Gopher Basketball
| Game Info | |
| Opponent: | Indiana Hoosiers |
| When: | Noon, January 29th, 2006 |
| Where: | Williams Arena ““ Minneapolis, MN |
| Television: | CBS |
Usually a Sunday afternoon CBS game at The Barn against the #11 team in the country would be a cause for excitement and anticipation. But with Minnesota off to an 0-6 start in Big Ten play, many fans are hoping the Gophers can just manage to avoid embarrassment against the Hoosiers. It’s always darkest before the dawn though, so the real question is whether things can get any darker or if the sun’s about to breach the horizon.
Indiana comes into the game with an impressive 12-4 overall record and a 4-2 conference mark. They’ve beaten Ohio State and Illinois at home, but they’re coming off a 73-60 loss at Iowa Tuesday night. The Hoosiers are loaded with talent, but they have unfortunately lost their #2 weapon. Last year’s Freshman of the Year, power forward D.J. White, is expected to be out for the remainder of the season with a broken foot.
With White, Indiana had the league’s (and arguably the country’s) best front line. That’s because they have the league’s most dominant player in 6’8″, 270-lb senior transfer Marco Killingsworth. His season stats say plenty: 19 ppg, 7 rpg, and 60% shooting from the field ““ all while playing just 29 minutes per game. But the stats that really tell the story are the one’s he put up against Duke All-American Shelden Williams. Williams had a solid game with 13 points and 9 rebounds. Mr. Killingsworth, however, put up 34 points (on 15 for 20 shooting from the field) while grabbing 10 boards. Wow!
Besides Killingsworth, most of Indiana’s points come from the perimeter. Robert Vaden and Marshall Strickland combine for 27 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists and are both shooting just above 50% from 3-point range (with 150 attempts between them). Ben Allen (a 6’10″ freshman, no less) and junior Errek Suhr are also both shooting better than 50% from long range, which makes junior Roderick Wilmont‘s 39% seem like nothing.
Here are my Gopher Keys of the Game:
1. Guard the 3. Indiana has been an amazing 3-point shooting team thus far, and the Gophers 3-point defense has been lacking most of the year. That’s a bad combination. The Gophers need to make sure they know exactly whom they’re guarding in this game; they need to know when they can cheat and when they have to stay in their man’s face.
2. Big D on Big Marco. Simply put, Killingsworth is a beast. But he is easier to guard with White out. Spencer Tollackson and Jonathan Williams are big bodies, but they’re going to have to play their best “˜D’ of the season to try to keep him in check. Two things that help are that Marco isn’t great at passing out of double teams (just 2 assists per game) and really struggles at the free throw line (58%). But he’s still a beast.
3. Please. Forget my two front teeth. All I want for a belated Christmas present is a Big Ten victory. And I want it now. The Gophers (just like parents of young children) need to realize that I’m just going to keep whining until I get what I want, so they might as well give it to me now. Pretty please?
Minnesota really is due for a win. They’ve shot less than 40% from the field in every game of conference play, and that’s actually pretty hard to do. Something has to fall sometime. Will this be sometime? I hope so, but they’re gonna have to show me. My prediction: Indiana 67 Minnesota 57.
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