Gopher Basketball
Opponent: Ohio State
When: 1:30 pm, March 4, 2000
Where: Williams Arena – Minneapolis, MN
Television: Ch. 5
The Buckeyes come to town Saturday for the last regular-season game of the year. Ordinarily the emotions would be high for Senior Day, but with no seniors on the team, that’s not the case. The crowd will still be into the game though, because an upset win would be a great way to end the season.
After the tough road game at Michigan State on Thursday, things don’t get any easier. Ohio State actually has a better record than the Spartans, and they may be even quicker and more athletic. One thing they’re not is deeper. Ohio State only has five guys who average more than 3 points per game. Those five guys are as good as any five in the country, though. Michael Redd (17 ppg, 7 rpg) and Scoonie Penn (16 ppg, 5 rpg, 4 apg) lead the way. I believe you need to stop them in order to have a chance. The Gophers didn’t do that real well in the last match-up. Redd scored 25 and Penn finished with 20. Scoonie shot just 6 for 17 and finished with only one assist though, so he didn’t have one of his better games. For more background information, here’s my preview and recap from the first game.
George Reese is third on the team with 12 points per game. He’s having an outstanding season and is shooting an extremely impressive 51% from the field while also grabbing 6 rebounds per game. A guy who could give the Gophers a lot of problems Saturday is center Ken Johnson. He has solid numbers with 8 points and 7 rebounds per game, but what he’s best at is blocking shots. He’s averaging more than 5 per game this year (I think he’s leading the nation), and he could give guys like Dusty Rychart a lot of trouble inside. The Gophers best bet to take Johnson out of the game is for Kyle Sanden to make some early 3-pointers. If Johnson has to leave the lane to guard Kyle, it will open things up.
Gopher Hole Prediction: This will not be an easy game for the Gophers by any stretch of the imagination. Ohio State will be playing for a possible Big Ten Championship as well as for a better seed in the NCAA Tournament. They’ll be extremely focused. Once again it will be very important for the Gophers to get off to a decent start. If they can hang close for the first 20+ minutes, then the crowd will get into the game and the Buckeyes might get a little nervous. Gopher fans are desperate for a big win (and this would definitely be big), so they’ll be loud whenever the Gophers give them reason to cheer. Hopefully that will be often. While I wouldn’t bet on it, this is the last game of the regular season, so I need to predict a Gopher win. They deserve it. My prediction is Minnesota 76 Ohio State 70.
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