BleedGopher
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per Marcus:
Here are four observations from Minnesota's two victories at the Asheville Championship last week.
Two-headed monster
The Gophers found out in Asheville that Battle and Willis are ready to put the offense on their shoulders – at least against non-Big Ten opponents. The pair was named to the all-tournament team after combining for 53 points and 21 rebounds against Princeton.
Seven-man rotation
Battle, who has two seasons under his belt, is the only non-senior who plays significant minutes, but he also leads the Big Ten with 41.0 minutes per game. The top four minutes played leaders in the conference are from the Gophers, including Loewe (39.0), Willis (38.7), and Stephens (38.3).
Part of those inflated numbers are from Sunday's double overtime win, but the Gophers have also leaned heavily on their starters so far this year, including senior big man Eric Curry (career-high 29.3 minutes). Only Sean Sutherlin (16.0 minutes) and Charlie Daniels (12.3) have seen extended game action off the bench. How long will this last? Former Gophers coach Richard Pitino learned the hard way that heavy minutes can wear on players in a grind-it-out Big Ten season.
Center of attention
As much as Curry has been able to be productive this season, he's not enough inside for the Gophers to be balanced offensively. They've been outscored in the paint by all three opponents and 122-82 combined this season, including 56-44 against the undersized Tigers.
Free throw fancy
What happened to the Gophers at the foul line against Princeton might be an aberration. They shot a season-low 15-for-29 (51.7%), including just 8-for-17 in regulation.
Go Gophers!!
Here are four observations from Minnesota's two victories at the Asheville Championship last week.
Two-headed monster
The Gophers found out in Asheville that Battle and Willis are ready to put the offense on their shoulders – at least against non-Big Ten opponents. The pair was named to the all-tournament team after combining for 53 points and 21 rebounds against Princeton.
Seven-man rotation
Battle, who has two seasons under his belt, is the only non-senior who plays significant minutes, but he also leads the Big Ten with 41.0 minutes per game. The top four minutes played leaders in the conference are from the Gophers, including Loewe (39.0), Willis (38.7), and Stephens (38.3).
Part of those inflated numbers are from Sunday's double overtime win, but the Gophers have also leaned heavily on their starters so far this year, including senior big man Eric Curry (career-high 29.3 minutes). Only Sean Sutherlin (16.0 minutes) and Charlie Daniels (12.3) have seen extended game action off the bench. How long will this last? Former Gophers coach Richard Pitino learned the hard way that heavy minutes can wear on players in a grind-it-out Big Ten season.
Center of attention
As much as Curry has been able to be productive this season, he's not enough inside for the Gophers to be balanced offensively. They've been outscored in the paint by all three opponents and 122-82 combined this season, including 56-44 against the undersized Tigers.
Free throw fancy
What happened to the Gophers at the foul line against Princeton might be an aberration. They shot a season-low 15-for-29 (51.7%), including just 8-for-17 in regulation.
Four things we've learned so far about Ben Johnson's 3-0 Gophers
A trusted seven-man rotation, a couple of full-time scoring threats and concerns about how well the Gophers will match up down the road were takeaways from the first week of the men's basketball season.
www.startribune.com
Go Gophers!!