophers lost 54-51 in a game that featured little to no offense. Minnesota started off with one of the worst offensive first halves I have ever seen, putting up an abysmal 14 points. However, the defense was sound and they only faced a 9 point deficit heading into the second half. The Gophers were able to rally late and make it close, but North Texas was able to pull off the victory in crunch time.
The true story again was scoring by one player, forward Dawson Garcia. Garcia led the Gophers with 24 points as the game’s leading scorer with the Gophers second leading scorer, Lu’Cye Patterson putting up just 9 points. This lack of offense flows through the whole team as they shot 31% from the field and just 26% from three point land. The sour loss set Minnesota up with a Saturday date against Yale.
Much was the same on Saturday, however the Gophers led by Dawson Garcia were able to do just enough to pull off the 59-56 victory. The Gophers only scored 19 points in the first half again getting off to a terrible offensive start. However, despite the 10 point deficit the Gophers were able to fight back and win the game in the second half. Dawson Garcia’s 24 points definitely helped, but Brennan Rigsby also put together a good game with 15 points. Credit should also be given to the fans at William’s Arena for willing the team back into the game.
With the 3-1 record, Minnesota looks to four more non-conference games before Big Ten play begins. Tonight, Minnesota will battle it out with Cleveland State, and next Monday will face off against Central Michigan. Both teams are highly beatable, especially at home. If all goes well the Gophers will hope to enter conference play with a 7-1 record.
