Gopher Basketball
Minnesota is looking for its first official five game regular season Big Ten win streak since the 1977-78 season, when they were victors in seven straight. The Gophers won a million games in a row during their 16-2 1996-97 season, but some people don’t like to count those games anymore. You’ll see many fans and coaches at this and other games around the nation wearing sneakers this weekend to show support for the American Cancer Society and Coaches vs. Cancer.
The Team
Back on January 13th, Minnesota held on to beat then-#8 Purdue 70-67 at Williams Arena, thanks to a strong shooting performance (27/51, 52.9% FG) relative to that of the Boilers. JaJuan Johnson was sensational (11/21, 29 pts, 11 reb, 2 blk) but E’Twaun Moore’s 2/14 shooting drug down Purdue’s team shooting to 23/60 or 38.3%.
For the Gophers, Blake Hoffarber nearly tied his career high with 26 points on 10/15 shooting; however, once Purdue changed up defensive assignments a few minutes into the second half, Hoffarber was quiet the rest of the way. Al Nolen was the only other Gopher to reach double figures with 13 points. The now-injured Nolen also handed out 8 assists, stole the ball 3 times and played 39 minutes.
The Gophers will need to do a much better job on the boards at Mackey than they did at home. There have been only three times this year when Minnesota has had fewer rebounds than their opponent: Virginia (-5), SDSU (-1) and Purdue (-10). 5’9″ Lewis Jackson found himself with 5 offensive rebounds of the Boilermakers’ 16 total. Purdue is just an OK rebounding team (they have been outrebounded in each of past four games) and there is no reason Minnesota should not outrebound them in this one.
With Matt Painter as head coach, Purdue is 51-1 in games where they have won both the rebound (they won 38-28 on 1/13) and turnover (both teams had 8) battles. Their loss to Minnesota almost made that record 51-2. Minnesota was able to pull out the win thanks in part to Purdue’s nine and a half minute field goal drought to end the game, but the Gophers need to be concerned about droughts of their own on Saturday. Purdue has a number of fresh legs they can insert into the lineup throughout the game and will look to pressure Minnesota’s backcourt. Unless E’Twaun Moore has another poor performance, this will be a difficult game for the Gophers to win.
I believe Minnesota will show improvement from the first game in the area of rebounding, but the Boilermaker defense and improved shooting from Moore will be too much to overcome. Purdue by 6.
The Players (see also player notes from the 1/13/11 Pregame Thoughts article)
#25 JaJuan Johnson
6’10”, 220 lbs, senior. 20.6 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 2.2 bpg. Johnson is a special player who will be drafted by an NBA team this summer. He is almost a guarantee to score in double digits, something he has done in 30 consecutive games. In the last five games, JaJuan has reached at least 20 points.
#33 E’Twaun Moore
6’4″, 190 lbs, senior. 18.0 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 3.4 apg. Moore can struggle at times and did against the Gophers earlier this month, shooting just 2/14. When Purdue loses, it’s usually on a night when Moore struggles:
E’Twaun Moore – FG Shooting – 2010-11
17 Wins”¦..122/250 FG (48.8%)”¦41/95 3FG (43.2%)
4 Losses”¦….14/62 FG (22.6%)”¦4/18 3FG (22.2%)
He’ll likely face a lot of zone on Saturday compared to the first game against Minnesota, which could be to his benefit. The question is which Moore will show up? – will he look like typical Smooge, or again more like… Spooge?
#24 Ryne Smith
6’3″, 190 lbs, junior. 6.4 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 1.8 apg. Excellent shooter, averaging 49% from behind the arc. Averaged 17.0 ppg in the first four Big Ten games this year, but in the last five has crash-landed back on earth, averaging just 3.2 ppg (4/12 3FG). Although Smith hasn’t done much lately, the Gopher defense must respect his shot and not allow good looks.
#23 Lewis Jackson
5’9″, 165 wet, junior in every respect. 6.8 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 3.8 apg. The little man doesn’t not shoot from three (3/8 on the year) but can create some shots and has been very accurate (54.3 FG% this season) when he does pull the trigger. Annoying defender who somehow finds a way to come up with rebounds and loose balls despite his small stature. Averaging 9.8 ppg in conference games.
#50 Travis Carroll
6’9″, 230 lbs, freshman. 1.5 ppg, 2.2 rpg in 9.7 mpg. He’s terrible, but has size.
#21 D.J. Byrd
6’5″, 225 lbs, sophomore. 4.7 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 1.9 apg in 19.2 minutes. Capable of knocking down the deep ball, but not much of a threat.
#12 Kelsey Barlow
6’5″, 193 lbs, sophomore. 5.6 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 1.9 apg, 20.2 mpg. Good looking athlete, solid defender.
#32 John Hart
6’2″, 195 lbs, sophomore. 6.3 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 1.0 apg, 14.2 mpg. Was out with injury when Purdue visited Minneapolis, but has been back for the past several games. Against Ohio State, he played 16 minutes and scored 6 points. Occasionally, he can do some nice things offensively and he loves to shoot.
#0 Terone Johnson
6’2″, 211 lbs, freshman. 5.4 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 1.9 apg in 19.2 mpg. Had a decent showing against Minnesota with 8 points and 3 boards in 16 minutes (2/4 from 3FG).
#55 Sandi Marcius & #41 Patrick Bade
6’9″ and 6’8″, respectively. The are big and bad. Not bad as in “bada__”, but bad as in really crappy people that wear basketball uniforms.
Career High for Hoff
Blake Hoffarber’s 8 free throw attempts against Northwestern were a career high. The senior made all 8 freebies.
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