The Gophers should have little trouble against Mt. Saint Mary’s.
Minnesota continues their gallant battle through “the toughest nonconference home schedule in the Big Ten”, this time hosting Mount St. Mary’s.
Located in Maryland, the school is the second oldest Catholic university in the United States. The Mountaineers finished 11-21 overall and 9-9 in conference last year and will be lucky to reach those win totals again this season.
The Mount at full strength doesn’t do anything well and this season has started off with several player issues to make matters worse. As bad as Minnesota fans have had it with injuries, suspensions and the like, there are many other teams that go through the same or even worse. Mount St. Mary’s top returner, senior guard Lamar Trice, was suspended indefinitely prior to the first game of the season. He is the guy missed the most on the court, but the team also has two forwards that have been held out of games thus far—one who is suspended and another due to injury. While there is no set timetable announced for Trice’s return, word is he probably will be in street clothes until at least next month.
The result is that Mount St. Mary’s has been playing only seven deep and four guys are each averaging well over 30 minutes per game. After getting blown out 91-37 by an exceptional Marquette Warriors team, the Mountaineers beat a terrible Hartford team 63-50 before losing their home opener to Siena 65-53 Saturday night. Now, they’ll travel back to the Midwest on short rest for Monday night’s game against the Gophers.
By most accounts, the kids have put forth good effort so far, but The Mount is just not very good. Their shooting last year was poor and in 2011-12 it has started off even worse (40.0% 2FG; 26.3% 3FG). Perhaps even more frustrating than the shooting has been the frequency of turnovers in the first two games when they gave up possession 29 and 24 times, respectively, although turnovers to Siena in game three were limited to 12.
In this one, the goal of both teams is to try and limit their embarrassment. Minnesota needs to show they can dominate and build some confidence before heading to Florida. The Gophers are the team to beat in the Old Spice Classic, but none of their games will be easy. How they perform away from home and with three games in just four days should tell fans a lot more about their team.
#31 Lamar Trice
5’11”, 165 lbs SR
Whether it was shooting, passing or turning the ball over, Trice was the guy last year (13.3 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 2.9 apg, 3.5 to/g). His shooting was decent (47.1% 2FG, 35.6% 3FG) and his absence is being felt. Unless there are some unexpected developments, I don’t think we’ll see Lamar on Monday.
#23 Julian Norfleet
6’2″, 165 lbs SO
He wasn’t accurate as a freshman, but wasn’t shy when it came to shooting. Nearly two-thirds of his shots came from beyond the arc, where he connected 31.4% of the time (60/191). Norfleet made just 41.7% (43/103) of his two point shots while averaging 9.3 ppg. This season, he’s averaging 11.7 ppg and 5.7 rpg and will provide much of the scoring against the Gophers.
#35 Raven Barber
6’8″, 220 lbs SR
Barber was the Mount’s most offensively efficient player a year ago due mostly to taking high percentage shots and getting to the line, although he played only 19.9 mpg . Barber is averaging 10.3 ppg this year.
#12 Josh Castellanos
6’1″, 170 lbs SO
As a freshman, Castellanos didn’t shoot much and turned the ball over a ton. His two point shooting was absurdly terrible (12/66 for 18.2%), but he did manage to hit 33.3% of his treys (18/54) and was good at the line (58/77 for 75.3%). With Lamar Trice on the bench, Josh has started off the season contributing 11.3 ppg and 5.3 apg and is 5/13 from deep thus far. He’ll probably knock down a couple of pretty shots Monday night, but he’ll also cough up the ball numerous times.
#42 Danny Thompson
6’7″, 230 lbs SR
Thompson has pretty good size and the senior is off to a solid start with double-digit rebounding performances in each of the team’s first three games. He’s averaging 9.7 ppg to go along with 11.3 rpg.
Other notes & comments:
- The 23 turnovers committed by the Gophers against Fairfield was the second most in the Tubby Smith era. During his first season with the program, Tubby’s team lost possession to Central Michigan 24 times. Other than those two games, Minnesota has not turned it over more than 20 times since Smith has been on campus.
- Trevor Mbakwe’s 16 free throws made got him within one of the all-time Gopher record set by Larry Mikan in 1969. While I’m more concerned with how often a team is getting to the line than I am with what their free throws made percentage is, Mbakwe’s 16/18 was a great performance. He has changed his mechanics and the shot is a lot more pleasant to watch fall toward the hoop this season, but Mbakwe is still what he always has been—an average free throw shooter. (Also, free throw percentage matters very, very little.)
- Through three games, just 15.9% of Minnesota’s points have come from three-point shots. That ranks the Gophers 323rd out of 345 teams through Saturday’s games per kenpom.com.
- The Gophers’ pace of play will be down this nonconference season as compared to last year’s, but up a little bit in conference play.
- 2012 Gopher commit Charles Buggs and his Hargrave Military Academy team was in Connecticut for Friday and Saturday games at the National Prep Showcase. The annual event includes a number of top prep programs. Unfortunately, Buggs was limited on Friday and did not play on Saturday due to what is being described as a sinus infection.
- Former St. Paul Johnson guard Estan Tyler is getting big minutes as a freshman at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Through four games, Tyler is averaging 30.3 mpg, 6.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg and 2.3 apg. The Kangaroos (1-3) travel to Madison to play Wisconsin (3-0) on Tuesday night. That game tips off at 7pm CT and can be seen on the Big Ten Network.
Have questions, comments or tips? Contact me:
J.B. Bauer
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: JBBauer612